Independence

A militant and former schoolteacher named Kenneth Kaunda took over the leadership of the Africans from the more moderate Nkumbula. Then in 1959 he formed a new party, the United National Party (UNIP). Following this was a huge civil disobedience campaign in 1962. Africans were given a larger voice in the affairs of the protectorate. On the 24^th of October 1964 Northern Rhodesia became independent as the Republic of Zambia. Kaunda was the Zambia’s first president which he was reelected in 1968 and 1973. Kaunda faced many problems in the first 10 years of independence which was uniting Zambia’s diverse people, reducing European control of the economy, and coping with the white-dominated Zambia.