Zambia

Discover Zambia

Fun Foods

Nshima, Grilled Bream, Chicken Stew, Ifisashi, Maize on the Cob, Vitumbuwa, Munkoyo

Think about all the wires hidden in the walls around you, carrying electricity to every light, phone charger, and TV. Almost all of them are made of copper.

And a huge amount of the world's copper is dug out of the ground in one country: Zambia.

Copper is so important here that an entire region is simply called the Copperbelt. For more than a hundred years, this reddish metal has been the country's greatest treasure.

That treasure is also the reason outsiders came. In the late 1800s, a British businessman named Cecil Rhodes and his company took over the land, drawn by its minerals, and named it Northern Rhodesia after himself.

British companies ran the mines and kept most of the riches.

The people of Northern Rhodesia wanted to control their own country and their own copper. In 1964, they won independence peacefully, without a war, and renamed the nation Zambia. Their first president was Kenneth Kaunda.

Kaunda used money from copper to build schools and hospitals for people who'd had almost none. But there was a hidden danger in leaning on a single metal.

When copper prices crashed in the 1970s and 1980s, Zambia's whole economy crashed with them, and hard times followed for years.

Today, Zambia is famous for its wild beauty. On its southern border roars Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls on Earth, which Zambia shares with its neighbor Zimbabwe.

The spray climbs so high it can be seen from far away, which is why locals call it Mosi-oa-Tunya, "the smoke that thunders." There's even a natural pool right at the edge where the bravest visitors dip in while the water rushes past.

Zambia is also where the "walking safari" was invented. In parks like South Luangwa, expert guides lead you on foot through the bush to spot elephants, lions, and leopards up close, no car required.

If you come at the right time of year, you might catch the Kuomboka, a spectacular ceremony of the Lozi people. When the river floods, their king is carried to higher ground on an enormous barge topped with a giant model elephant, paddled by dozens of singing oarsmen.

For food, the staple is nshima, a thick white-corn porridge you scoop with your hands and dip into stews of meat, vegetables, or fresh fish from the Zambezi River.