Zambia-kb-fa09

= **__History of__** **__Zambia__** = The tribes of Zambia were originally semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers, called Bushman. In 4 AD Bantu speaking immigrants came from the north, they farmed, hunted with iron spears, raised animals, made pottery, and for centuries, they had lived peacefully with the Bushmen. In 1500 Portuguese arrived, but they stayed close to the shore. Zambia didn’t have direct contact with them until 1851, when the European explorer David Livingstone came to the Kololo kingdom. He saw that the Kololo nobles were selling slaves to the Europeans, and he tried to stop it. He knew that the Africans were only doing it for the goods, so he tried to convince them to trade cotton, and ivory instead of slaves. However the idea failed because it was too difficult to transport the goods to the trading posts in Mozambique. In 1889, because of the efforts of a man named Cecil Rhodes, Zambia came under British rule. Rhodes set up the South African Comp. (SAC) to exploit Southern and Central Africa’s mineral resources. He made treaties with the African’s to prospect their land and mine minerals. Over time the British took over the African’s mining lands. In 1891-1894 Rhodes made treaties with the Tabwa, Lungu and the Mambe tribe (Lambert). In 1898 the Bemba and Ngoni were conquered, and the British took the Ngoni’s cattle and turned the men into wage laborers. Rhodes also imposed a tax hut on the Africans, to make up for the lack of mineral wealth Zambia had at the time. Anyone who did not pay the tax would have their hut burned down. Over time as British rule went on the African’s began demanding Independence. In 1905 a railway bridge was built across the Zambezi, and Livingstone was founded. Zambia was divided into 2 parts North and South Rhodesia, and Living stone became north Rhodesia’s capital. It later became whole in 1911, and Lusaka became the capital in 1935. After World War 1 Zambia became a crown protectorate in 1923. In 1925 a legislative council was formed, but it excluded blacks. Due to the war, there were many Zambians lost, because they fought with the British. Zambia suffered, but its luck turned around when underground deposits of coppers and cobalt was found. It became the countries leading export, and Kitwe was became the copper mining institute in 1936. The work force expanded significantly over the years of 1935-1937. More white men also came to Zambia to mine in the mines, however they did not settle there. Although the workforce expansion was a good thing, it also had its bad sides. It tended to weaken tribal bonds, because miners didn’t seem to matter as much who was in which tribe or which tribe they belonged to, they just saw themselves as miners and nothing more. They began to organize themselves, and form strikes. The strikes were usually suppressed by the army, and there were several casualties. This was a sign however that the African’s were able to work together, and that there was more to come. By 1933 Welfare associations were founded over time began campaigning for Independence. African provincial councils were formed in 1943, and they consisted of mainly traditional chiefs. Then in 1946, the African Representative Council was formed, the members of this council were elected or appointed by the paramount chief of Barotseland. These achievements led the Zambians closer and closer to Independence, but the first official Independence movement was in 1949. It begun when welfare associations, founded the African Nationalist Congress. The next major step towards was 1961 after the African Nationalist Congress accepted the new constitution from the governor in 1958. This enticed the radicals of the African Nationalist Congress to break away and form the United National Intendance; a man Kenneth Kuanda led this group. Time was also going for the Independence group’s way, by this time the world was turning against imperialism, and pressure was put on the British. In 1961, the British secretary of states recommended a constitution be made for Zambia, which should have guaranteed them control of the country. However the secretary was pressured by other British to change the constitution so that the British would get most of the power, but Kaunda threatened them to have the constitution changed back. The Zambian’s ended up with a small majority of the parliament. Zambia gained its Independence on Oct 4, 1964 and Kuanda was named the President. Due to the lack of qualified people to run the country, Kuanda had to devote most of his time and effort into building schools and providing education. All was well at first; the number of children in schools went up. However disaster struck when the price of copper fell, because copper was Zambia’s most important export having it lose value depleted the income of the country by a good amount. Zambia was finally forced to borrow money, but that only put them more in debt. Then in the mid 1980’s Kuanda was forced to accept the IMF adjustment program. This put a major burden on the people, living standards went down and the work services had to be reduced by 25%, as ordered by the program. Without a job and a way to support the family, riots began to occur. Churches and trade unions also began opposing Kuanda. He also received a lot of pressure from the Multi Party Democracy to have a multi party election and over time he was forced to agree. He was beaten by Frederick Chiluba who had 80% of the votes. Under the new government there were some significant changes in government. The Humanism policy was abandoned and food subsides were phased out letting the markets set the prices themselves. Today there are more substantial exports, some manufacturing industries, and they even have tourists who come to see the Victoria Falls. Though Zambia is still a pretty poor country the country has developed quite a lot over the many years. (Lambert).