Zambia gained its independence in 1964, under the leadership of its first president, Kenneth Kaunda. After many years of a one-party state, Zambia became a multi-party state in 1991. The nation is considered a stable country, with elections held every five years. Nine Presidential elections have taken place since independence, and four different political parties have so far ruled the country. Among them are the United National Independence Party (UNIP 1964-1991), Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD 1996-2011), Patriotic Front (PF2011-2021), and the current United Party for National Development (UPND). President Hakainde Hichilema of the UPND was elected in August 2021, after defeating the then-incumbent President Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front. The next presidential elections in Zambia will be held on August 12, 2026.
Zambia ranks among the countries with the highest levels of poverty and inequality globally. The latest available data on poverty, from 2015, is currently being updated. World Bank support to Zambia commenced in 1955, before the country obtained its independence.
50 years of Zambia’s independence
"Some parts of the country have witnessed tangible development in the last 50 years, while other provinces are lagging behind in infrastructure development, including education and health," Phiri told Anadolu Agency.
Hussein Mohamed, 38, meanwhile, believes the passage of 50 years of independence is a good opportunity to take stock of the country's situation, learn from past mistakes, and set goals for the future.
"At independence, we declared war on hunger, illiteracy and poverty. But today, we are still not done fighting it. In fact, these challenges are taking a toll on the people, meaning we have not made much progress," he said.
What did the freedom fighters envisage this country will be 50 years down the road? Is it what it is today? Since the PF came to power on a platform of lies and deceit the country has witnessed repression, the country has witnessed violation of fundamental human rights, freedoms and liberties, bias public media coverage, police brutality, political violence of unprecedented levels I never thought I would live post 1991 to see a country that has so much political violence.
Some Zambian social media users didn't agree with Hichilema, who spent the day comforting the bereaved and distributing bags of corn meal and cooking oil, but it was Canicius Banda, one of UPND's two vice presidents, who attracted the most attention on Zambia's golden jubilee with a question posed on Facebook. Banda challenged the public to think harder about the holiday, asking if independence day celebrates the mere passage of time, or the country's achievements since that hot summer night 50 years ago, when Northern Rhodesia transformed itself into the Republic of Zambia. He wrote:
After 50 years of self-rule, it is shameful that our economic statistics are equivalent to war-torn countries, some of which are now doing better than us in many areas. Every Zambian government has blamed something other than themselves for the mess we are in. They are elected to bring change but they fail, while we the citizens are not putting enough pressure on them. It is time we the new generation make a change.
The book shows in these perspectives how peasant agriculture has been neglected under the mandates of Chibula (1991-2001) and Mwanasawa (2001-2008). Along with education, it was a priority under the first Zambian governments, as a symbol of economic independence with food self-sufficiency. Along the years, it became a sociological problem, as the financial gap between rural and urban people increased, when 8 million of 13 million total population live in rural areas, and while agriculture represents 52.2 per cent of total employment (Chapter 31).
"As we celebrate this jubilee, let us remember that our freedom fighters, driven by patriotism, loyalty and love, put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risked their lives and those of their families to achieve the peace we enjoy. "Today, we celebrate this day in history when our forefathers emerged victorious 50 years ago. Their tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for us to be here today," he added.
Education is keyWhat is the point of independence when people lack the basic needs of life? If people were to be exposed to education, lives would improve drastically. This would bring a change in perception allowing people an opportunity to look at life at a different angle. Corruption and bad decision making has also contributed to the cost of living leading to more poverty. What is the point of independence when more people are dropping out of school because of funds? Everyone is hoping for divine intervention to create a shift in the economy.
Andrew was born in colonial Cyprus and migrated to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in October 1950, when he was 19, as part of a group of migrants displaced by the end of World War II.[9] He spent most of his early life working for his brother in law in a transport company which operated between the Copperbelt and North-Western Province.[4] In his mid-twenties he owned and operated North-Western Trading and by 1957 he had started Mwaiseni stores. He was one of the few white settlers to have actively supported the black liberation movement[10] and he trained and advanced Zambians in his own business, treating them as partners and fellow shareholders and also provided a group of shops that allowed Zambians to transact normally. As a firm anti-colonialist he joined UNIP and in the 1962 elections, he stood as UNIP candidate for Kabompo.[11] He became a passionate freedom fighter and was strongly involved in the independence movement.[12]
Constitutional development in Zambia can be traced back to the British colonial times, especially from the beginning of the 1950s. Its constitution building history can be divided into post independence and post cold war periods.
The Order in Council was followed in 1962 by a constitution. Written solely by the British Colonial Administration, its purpose was to accommodate both white settlers and native Africans in the Legislative Council. The constitution was also to lay the foundation stone for the independence of Northern Rhodesia outside the federation.
No aggregate statistics on the species composition of thecatches exist. However, it is beyond any doubt that the catch composition haschanged towards an increased share of small and fast-maturing species. Atpresent, the catching of small pelagics or other small-sized fast-maturingspecies at low trophic levels (i.e. low in the food chain) is becoming anincreasingly important part in the fisheries of all the major lakes in the SADC.One can mention Dagaa in Lake Victoria, Kapenta in Lake Tanganyika and LakeKariba and Chisense in Lake Mweru. These species have not always been asimportant as they are today in terms of employment generation and nutrition and40 years ago few of these stocks were systematically exploited. This trend is amajor feature of SADC freshwater fisheries at present (see Chapter 5).
If good yield data are difficult to obtain, reliablestatistics on fishing effort are even harder to get hold of. However, somepartial data sets exist that can give us some indications. George Coulter hasfor several years assembled long time series of the increase of fishers andfishing boats in African freshwater bodies, which are based upon data from anumber of various primary and secondary sources. Supplemented by some of our owndata on 14 lakes in Central and Southern Africa, his findings are presented inTable 3.2.
These data tell us at least three interesting things. Firstthey show how fishing effort has grown: the number of fishermen has increased byapproximately 160% over a period of 20 years and the number of boats hasincreased by about 70%. Secondly, it shows that the growth in effort seemsstronger in terms of increases in people than in fishing gear (boats). Thirdly,but not least important, they demonstrate the large variations in effortdevelopment, even for water bodies situated close to each other. While LakeMweru saw the number of fishermen increasing by 215 percent over 20 years,Bangweulu, located close by (see map), experienced a reduction of fishers in theorder of 24 percent.
In order to get a better understanding of how trends inparticular lakes fit with the overall picture of effort development, we haveassembled and examined effort data in the water bodies selected in thisstudy[3]. This examination supports the greatspatial variations shown in Table 3.2. In Lake Mweru, effort has steadilyincreased since the 1950s and seems to continue to do so (Zwieten et al.,2003b), while in the Bangweulu Swamps effort has probably remained fairly stableover a very long time (Kolding et al., 2003b). A more complex patternalso emerges showing that fishing effort may vary considerably over time. In theZambian part of Lake Kariba, fishing effort has varied considerably since thecreation of the lake in the late 1950s. Until 1963, fishing effort increasedvery fast, but then it fell sharply for some years before it slowly began togrow again. In the 1970s, the fishing effort dropped again only to startincreasing considerably in the 1980s. In the 1990s, effort started fallingagain, and on the Zambian side today it is probably not much higher than it wasjust after the lake was filled.
If we take a look at Lake Malombe, fishing effort increasedsteadily from the 1950s onwards, but around 1990 it stabilized and in recentyears it has decreased quite drastically (Zwieten et al., 2003a). Lakessuch as Chilwa (Zwieten and Njaya, 2003), Chiuta and Mweru Wa Ntipa are alsosubject to considerable fluctuations in effort. In order to provide a betterunderstanding of these past and present trends, we will describe the historicaldevelopment of effort in three of the lakes: Lake Mweru, Lake Kariba and LakeMalombe.
When the copper mining industry developed in both countries,the fisheries and fish as a commodity were to take on a new role. It becamecrucial for the industrial entrepreneurs, and for the colonial authorities toassure that fish could provide cheap, protein-rich food for the labour force inthe mines. The companies built roads to connect Lake Mweru to the mining citiesand began to contract traders, mainly of foreign but also of local origin, tosupply their workers with fish. This increased demand for fish resulted in aconsiderable growth in numbers of fishermen on both sides of the lake. The bulkof these fishermen seem to have been people already living in the area. Even ifmany of the richer traders invested in ice plants and means of transport, theydid not initially participate in the harvesting of fish. On the NorthernRhodesian side, the British maintained that the fishery should be reserved forthe Africans, while the Belgians in Congo initially had less clear policies.However, when World War II broke out and food insecurity increased, the Belgiansstarted to promote European investments in production in order to get as muchfish out of the lake as possible. The Belgian mining company also supportedhunting campaigns to eradicate crocodiles that had made large-scale investmentsin fishing equipment difficult. On the Congolese side, expatriates (mainlyGreeks) started investing in larger vessels and in large bottom set-nets in thespawning areas of the Mpumbu (Labeo altivelis). In the years just afterthe war, the external investments were considerable and resulted in a collapseof the Mpumbu fishery within few years. In 1950 the fishery and the industrialfleet thus came to an end. But the over-exploitation of Mpumbu did not affectthe fisheries of other species very much. Moreover, eradication (or at least asubstantial reduction) of crocodiles supported the local fishery, which duringthis period became more and more concentrated on the catching of Pale(Oreochromis mweruensis) and other cichlids with gillnets. The demand forfish in the mining district remained high and the fishery continued to growthrough a steady increase of new fishermen throughout the 1950s and early1960s. 2ff7e9595c
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