Facts about Zambia
Official dissolution came on December 31, 1963, after which Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia on October 24, 1964.
Of the two basins, the part of Zambia drained by the Zambezi River basin is about three-quarters of the country's total area.
A study of approximately 90,000 nurses suggested that the incidence of heart disease was 30 to 40 percent lower among nurses with the highest intake of vitamin E from diet and supplements.
Lying on the Northern tip of Zambia in Sumbu National Park is the southern shores of Lake Tanganyika.
In 1987 the government reorganized the University of Zambia at Ndola into Copperbelt University.
Zambia's sympathies lay with forces opposing colonial or white-dominated rule, particularly in Southern Rhodesia.
Zambia’s hydroelectric projects have allowed it self-sufficiency in energy.
Zambia became a republic immediately upon attaining independence in October 1964.
Expatriates, mostly British (about 15,000) or South African, live mainly in Lusaka and in the Copperbelt in northern Zambia, where they are employed in mines and related activities.
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in the central part of southern Africa.
Domestically, there were few trained and educated Zambians capable of running the government, and the economy was largely dependent on foreign expertise.
Large numbers of Zimbabwean refugees are also reported to have fled to Zambia.
In 1958 Kaunda formed the Zambian African National Congress, of which he became president.
An estimated 100,000 died of the epidemic in 2004 and almost three-quarters of a million Zambian children have been orphaned.
Many of Zambia's rural inhabitants have retained their traditional customs and values.
More than a quarter of Zambia's population lives in two urban areas near the center: in the capital, Lusaka, and in the industrial towns of the Copperbelt (Ndola, Kitwe, Chingola, Luanshya and Mufulira).
The Tonga people (also called Batonga) were one of the first cultures to settle in Zambia.
Zambia's present-day culture exhibits a blend of historical and cultural features from the past as well as the present.
Chiluba failed to convince Zambians that he should be allowed to run for an unconstitutional third term in the December 2001 general elections.
Zambia has a very small Jewish community, composed mostly of white Ashkenazi.
Kenneth Kaunda was the first president of Zambia, ruling with a single party structure between 1964 and 1991.
One area of Zambia suffered a cultural blow when the Kariba Dam, a double curvature concrete arch dam, was constructed between 1955 and 1959 at a cost of $135 million.
Conflicts with Rhodesia resulted in the closing of Zambia's borders with that country and severe problems with international transport and power supply.
The creation of the reservoir forced resettlement of about 57,000 Tonga people living along the Zambezi in both Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Zambian government is now pursuing an economic diversification program to reduce the economy's reliance on the copper industry.
The University of Zambia in Lusaka is the primary institution of higher learning.
Zambia also has a small but economically important Asian population, most of whom are Indians.
Until the completion of the railroad, however, Zambia's major artery for imports and the critical export of copper was along the TanZam Road, running from Zambia to the port cities in Tanzania.
Zambia is a landlocked country (surrounded by eight other countries) in southern Africa, with a tropical climate and consists mostly of high plateau with some hills and mountains.
Zimbabwe achieved independence in accordance with the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, but Zambia's problems were not solved.
The rest of Zambia is very sparsely populated, particularly the west and the northeast; the majority of people make their living as subsistence farmers.
Zambia has a long tradition of hosting refugees and so has a significant population of refugees and asylum seekers.
The Zambian economy relies heavily on the country’s mineral wealth, particularly copper and also cobalt and zinc.
At independence, despite its considerable mineral wealth, Zambia faced major challenges.
Despite billions of dollars of international aid after he took office, three-quarters of Zambia's population was still living below the World Bank poverty threshold of $1 a day in 2001.
Once a wealthy nation, Zambia became engaged in a struggle against crushing poverty, drought, and a rampant AIDS epidemic.
The world famous Victoria Falls are on the Zambezi River in the Southern Province, but Zambia has more than 15 other spectacular falls within its borders.
In 2004 Northrise University became the latest effort to solve the education problem when Moffat and Doreen Zimba, native Zambians, created an institution to teach ministry and business skills.
The falls are known in Zambia as Mosi-O-Tunya (in the Lozi or Kololo dialect), "the smoke that thunders."
A railroad to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, built with Chinese assistance, reduced Zambian dependence on railroad lines south to South Africa and west through an increasingly troubled Angola.
Zambia is drained by two major river basins: the Zambezi River basin, in the south; and the Congo River basin, in the north.
Economic policy changed radically during the 1990s when the government sought the backing of the IMF in tackling Zambia’s serious financial problems.
Many Zambians believe that the spirits of their ancestors can help them in times of need or difficulty.
Educational opportunities beyond high school are very limited in Zambia.
In April of 2005 Zambia signed an agreement under the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative that will reduce outstanding obligations by about $3.9 billion out of a total $7.1 billion owed.
In 1964, Northern Rhodesia became Zambia, the name being derived from the Zambezi River.
HIV/AIDS will continue to ravage Zambian economic, political, cultural, and social development for the foreseeable future.
The Nkoya people also claim a long heritage in Zambia after moving from the Luba-Lunda kingdoms in the north during the great influx between the late-seventeenth and early-nineteenth centuries.
Much of its growth was due to foreign investment in Zambia's mining sector and higher copper prices on the world market.
Currently, more than one million Zambians are HIV positive or have AIDS.
Zambia's strong support for the ANC, which had its external headquarters in Lusaka, created security problems as South Africa raided ANC targets in Zambia.
The indigenous Khoisan (hunter-gatherer) occupants of Zambia began to be displaced by technologically advanced migrating tribes about two thousand years ago.
The Benguela railway, which extended west through Angola, was essentially closed to traffic from Zambia by the late 1970s.
Zambia covers an area of 752,614 square kilometers (290,586 square miles) and has a population of almost 12 million, giving the country one of the lowest populations-to-land ratios in Africa.