festivites
Here are some of the major festivities and holidays in Zambia:
1. Independence Day - Celebrated on October 24th, this holiday commemorates Zambia's independence from British rule in 1964. The day is marked with parades, speeches, and other events across the country.
2. Unity Day - This holiday, celebrated on the first Tuesday of July, is meant to promote national unity and reconciliation. It is marked by special ceremonies and events, including traditional dances and music performances.
3. Carnival - Held annually in Lusaka, Zambia's capital city, carnival is a vibrant celebration of the country's diverse cultures and traditions. The festival includes street parades, live music, and colorful costumes.
4. Kuomboka Ceremony - This traditional festival of the Lozi people takes place in March or April when the Zambezi River floods. The ceremony involves the king and his entourage moving from their flooded palace to higher ground on a barge. It is a colorful and lively event that attracts thousands of tourists.
5. Ncwala Ceremony - This is an important cultural festival for the Ngoni people in Eastern Zambia, usually held in February. The ceremony marks the beginning of the harvest season and involves reenactments of historical battles, dancing, and singing.
6. Christmas - Like many other countries, Zambia celebrates Christmas on December 25th, a time for families to gather, exchange gifts, and enjoy meals together.
These holidays and festivals are celebrated across the country, with various traditions and customs unique to each region or tribe.
seasons
In Zambia, there are two main tourist seasons:
1. Peak Season: June to October
- Best time for wildlife viewing as animals gather around water sources
- Dry season with warm days and cool nights
- Popular activities include safari tours, bird watching, hiking, and cultural experiences
2. Green Season: November to May
- Rainy season with lush green landscapes and dramatic skies
- Lower accommodation rates and fewer crowds
- Ideal for bird watching, fishing, and visiting Victoria Falls (although the falls may have lower water levels)
- Wildlife viewing is still possible, but animals tend to disperse due to the abundance of water sources
It's important to note that specific dates may vary depending on local weather conditions, and it's always recommended to check with local authorities or travel agencies for the most up-to-date information. Additionally, some areas of the country may have different peak seasons based on their specific climate.
visa
Here are some special VISA rules for citizens of certain countries who want to visit Zambia along with their approximate costs:
1. Single entry visa: This visa is valid for up to 90 days and costs approximately $50 for most countries, except for the United States which costs $160.
2. Multiple entry visa: This visa allows you to enter Zambia multiple times within a year and costs approximately $80 for most countries except for the United States, which costs $200.
3. Transit visa: This visa is meant for travelers passing through Zambia en route to another destination and costs approximately $50 for most countries except for the United States, which costs $160.
4. East Africa Tourist Visa: This visa allows visitors to travel freely between Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, and is also valid for entry into Zambia. It costs approximately $100.
Note: The above prices are subject to change and may vary based on the applicant's nationality and processing fees. It is recommended to check with the Zambian embassy in your home country for the latest information.
souvenirs
1. Hand-woven baskets - average price: $10-50 USD, can be bought at local markets such as Manda Hill Market and Kabwata Cultural Village in Lusaka or Mukuni Park Curio Market in Livingstone.
2. Woodcarvings - average price: $20-100 USD, can be purchased at local markets such as the ones mentioned above or at roadside stalls throughout Zambia.
3. Copper crafts - average price: $5-50 USD, can be found at local markets and shops throughout Zambia, including the Copperbelt Province.
4. Tribal masks - average price: $20-100 USD, can be bought at local markets such as those mentioned above or at tribal villages throughout Zambia.
5. African textiles - average price: $10-50 USD, can be found at local markets and shops, including The Elephant's Tale in Lusaka and Livingstone.
Note that prices may vary depending on quality and location of purchase.
If you have 1 week
Oh, Zambia! What a beautiful country it is! Since you've given me the freedom to suggest anything, I'd love to take you on an extraordinary week-long adventure that will leave you breathless.
Day 1 - Victoria Falls: Let's start your journey with one of the most spectacular natural wonders in the world, Victoria Falls. You can witness the breathtaking views of the falls and feel the mist on your face while walking across the famous Knife-Edge Bridge. It's an experience you cannot miss.
Day 2 - South Luangwa National Park: On the second day, you should head to South Luangwa National Park, which boasts an abundance of wildlife, including elephants, hippos, lions, and leopards. You can take a safari tour to explore the park and observe these amazing creatures in their natural habitat.
Day 3 - Livingstone Island: On day three, let's take you to Livingstone Island, situated on the edge of Victoria Falls. You can enjoy a magnificent view of the falls while having lunch at the island restaurant, and then take a dip in Devil's Pool, a natural infinity pool that sits atop the falls. It's an adrenaline rush like no other!
Day 4 - Siavonga: Day four can be spent in Siavonga, a resort town located on Lake Kariba. You can take a boat ride on the lake and enjoy water sports such as jet skiing, kayaking or fishing. The sunset over the lake is magical and unforgettable.
Day 5 - Lusaka: Let's move to the capital city of Zambia, Lusaka, on day five. You can visit the Lusaka National Museum and learn about the history and culture of Zambia, or shop for souvenirs at the local markets. There are also many restaurants and cafes where you can taste delicious Zambian cuisine.
Day 6 - Lower Zambezi National Park: On day six, let's take you to Lower Zambezi National Park, located on the banks of the Zambezi River. You can take a canoe safari and paddle alongside elephants and other wildlife, or go on a game drive to spot lions, leopards, and hyenas.
Day 7 - Kafue National Park: Your last day in Zambia should be spent at Kafue National Park, one of the largest national parks in Africa. You can take a hot air balloon ride over the park and enjoy an aerial view of the wildlife below, or go on a walking safari to observe the animals up close.
These are just some of the many amazing places that Zambia has to offer! I hope this itinerary has inspired you to explore the beauty and adventure that awaits you in this wonderful country.
If you have 2 weeks
Great to hear that you're in Zambia! There are so many amazing places to visit there, so let's get started with your two-week itinerary.
Firstly, I recommend visiting the breathtaking Victoria Falls. This natural wonder is one of the world's seven natural wonders and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can take a tour of the falls and even go on a rafting or kayaking adventure on the Zambezi River. The views are simply stunning, and it's an experience you'll never forget.
Next up, how about a safari in South Luangwa National Park? It's one of the best places in Africa to see wildlife up close and personal, such as lions, leopards, hippos, elephants, and much more. You can take a guided walking safari or drive around the park to see the animals in their natural habitat. Don't forget to bring your camera!
After that, head over to Lake Kariba for some relaxation and water activities. You can go fishing, swimming, or boating on the lake. It's also home to several species of fish, including the infamous tiger fish, which is a popular game fish among anglers. Take a sunset cruise on the lake for some stunning views.
Another great destination is Livingstone, where you can take a hot air balloon ride over the Zambezi River and enjoy the views from above. You can also visit the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park to see elephants, bison, and other wildlife roaming free. Don't forget to check out the local markets for some unique souvenirs.
Lastly, why not spend a few days in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia? You can explore the city's museums, art galleries, and cultural centers. Don't miss out on the local cuisine, which includes dishes like nshima, a traditional cornmeal dish, and biltong, a type of dried meat.
All in all, these are just a few highlights of what Zambia has to offer. The country is full of natural beauty, wildlife, and cultural experiences that will leave you mesmerized. I hope you have an amazing time on your adventure!
Culture
Inhabitants lived in tribes. One of the results of the colonial era was the growth of urbanisation. Different ethnic groups started living together in towns and cities, influencing each other's way of life. They started adopting aspects of global or universal culture, including in terms of dressing and mannerisms. Original cultures have survived in rural areas, with some outside influences such as Christianity. Cultures that are specific to certain ethnic groups are known as 'Zambian cultures' while those lifestyles that are across ethnic groups are labelled "Zambian culture".
Zambia practices ceremonies and rituals. Some of the ceremonies and rituals are performed on occasions celebrating or marking achievements, anniversaries, the passage of time, coronations and presidential occasions, atonement and purification, graduation, dedication, oaths of allegiance, initiation, marriage, funeral, birth ceremonies and others.
It practices both disclosed and undisclosed ceremonies and rituals. Among the disclosed ceremonies and rituals include calendrical or seasonal, contingent, affliction, divination, initiation and regular or daily ceremonies. Undisclosed ceremonies include those practiced in secret such by spiritual groups like Nyau and Nakisha dancers and marriage counsellors such as alangizi women. As of December 2016, Zambia had 77 calendrical or seasonal traditional ceremonies recognized by government. The ceremonies once a year include Nc’wala, Kulonga, Kuoboka, Malaila, Nsengele, Chibwela kumushi, Dantho, Ntongo, Makundu, Lwiindi, Chuungu, and Lyenya. These are known as Zambian traditional ceremonies. Some of the more prominent are: Kuomboka and Kathanga (Western Province), Mutomboko (Luapula Province), Kulamba and Ncwala (Eastern Province), Lwiindi and Shimunenga (Southern Province), Lunda Lubanza (North Western), Likumbi Lyamize (North Western), Mbunda Lukwakwa (North Western Province), Chibwela Kumushi (Central Province), Vinkhakanimba (Muchinga Province), Ukusefya Pa Ng'wena (Northern Province).
Sports and games are social aspects that brings people together for learning, development of skills, fun and joyous moments. Sports and games in Zambia include, and are not limited to, football, athletics, netball, volleyball and indigenous games such as nsolo, chiyenga, waida, hide and seek, walyako, and sojo. These are some of the indigenous games that support socialisation. The fact that the games are played by more than one person makes them social and edutainment events. Zambia started taking part in global sports and games in the 1964 Summer Olympics.
The Zambia national football team has had its triumphant moments. At the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the team defeated the Italian national team with a score of 4–0. In 2012, Zambia won the African Cup of Nations for the first time after losing in the final twice. They beat Côte d'Ivoire 8–7 in a penalty shoot-out in the final, which was played in Libreville, kilometers away from the plane crash 19 years previously. In 2017, Zambia hosted and won the Pan-African football tournament U-20 African Cup of Nation for players age 20 and under. The Zambia women's national football team is the first national team from a landlocked country in Africa to qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup, by virtually finishing third in the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations. It's the country's first ever senior World Cup in the history.
Rugby Union, boxing and cricket are practiced. At one point in the 2000s, the Australia and South Africa national rugby teams were captained by players born in the same Lusaka hospital, those players being George Gregan and Corné Krige, respectively. Until 2014, the Roan Antelope Rugby Club in Luanshya held the Guinness World Record for the tallest rugby union goal posts in the world at 110 ft, 6 inches high. This world record is now held by the Wednesbury Rugby Club. Rugby union in Zambia is a growing sport. They are ranked 73rd by the IRB and have 3,650 registered players and three formally organised clubs. Zambia used to play cricket as part of Rhodesia. It has provided a shinty international, Zambian-born Eddie Tembo representing Scotland in the compromise rules Shinty/Hurling game against Ireland in 2008.
In 2011, Zambia was due to host the tenth All-Africa Games, for which three stadiums were to be built in Lusaka, Ndola, and Livingstone. The Lusaka stadium would have a capacity of 70,000 spectators while the other two stadiums would hold 50,000 people each. The government was encouraging the private sector to get involved in the construction of the sports facilities because of a shortage of public funds for the project. Zambia later withdrew its bid to host the 2011 All-Africa Games, citing a lack of funds. Hence, Mozambique took Zambia's place as host.
Zambia produced the first black African (Madalitso Muthiya) to play in the United States Golf Open.
In 1989, the Zambia basketball team qualified for the FIBA Africa Championship.
The music which introduced dance is part of a cultural expression and it embodies the life, from the intricacies of the talking drums to the Kamangu drum used to announce the beginning of Malaila ceremony. Dance as a practice serves as a unifying factor bringing the people together as one.
Zamrock is a musical genre that emerged in the 1970s. It has been described as mixing traditional Zambian music with heavy repetitive riffs similar to groups, musicians and singers such as Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Black Sabbath, Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, and Cream. Groups in the genre include Rikki Ililonga and his band Musi-O-Tunya, WITCH, Chrissy "Zebby" Tembo, and Paul Ngozi and his Ngozi Family.
Religion
It is officially a "Christian nation" under the 1996 constitution, and recognizes and protects freedom of religion.
Christianity arrived to Zambia through missionary work in the second half of the 19th century, and its variety of sects and movements reflect changing patterns of missionary activity; for example, Catholicism came from Portuguese Mozambique in the east, while Anglicanism reflects British influences from the south. Following its independence in 1964, Zambia saw a greater influx of other church missions from across the world, particularly North America and Germany. In subsequent decades, Western missionary roles have been assumed by native believers (except for some technical positions, such as physicians). After Frederick Chiluba, a Pentecostal Christian, became president in 1991, Pentecostal congregations expanded around the country.
A number of otherwise smaller Christian denominations are disproportionately represented. The country has a community of Seventh-day Adventists, accounting for about 1 in 18 Zambians. The Lutheran Church of Central Africa has over 11,000 members. Counting only active preachers, Jehovah's Witnesses, who have been present since 1911, have over 190,000 adherents; nearly 800,000 attended the annual observance of Christ's death in 2021. About 12 percent of Zambians are members of the New Apostolic Church; with more than 1.2 million believers, the country has the third-largest community in Africa, out of a total worldwide membership of over 9 million.
Not including indigenous beliefs, non-Christian faiths total less than three percent of the population. Followers of the Baháʼí Faith number over 160,000, or 1.5 percent of the population, which is among the largest communities in the world; the William Mmutle Masetlha Foundation, run by the Baháʼí community, is particularly active in areas such as literacy and primary health care. Approximately 0.5 percent of Zambians are Muslim, and a similar proportion are Hindu, in each case concentrated in urban areas. About 500 people belong to the Ahmadiyya community, which is variably considered an Islamic movement or a heretical sect.
Demographics
44% of the population concentrated along some transport corridors. The fertility rate was 6.2 (6.1 in 1996, 5.9 in 2001–02).
The onset of industrial copper mining on the Copperbelt in the 1920s triggered more rapid urbanisation.
The population includes approximately 73 ethnic groups, most of which are Bantu-speaking. Almost 90% of Zambians belong to nine ethnolinguistic groups: the Nyanja-Chewa, Bemba, Tonga, Tumbuka, Lunda, Luvale, Kaonde, Nkoya and Lozi. In the rural areas, ethnic groups are concentrated in particular geographic regions. In addition to the linguistic dimension, tribal identities are relevant. These tribal identities are linked to family allegiance or to traditional authorities. The tribal identities are nested within the main language groups.
Immigrants, mostly British or South African, as well as some white Zambian citizens of British descent, live mainly in Lusaka and in the Copperbelt in northern Zambia, where they are either employed in mines, financial and related activities or retired. There were 70,000 Europeans in Zambia in 1964, but many have since left the country.
Zambia has an Asian population, most of whom are Indians and Chinese. This minority group has an impact on the economy controlling the manufacturing sector. An estimated 80,000 Chinese reside. Several hundred dispossessed white farmers have left Zimbabwe at the invitation of the Zambian government, to take up farming in the Southern province.
According to the World Refugee Survey 2009 published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Zambia had a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 88,900. The majority of refugees in the country came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (47,300 refugees from the DRC living in Zambia in 2007), Angola (27,100; see Angolans in Zambia), Zimbabwe (5,400) and Rwanda (4,900).
Beginning in May 2008, the number of Zimbabweans in Zambia began to increase more; the influx consisted largely of Zimbabweans formerly living in South Africa who were fleeing xenophobic violence there. Nearly 60,000 refugees live in camps, while 50,000 are mixed in with the local populations. Refugees who wish to work must apply for permits, which can cost up to $500 per year.
It is officially a "Christian nation" under the 1996 constitution, and recognizes and protects freedom of religion.
Christianity arrived to Zambia through missionary work in the second half of the 19th century, and its variety of sects and movements reflect changing patterns of missionary activity; for example, Catholicism came from Portuguese Mozambique in the east, while Anglicanism reflects British influences from the south. Following its independence in 1964, Zambia saw a greater influx of other church missions from across the world, particularly North America and Germany. In subsequent decades, Western missionary roles have been assumed by native believers (except for some technical positions, such as physicians). After Frederick Chiluba, a Pentecostal Christian, became president in 1991, Pentecostal congregations expanded around the country.
A number of otherwise smaller Christian denominations are disproportionately represented. The country has a community of Seventh-day Adventists, accounting for about 1 in 18 Zambians. The Lutheran Church of Central Africa has over 11,000 members. Counting only active preachers, Jehovah's Witnesses, who have been present since 1911, have over 190,000 adherents; nearly 800,000 attended the annual observance of Christ's death in 2021. About 12 percent of Zambians are members of the New Apostolic Church; with more than 1.2 million believers, the country has the third-largest community in Africa, out of a total worldwide membership of over 9 million.
Not including indigenous beliefs, non-Christian faiths total less than three percent of the population. Followers of the Baháʼí Faith number over 160,000, or 1.5 percent of the population, which is among the largest communities in the world; the William Mmutle Masetlha Foundation, run by the Baháʼí community, is particularly active in areas such as literacy and primary health care. Approximately 0.5 percent of Zambians are Muslim, and a similar proportion are Hindu, in each case concentrated in urban areas. About 500 people belong to the Ahmadiyya community, which is variably considered an Islamic movement or a heretical sect.
Texts claim that Zambia has 73 languages and/or dialects; this figure is probably due to a non-distinction between language and dialect, based on the criterion of mutual intelligibility. On this basis, the number languages would probably be about 20 or 30.
The official language of Zambia is English, which is used for official business and public education. The main local language, especially in Lusaka, is Nyanja (Chewa), followed by Bemba. In the Copperbelt, Bemba is the main language and Nyanja second. Bemba and Nyanja are spoken in the urban areas, in addition to other indigenous languages that are spoken. These include Lozi, Tumbuka, Kaonde, Tonga, Lunda and Luvale, which featured on the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) local-languages section.
English is used in official communications and is the language of choice at home among – now common – interethnic families. This evolution of languages has led to Zambian slang heard throughout Lusaka and other cities. The majority of Zambians speak more than one language: the official language, English, and the most spoken language in the town or area they live in. Portuguese has been introduced as a second language into the school curriculum due to the presence of a Portuguese-speaking Angolan community. French is commonly studied in private schools, while some secondary schools have it as an optional subject. A German course has been introduced at the University of Zambia (UNZA).
It is experiencing a generalised HIV/AIDS epidemic, with a national HIV prevalence rate of 12.10 percent among adults. The prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS for adults aged 15–49 decreased to 13 percent in 2013/14, compared to 16 percent roughly a decade earlier.
The right to equal and adequate education for all is enshrined within the constitution. The Education Act of 2011 regulates equal and quality education.
Cities:
