Zambia
Copper, the Zambezi, and the thundering smoke of Victoria Falls
Zambia is a landlocked plateau nation in south-central Africa, shaped by two great forces: the Zambezi River and copper. The Zambezi gives the country its name and, at Victoria Falls, one of the planet's most spectacular waterfalls, known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders. Copper, mined in the belt along the Congolese border, has driven the economy for a century. Peaceful and famously stable in a turbulent neighborhood, Zambia is a country of wide plateaus, vast national parks, and rivers that feed some of the most dramatic cataracts and wetlands in Africa.
Most of the country is a high, gently rolling plateau, with the highest ground in the Mafinga Hills near the Malawian border rising to about 2,339 meters. The Zambezi flows along the southern frontier, plunging over the 1,700-meter-wide curtain of Victoria Falls before filling the immense reservoir of Lake Kariba, while the Luangwa and Kafue rivers carve renowned wildlife valleys. Lakes Tanganyika, Mweru, and Bangweulu lie along the northern edges. The climate is subtropical, with a warm wet season, a cool dry season, and a hot dry season that governs the rhythm of farming and the famous safari calendar.
Inhabited by Bantu peoples and drawn into the copper and ivory trades, the territory was administered by the British South Africa Company and then as Northern Rhodesia before becoming independent Zambia in 1964 under Kenneth Kaunda. Copper wealth funded early development but left the economy hostage to volatile metal prices, and Zambia became one of Africa's most urbanized nations around its mining towns. It has built a reputation for peaceful transfers of power through the ballot box. English is the official language across more than seventy ethnic groups, and the country is celebrated for its walking safaris and conservation-focused tourism.