A modern history of Zambia

There doesn't seem to be one. 

There are some older books from the 1970s and '80s, and a "Political History of Zambia" published this decade.  But that's about it.  A general history of the country since independence, published in the last 20 years?  Doesn't seem to exist.

So there's a niche for some aspiring young academic.  Meanwhile, digging around at the local bookstore and the museum and online has turned up some interesting nuggets.

-- Zambia was central to a dispute between Britain and Portugal in 1890.  The Portuguese wanted to claim it to connect their colonies in Angola and Mozambique.  AFAICT, they had a decent claim.  But the British completely curb-stomped them, threatening to take away Mozambique if Portugal didn't retreat and withdraw their claim.  Which they did, albeit with considerable and lingering resentment.

-- That said, Zambia remained a complete and utter backwater until the 1920s, when copper was discovered.  It was the distant northern frontier of the British Empire in South Africa.  There was one rail line, a handful of white farms, and absolutely nothing of interest.  All of that changed when the copper -- some of the world's richest deposits -- was found.  By WWII Zambia ("Northern Rhodesia") had 30,000 white settlers and the region's economy had been reconfigured around providing cheap labor for the mines.

-- For a decade, 1953-63, Zambia was part of the short-lived Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, a state now completely forgotten except by historians and a dwindling handful of cranky white ex-settlers.  (I'm still at a loss as to what the point of this entity was, but maybe more reading will make it clear.)

-- Zambia pretty quickly developed a postwar nationalist / independence movement, which seems to have split early on between "independence for Zambia" and "independence for all white-dominated South Africa" factions -- basically UNIP (which would eventually rule Zambia) and the more well-known African National Congress. 

The independence struggle was, in the cold light of history, rather less violent and bloody than it could have been. The death toll seems to have been in the hundreds rather than the thousands, which was fairly light compared to some of Zambia's neighbors (Mozambique, Angola, Rhodesia / Zimbabwe). 

That said, there were some gruesome incidents.   In the Lusaka museum, I came across a fading photograph of Mrs. Lillian Burton.  She and her two small daughters were pulled out of a car and horribly killed in 1960.  The museum article made it sound like a wrong-place-wrong-time kind of a thing, but this interview suggests that it was deliberate murder on the part of UNIP  ("Our final decision was to kill someone who was well-known in the streets of London and there could not have been any better figure than Ms Lillian Burton who was very popular in Zambia.")

-- The independence movement got nicknamed the "chachacha", after the dance -- "we'll do the steps, and force the imperialists to follow".  The late colonial years are still sometimes called the chachacha period, and there's a Chachacha Road here in Lusaka.

The chachacha period is familiar, and kind of depressing.  It wasn't Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, but the center did not hold, and in the end the country was handed over to a bunch of guys who didn't really know what they were doing.  A common enough story, but still.

Reading the history, many of the black nationalists and most of the white leadership come across as pretty despicable.  That said, they could have done considerably worse than Kaunda (universally remembered as "KK").  He trashed the economy and allowed himself to be surrounded by cronies and flatterers, but he wasn't mad or genocidal, he didn't impose a brutal police state, and (with prodding from Jimmy Carter) he did eventually step down.  The bar for post-independence African leaders is not that high, but Kaunda clears it with a little space.

-- At independence, there was one of those crazy religious movements.  It was anti authority -- all authority, colonial and post-colonial alike.  Led by a female seer, Alice Lenshina.  Melded Christian and animist elements, immunity to bullets, the works.  Ended badly.

-- After independence, Zambia embarked on a policy of supporting black independence movements all across southern Africa.  This did not meet with approval from its white-dominated neighbors.  The Rhodesians staged a number of border incursions, and the South Africans initiated "Operation Plathond" to create and support a fairly insane and pointlessly destructive guerrilla movement in the country's northwest. 

-- Kaunda wanted the Bomb, which is why Zambia was one of a handful of countries to vote against the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the UN back in the late 60s.  Why?  Because he knew South Africa had it.  (How?  Not clear, but my guess would be he made the various independence movements he hosted pay their rent with, among other things, intel.)  It's not clear if he seriously thought the South Africans would nuke Lusaka, but presumably he thought a nuclear deterrent would make them think twice about it.

-- And finally, Zambia may hold a record of some sort: four serious coup attempts (1980, '88, '90 and '97) without a single success.

 

Comments

[Randy McDonald]

Googling I found that he apparently approached Johnson looking for some kind of lend-lease of nukes. That's, hmm.

[Andrew R.]

I kind of wonder about something. (Teaching Western Civ 2's been great because it gets me thinking about history past 1648). Most post-independence African rulers tended to wreck their countries' economy with the worst sort of socialism. But can you really blame them in the 50s and 60s? I mean, IIRC even here in the capitalist U.S. of A. there were plenty of folks who actually thought that planned economies were more efficient. So if the thought was that dirigiste socialism was in fact the wave of the future, I wonder how much African leaders can be blamed for trying to implement it.

[Kirsten]

If what I can recall of a years-ago survey of sub-Saharan African history is correct, most of the countries' leaders went abroad to study. The majority, like the late, unlamented Julius Nyrere, studied social sciences, education, and other disciplines notorious for their appreciation of economic fantasies. The European and British academies were hotbeds of Marxism (still are, for all I know) Andrew is right: the evils of post-colonialism are probably overrated, but Europe wrecked these countries nonetheless.

[Noel Maurer]

Robert Bates, "Markets and States in Tropical Africa." Andrew, if the course is what I think it is, this is something you should read. It's short and directly addresses your question.

[tim gueguen]

It would be interesting to see a list of developing world countries that had a nuclear program, however unlikely, in the '50s and '60s. I'm sure there are probably some other surprising examples besides Zambia.

[Andrew R.]

Thanks for the reference, Noel!

[Mary]

That interview where the black nationalist justifies Burton's murder is depressing - he doesn't seem to understand that what they did was wrong - Burton didn't deserve death and her two children certainly didn't

[Judy Witt]

I was a witness to this murder - it was the wrong place at the wrong time at least that is why I was there. Perhaps it was 'used'to promote a ruthless party? Returning from a hockey game at Mufulira we came upon a scene that will remain with me for ever. Travelling towards Ndola going home a car approached us some distance away. What we saw was many, many black men running onto the road stopping the car, hurling bricks and smashing windows. They appeared to be insane or drunk and in a frenzy. We were now too close to turn around but drove through the mob who turned their attention on us. Smashing windows jumping on the car they deperately tried to stop us. I felt us hit some of them and the last thing I saw was Mrs Burton with arms covering her face as they splashed petrol on her car and I put my bleeding head in my lap. We were lucky thanks to our driver. I had just turned 16.