Independence is Normal: The journey from Northern Rhodesia to Zambia

The landmark speech signified for the first time that the British government accepted the days of the Empire were over and dramatically speeded up the process of African independence.

In that same year, a new party was formed in what was then called Northern Rhodesia by a young radical politician focused on securing independence.

On the October 24, 1964, the Republic of Zambia was born, and here we look at how the path to that was achieved.

Colonisation and the rejection of federalism

The area where Zambia lies was included in the large territory known as Rhodesia after 1895.

It was administered by the British South Africa Company until 1923 when Southern Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe - became a self-governing colony, while Northern Rhodesia – Zambia - became a British protectorate in 1924.

As demands for decolonisation grew globally, Britain attempted to head off the challenge through the creation of the Central African Federation (CAF), which connected up Northern and Southern Rhodesia as well as Nyasaland, which became Malawi.

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Dr Alastair Fraser, lecturer in African politics at SOAS University of London, said the main idea of the British was to try to achieve a form of constitutionalism that they thought of as “maintaining white standards”, with limited forms of African political representation.

He said: “Not one man, one vote, but forms of representative councils and allowing some Africans to vote, by which they meant people who met certain educational tests and people who met certain literacy tests.

“That project failed because it was rejected by Africans – they saw it as a plan, particularly in Nyasaland and in Northern Rhodesia, they saw it as a plan to allow white settlers from Zimbabwe to exploit those political spaces.

“So the decolonisation in Northern Rhodesia grows out of anti-federalism.”

Movement for independence

The key figure in Zambia’s journey to independence was Kenneth Kaunda, who set up the United National Independence Party (Unip) in 1960.

He organised rallies to show popular support for independence, as well as a civil disobedience campaign.

Fraser said: “[He] does a kind of massive speaker tour around the country, organising mass rallies around the country to demonstrate both to more traditionalist or conservative African politicians, but also to colonial authorities that there is a demand for one man, one vote, and for independence now.”

Following elections in 1962, Unip joined with the African National Congress party to form the country’s first government with an African majority.

The CAF came to an end at midnight on December 31, 1963, and Northern Rhodesia became self-governing before gaining full independence in 1964 with Kaunda as its first president.

A report in the New York Times said: “Africa's 36th independent country was born here today.

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“The former protectorate of Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.

“A wave of jubilation swept the country, which takes its name from the Zambezi River, Zambia's border with Southern Rhodesia for hundreds of miles.

“Cries of 'kwacha!' (freedom) rang again and again through Independence Stadium here as at least 38,000 persons gathered to watch the ceremonies.”

Building a new country

Kaunda faced a major challenge in trying to bring together 3.6 million people in a new country that had not been administered as a single territory by the colonial authorities for any significant time before independence.

“Northern Rhodesia was an example of colonialism done on the cheap effectively,” Fraser said.

“What Britain wanted was access to the copper mines, a train line that ran copper out of the country into Southern Rhodesia, and the power that could be generated from a massive dam built at Kariba, on the border between Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the electricity of which was designed to go to the mines. That’s a very limited set of interests.”

The new country covered an area equivalent to France and Germany combined, with a population smaller than London which was mainly concentrated in a few towns.

Fraser said: “Kaunda faced enormous challenges of building something called Zambia, having people who were living within these boundaries have any loyalty to that unit and put behind them various tensions that existed from before colonialism, that continued during colonialism, that were played on by the colonial powers in many ways.”

Economic challenges

When Zambia became independent, it was one of the richest countries in sub-Saharan Africa – yet by the early 1990s had built up dents of $8 billion.

The country has long been a major producer of copper – but at the time of independence, with the industry was in private hands, there was the question of how the new state would get mining corporations to contribute.

Kaunda eventually chose to nationalise the companies – but that decision coincided with a huge fall in the global price of copper, which stayed that way for decades.

“They planned borrowing to get through what they assumed was a gap as the global price of copper dropped, that they thought would come back,” Fraser said.

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“Effectively it never did, and never did until a bit beyond the millennium when Zambia was pressed by international actors to reprivatise the copper mining industry.

“Relatively soon after that there was a massive boon in the price of copper - they have been tremendously unlucky with the timing of how they have dealt with the copper mining industry.”

Was independence a success?

Kaunda remained president of Zambia until 1991, when following growing pressure free elections were held for the first time since he had declared a one-party state in 1972.

Cracks had begun to appear in his rule in the late 1980s and before the election he was pelted with oranges and beer tins when he attended a football match.

Fraser said that in many ways Kaunda’s greatest achievement was peace, in contrast to relations in many other African post-colonial countries.

“The nation building project in what was a pretty challenging sociological mix was incredibly successful,” he said.

“So they adopted strategies called ethnic balancing, where they tried to include politicians from all parts of the country.”

He added: “It’s very poor still, very economically unequal still and it has never overcome those problems of how to develop from a very narrow economic base in copper mining.

“Still there was peace. Zambia remains peaceful and in many ways remains very democratic.”