How old is zambia

His dependence on Chinese investment was controversial, and Mr Hilichema has said he will seek broader foreign investment. President Lungu also became less tolerant of opposition and ordered the arrest of Mr Hilichema on treason charges in , sparking criticism at home and abroad.

Radio is the main news source. State-run ZNBC operates alongside private stations. The government uses financial pretexts or laws on defamation to prosecute journalists, says Reporters Without Borders. Some key dates in Zambia's history:. Surrounding peoples who did not voluntarily agree to absorption into the growing Zulu empire had no option but to flee for survival.

Three of these groups were to make a forceful impact on Zambia, km to the north of the Zulu heartland in eastern South Africa. In David Livingstone, a 27 year old Scottish doctor and ordained minister, sailed from Britain to the Cape to work as a medical evangelist with the London Missionary Society. He was to open central Africa to the gaze of British imperialists. Meanwhile, Portugal was planning to consolidate its African territories by uniting Angola and Mozambique across the central plateau.

The Federation was dissolved in , its only enduring monument the Kariba Dam across the Zambezi, intended by the federalists to bind Northern and southern Rhodesia forever. This was done by the government which came into power in December , and which for the first time consisted of a majority from the two nationalist parties, the United National Independence Party and the African National Congress.

In its report, which was submitted in November , the Lockwood Commission unanimously recommended the establishment of a University in Lusaka. In January , the Government signified that it accepted the recommendations of the Lockwood Commission and within four months there was an inaugural meeting of the Provisional Council of the University, the body charged with bringing the University into being. He turned his attention to the fight against HIV and Aids and was the first African leader to publicly admit that one of his sons, Masuzyo, had died of an Aids-related disease.

A prolific writer, he published a number of books advancing his ideology of African Socialism, which was picked up by other African leaders including Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Julius Nyerere in Tanzania.

Away from politics Kaunda was a keen ballroom dancer and, in , was spotted as an enthusiastic audience member at a performance of Dancing with the Stars, the international version of Strictly Come Dancing. He was also an accomplished guitar player and composed liberation songs which he played as he travelled the country to drum up support for the campaign against colonial rule. In the main Kenneth Kaunda avoided much of the strife that was seen in other newly independent African nations and succeeded in uniting the disparate parts of his country under his slogan One Zambia, One Nation.

But his economic policies turned a country that had huge earnings potential into a state in which poverty remained widespread and life expectancy was among the lowest in the world. Zambia BBC profile. Image source, Getty Images. Kaunda was strongly influenced by the policies of Martin Luther King. He became the first Prime Minister of the newly created Northern Rhodesia.

Political opposition. A fall in the price of copper undermined the Zambian economy. Peaceful evolution. He worked with South Africa's leaders to find a solution to the Rhodesia problem. Image source, AFP.