The People
Some 2000 years ago the Bantu speaking peoples of Central Africa started moving south, and eventually became the dominant group in much of Southern Africa, including Zambia.
The newcomer's culture was radically different to that of the original Stone Age in habitants. They were cultivators who kept domestic animals, they mined and worked metals, made pottery and lived in lath and plaster houses.
During the 19th Centuries Difaqane (tribal wars started by Shaka's expansionist policies) three groups who fled South Africa were to make a forceful impact on Zambia.
One of these was a Sotho clan from today's Free State - its leader was Sebitwane and he named his people Kololo after his favourite wife. Another was Mzilikazi, one of Shaka's generals who quarrelled with him and moved away. After being defeated by the Dutch settlers in the then Transvaal, he and his Ndebele invaded and conquered what is now western Zimbabwe.
The third was Zongendaba - he led his people (known as the Ngoni) across the Zambezi in 1835 and went northwards as far as Lake Tanganyika where they settled for a while among the Bemba. In 1865, under Zongendaba's successor Mpenzeni I, they established themselves permanently in what is now Zambia's Eastern Province.
Today there are upwards of 70 dialects of Bantu origin, in some 16 different cultural groups in Zambia - with the largest group being the Bemba, who traditional live around Lusaka and the Copperbelt. Tonga is an older language, and more commonly heard in the Zambezi Valley, whilst Lozi is generally spoken to the west.
Zambia is now a democratic state, and has been independent since 25 October 1964.
The newcomer's culture was radically different to that of the original Stone Age in habitants. They were cultivators who kept domestic animals, they mined and worked metals, made pottery and lived in lath and plaster houses.
During the 19th Centuries Difaqane (tribal wars started by Shaka's expansionist policies) three groups who fled South Africa were to make a forceful impact on Zambia.
One of these was a Sotho clan from today's Free State - its leader was Sebitwane and he named his people Kololo after his favourite wife. Another was Mzilikazi, one of Shaka's generals who quarrelled with him and moved away. After being defeated by the Dutch settlers in the then Transvaal, he and his Ndebele invaded and conquered what is now western Zimbabwe.
The third was Zongendaba - he led his people (known as the Ngoni) across the Zambezi in 1835 and went northwards as far as Lake Tanganyika where they settled for a while among the Bemba. In 1865, under Zongendaba's successor Mpenzeni I, they established themselves permanently in what is now Zambia's Eastern Province.
Today there are upwards of 70 dialects of Bantu origin, in some 16 different cultural groups in Zambia - with the largest group being the Bemba, who traditional live around Lusaka and the Copperbelt. Tonga is an older language, and more commonly heard in the Zambezi Valley, whilst Lozi is generally spoken to the west.
Zambia is now a democratic state, and has been independent since 25 October 1964.
