Cities And Towns Of Zambia

Zambia is one of Africa’s most urbanised countries, with over 44% of the population living in its towns and cities. And as Zambia’s economy continues to grow (at one of the fastest rates in the developing world), it seems this trend will increase in years to come, with more and more poor rural dwellers moving to urban areas, many of which have already seen substantial development since the 1990s.

The capital Lusaka is at the core of this movement and has become one of Africa’s fastest growing cities. The steady increase of tourism throughout the country as a whole has brought further development and better tourist infrastructure to once small provincial towns like Livingstone and Chingola, as well as to commercial and industrial centres like Ndola and Kitwe.

With all this in mind, in many of Zambia’s towns and cities there is a sense of restlessness and perpetual motion, complimented by an increasingly cosmopolitan mix of people, cultures and commodities from all over the country and far beyond its borders too. To overlook Zambia’s urban centres is to overlook the people of Zambia.

Some Towns In Zambia 

Chingola picturesque of the Copperbelt towns with a profusion of trees and flowers. The higher rainfall that this part of the country gets is very evident in the greenery throughout the suburbs. Chingola is home to the biggest open-cast mine in Africa.

Where to stay: There are three hotels with basic facilities but all are clean and comfortable, catering mainly for businessmen. Lima Hotel, Nchanga Hotel and Musunshya Hotel. (See listings for hotels)

Protea Hotels have just opened a prestigious new 40 room hotel in Chingola located in a residential area with a good restaurant and a lively bar. It has a swimming pool, internet cafe, shops and an ATM machine and all rooms are airconditioned. An excellent choice for wedding parties, banqueting and conference facilities. The Hotel is only 1 km from the Championship Golf Course, Nchanga and an easy drive to the other excellent Copperbelt Golf courses – Mufulira, Konkola and Chubuluma. Protea also has a Safari Lodge just outside Lusaka.

Sightseeing: It is possible to visit the open cast mine. One needs to get a permit from the mine office at the end of Fern Ave. If you’re a golfing enthusiast, it said that Nchanga Golf course in Chingola is one of the most beautiful and well kept courses in Africa. A must if you’re this far north is a visit to Chimfunshi Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Choma is a market town in the Southern Province of Zambia, lying on the main road and railway  about 285km from Lusaka and 188km from Livingstone. It is home to a small museum dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Tonga people of southern Zambia.  (open daily 09.00–17.00), The Nkanga River Conservation Area lies nearby.

The main road   runs through the centre of the town, with shops, market, cafés, central post office, a couple of petrol stations, and branches of two of the major banks.  and   to   an internet café. Choma’s largest supermarket is aptly called Superstore and has a good variety of fresh and frozen food.   There are a few small hotels and on the main road in and near the town, a guesthouse in the suburbs and a couple of excellent spots on farms just outside of town.

About 5km before Choma, as you approach from Lusaka, there’s a signpost on the road to Nkanga, 20km away. There you’ll find a conservation area that’s been set up covering a number of local farms. It now protects antelope including sable, eland, puku, hartebeest, wildebeest, kudu, waterbuck (both the normal and Defassa sub-species), tsessebe and many other species. Other activities available include fishing for bream and barbel

Much of the farm’s game, including sable and zebra, can be spotted in the immediate vicinity, where there are some good walks; game drives can also be arranged. The area is also one of Zambia’s important bird areas (IBA), with a total of 439 species noted here, including Zambia’s only endemic, Chaplin’s barbet.

Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central. Formerly named Broken Hill, it was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also has a claim to being the birthplace of Zambian politics as it was an important political centre during the colonial period. It is now an important transportation and mining centre.

European/Australian prospectors named it Broken Hill after a similar mine in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. The mine was the largest in the country for around thirty years until it was overtaken in the early 1930s by larger copper mining complexes on the Copperbelt.

In 1921 a human fossil, a skull, called Broken Hill Man or Rhodesian Man was found in the mine. (classified as Homo rhodesiensis or Homo heidelbergensis)

A study by the Blacksmith Institute found Kabwe to be one of the ten most polluted places in the world due mostly to heavy metal (mostly zinc and lead) tailings making their way into the local water supply.

To the east and west of Kabwe are a number of areas with good but so-far undeveloped tourist potential:

Lukanga Swamp

50 km west, with a wildlife area (currently a Game Management Area) on the other side of the Kafue River, 120 km from Kabwe, but road access is very poor.

Mulungushi River & Lunsemfwa River valleys, including Lunsemfwa Wonder Gorge:

These two rivers flow into the western end of the Luangwa Rift Valley just over 50 km south-east of Kabwe, and just south of the Mulungushi Dam and lake which offers good boating and game fishing activities. The valleys are scenic wilderness with good wildlife potential. However, there is no proper road access to the area.

In its heyday many of Kabwe’s streets were paved and lighted. Today the light posts are still there but except for right in town the lights are all gone, and all but the main streets have deteriorated back into dirt roads with serious bumps and holes, so go slowly and carefully if you drive a car.   The blue-and-white minibuses are to be found all over town and are a good value, and the driver will stop to pick you up wherever you stand.

One of the best things to do in Kabwe is to go hiking at the actual Broken Hill, just east of the railway tracks at the far south end of town. Hike up the hills to the lakes: these were the mine shafts, and are now very deep lakes which provide solitude in a beautiful setting.

As Kabwe is not really a tourist destination, there’s nothing particular to be bought here. But of course there is a typical African market, south of Independence Avenue just west of the railway tracks, and you can get great fresh food at good prices.

Several companies, notably Mazhandu, run luxury buses south to Lusaka and north to the Copperbelt. The “bus station” is on the street in front of Big Bite on the south side of Independence Avenue.

If you are driving, Independence Avenue becomes Great North Road outside of Kabwe, leading north to the Copperbelt cities and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and leading south to Lusaka, Livingstone, and Zimbabwe.

Kitwe, the hub of the Copperbelt and the principle industrial and commercial centre of the area. The city owes its existence to the copper mining industry but a considerable number of secondary industries have been established. Planned on modern lines, Kitwe has a large shopping area with hotels, a cinema and theatre.

With the upsurge of copper prices in the 1950’s Kitwe developed from a small township to the second largest city in Zambia, obtaining city status in 1966. It then developed as an industrial and commercial area and later an important agricultural area. The good central position of the city in the Copperbelt area made it the most popular choice for industrial developers. Other industries include furniture manufacturing, batteries, clothing, asbestos and cement production,  and consumer goods manufacturing. Kitwe also has three well equipped hospitals.

Named after the famous Victorian missionary explorer, Dr David Livingstone, who explored this area extensively, Livingstone Town was established in 1905.

As a major European settlement, being close to the Zambezi River crossing over to Southern Rhodesia, the town was made the capital of Northern Rhodesia in 1911. As the capital, it enjoyed excellent facilities far superior to anything elsewhere in the country, as can be seen from the surviving Edwardian buildings that line the city’s main road. Livingstone even had the distinction of having the country’s first newspaper. The capital was moved to Lusaka in 1935 and the bustling city has become a quiet town, but still retaining a special charm. A major event in 2011 was the installation of the town’s first set of traffic lights! The proximity to the Zambezi River and the spectacular Victoria Falls has led Livingstone to become a base for travelers from all over the world wanting to explore this Wonder of the World.

There are several Adventure Companies offering Riverboarding, White water rafting, Canoeing, Horse riding trails, Abseiling, as well as Boat cruises, Walks with lions, Elephant back safaris, Quad bikes riding, Kayaking and tours to the Victoria Falls, Mukuni Cultural Village and the places of interest in Livingstone.

Lusaka has become something of a boom town of late. New buildings are going up everywhere and many chain stores and shopping malls are springing up all over the sprawling suburbs.

The road development isn’t quite keeping up so peak hour traffic is finally becoming like other cities, but it has an optimistic air of a town on the rise. For many, this is the perfect example of what economic liberalisation has done for the country. And viewed from the villages, Lusaka is the glittering capital which still persuades rural Zambians to migrate to the city in search of jobs and dreams. Well over 60% of its 2 million inhabitants are unemployed, but there are surprisingly few beggars. Although petty theft occurs, most people try to make an honest living selling their wares or services, always with a friendly smile.

The markets are a hive of activity as the thousands of stalls are set up, upgraded and cleared away every day. A myriad of motor spares dealers, restaurants, hairdressers, fishmongers, fruitsellers and rows and rows of “salaula” – stalls of discarded clothing from the West sold to Africa by the bale. The capital covers an area of over 70km2 and is one of the fastest-growing cities in central Africa. It’s population almost trebled in the immediate post-independence era and continues to grow daily. There has been no influx control and the city is bursting at the seams. Grossly inadequate municipal facilities are hard-pressed to cope with the ever-increasing demand. It is a sprawling, metropolis with many multi-storey buildings, high-walled suburbs and busy shanty towns. Development has brought together people of many nationalities, making it a bustling centre for economic, political and cultural activities. The city lies at the junction of the main highways to the north, east, south and west, and  at an altitude of 1300 metres above sea level. There are air links to most of the major tourist destinations in Zambia from Lusaka International Airport.

Mpika in Northern Zambia, is a busy where the Great North Road forks: one branch going to Kasama, Mbala, and Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika, the other heading directly for the Tanzanian border at Nakonde. It is about a day’s travel from Lusaka, Mpulungu or the Tanzanian border, which makes this a convenient stop to overnight.

Daily local bus services link Mpika with Lusaka, Mbala and (to a lesser extent) Isoka. These all pass by the main central boma of town (the central, circular meeting place), so if you wait there you shouldn’t miss any of them.

Mpika is one of the stops between Kapiri Mposhi and Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, on the TAZARA railway.

The TAZARA station is about 5–6km out of town, almost on the road to Kasama, and private pick-up trucks operate shuttle runs between there and the central boma in Mpika, fitting as many people on to the vehicles as they can carry. If you arrive by train in the early hours of the morning then your options are to get one of these shuttles quickly, or to sleep rough on the station until daybreak and then try to get one. At times like this, the station is crowded but fairly clean and safe.

For supplies, GM Trading/Retail & General Dealers  has a good range  or the Kalolo Bakery, Grocery and Restaurant.

If you need to change any money then the only bank in town able to do this is the TAZARA bank, which is off on the right as you head towards the TAZARA station.

Ndola important commercial centre in Zambia, Ndola lies some 320 kilometers north of Lusaka. It is the gateway to the mineral producing region of the country. Like Lusaka, the development of Ndola has been rapid and extensive.

There are many manufacturing industries here, including a major copper refinery. Although copper is still Zambia’s largest foreign exchange earner and the mainstay of the national economy, the city of Ndola has established itself as a commercial and light industrial centre of considerable importance, as well as being the junction and distribution centre for the Copperbelt complex. The oil pipeline from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania ends its 1700 km journey at the Ndola refinery.

Modern factories, offices and shops line the Central Business District A big attraction in Ndola is the annual Zambia International Trade Fair in July. A number of newspapers and journals are printed in the city, two of which serve the country – the Times of Zambia and the Sunday Times.

Solwezi is the capital of the North-Western Province of Zambia.   Kaonde is the largest tribe represented in Solwezi, but you can also find large numbers of Lunda and Luvale. The main industry of Solwezi is copper mining. Three miles from city centre you can find the “Kifubwa Rock Stream Shelter” located next to the Kifubwa River. There are inscriptions to be found from the late Stone Age people.. Solwezi does not have any other  tourism attractions but it is  useful for supplies if you’re coming from Lusaka and heading west, or driving into Kafue from the north.

Most shops and offices concentrated along the central tarred road. There are several fuel stations here, including two large Total stations, and Solwezi is generally a reliable place to refuel. You should certainly fill up completely if you’re heading west or south from here. There are several large branches of banks and a Shoprite supermarket which is the best shop you’ll find if travelling further west. In an emergency, there’s a 24-hour Medical Centre.