Qualla: Lusaka Province

Lusaka Province: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

One in five Zambians now lives in Lusaka Province. That statistic, true as of the 2022 census, explains something about how the country has changed in the last 60 years. At independence in 1964, the new capital was a dusty town of perhaps 200,000 people. By 2022 the province around it held 3,079,964 residents and counting, packed into just 21,896 square kilometres, the smallest provincial footprint in Zambia. Lusaka is still the capital, and Lusaka Province is still the nucleus around it, but the province now reaches farther than most visitors realise, down to the Lower Zambezi and up into valleys where hippos outnumber human neighbours.

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Lusaka Province: Small Footprint, Dense Population

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 140 persons per square kilometre, Lusaka Province is by far the densest part of Zambia, a country whose overall population density is closer to 25. The capital accounts for most of that concentration, but not all of it. Chilanga, Chongwe, Kafue, Luangwa and Rufunsa districts s...

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Lusaka Province: Three Rivers, One Plateau

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The geography is plateau country with rivers cutting through. The general elevation drops eastward from the Kalahari Basin toward the Zambezi depression, creating the raised flat lands that dominate central Zambia. The Kafue River, a tributary of the Zambezi, cuts huge valleys in...

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Lusaka Province: Festivals on the Kafue

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The province's cultural life is older than the capital. The Soli people, long-time inhabitants of the land that became Chongwe District, hold the Nkhombalyanga festival in July and the Chakwela Makumbi in September, the latter a rain ceremony asking for good crops in the season a...

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Lusaka Province: Wheat Fields and Wild Edges

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Economic life is varied and uneven. Youth unemployment stood at 52 percent as of 2008, though more recent figures vary. Wheat is the province's major crop, with 48,510 metric tonnes produced in 2014, nearly a quarter of Zambia's national output. The cultivated area that year cove...

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