Qualla: State House, Lusaka

State House, Lusaka: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit European Communities, 2014 / EC - Audiovisual Service, CC BY 4.0. In 1995, a former Zambian president stood up and told the country that there were tunnels underneath State House. Frederick Chiluba claimed the passages had been dug during Kenneth Kaunda's administration - a radio station down there, bunk beds, damp rooms, a whole council chamber hidden beneath the lawns where foreign ambassadors had taken tea. The disclosure caused an immediate political storm. Some wanted Chiluba punished for revealing secrets; others demanded investigations into what the tunnels had been for. No torture chambers were found when inspectors finally went down. But the image stuck, and Zambians looking at the calm neoclassical facade of their State House have known ever since that the building keeps its secrets literally underfoot.

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Image: European Communities, 2014 / EC - Audiovisual Service | CC BY 4.0

State House, Lusaka: Built on a Dead Man's Will

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mondoka Zambia, CC BY-SA 4.0. The estate exists because of a will. Alfred Beit - a German-born diamond magnate who made his fortune in South Africa and died in 1906 - left money for infrastructure across Northern Rhodesia. The Beit Trust that emerged from his bequest funded roads, bridges, hospitals, and the ...

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Image: Mondoka Zambia | CC BY-SA 4.0

State House, Lusaka: The Renaming

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown photographer, Public domain. On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent. Government House became State House, and Kenneth Kaunda, the freedom movement leader who had spent years arguing his way out of colonial jails, moved in. The shift was more than cosmetic. A building designed for British representativ...

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Image: Unknown photographer | Public domain

State House, Lusaka: The Tunnels and the Tensions

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown photographer, Public domain. What Chiluba revealed in 1995 reflected the pressures of that earlier era. Zambia under Kaunda was a one-party state, and while the country remained more peaceful than most of its neighbors, political detention was real. Allegations surfaced during the tunnel controversy that Maj...

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Image: Unknown photographer | Public domain

State House, Lusaka: The Working Palace

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown photographer, Public domain. Today State House is both a residence and a shorthand. Zambians say "State House" when they mean the executive branch the way Americans say "the White House" - a whole apparatus under one roof. The Office of the President is here, along with the Vice-President's Office, the Cabin...

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Image: Unknown photographer | Public domain