Urbanism, urbanisation and the modernising influence penetrated Zambia through two routes that dovetailed faith with economic enterprise – through missionaries and the mercantile capitalism of the British South Africa Company and the African Lakes Company. These enterprises exploited, administered, transported and defended the mineral endowments of the territory.
Christianity arrived from two directions – from the south into Bulozi and the north sweeping southwards to the shores of Lake Tanganyika through Ujiji. It was driven by the desire to spread faith, but conflicts with East African Arab slave traders forced a route change to Quelimane up the Shire through Lake Malawi and along the Stephenson Road to Lake Tanganyika.
Given Zambia’s developmental direction, these routes have had mixed fortunes. The infrastructure meant to penetrate the interior eventually structured the urban settlement patterns. The southern route and the railway became strong urban structuring elements. Strung along like beads on a string from Livingstone to Chililabombwe, they attracted the capital city, large-scale mining and industrial cities and consequently the population. The Stephenson Road route, on the other hand, dwindled into a ribbon of insignificant settlements, still slumbering at best, while other towns scattered around the landscape are mainly administrative.
Due to the country’s mineral endowments, mining has long driven Zambia’s economy, leaving in its wake challenges including solid, liquid, smoke and noise pollution as well as disease. Numerous strategies have been formulated to ameliorate this, but with little tangible progress.
Zambia’s Urban Areas provokes readers into debating concepts around the future of the country’s urban areas and the engines of its economic development.
