REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA
AREA: 752,614 sq km
(290,586 sq mi).
POPULATION: Total - 9,072,000.
Mwandi (approx. 5,000)
CAPITAL: Lusaka,
pop. 982,400.
RELIGION: Christian, traditional.
LANGUAGE: English,
Bantu languages.
LITERACY: 78%.
LIFE EXPECTANCY: Under 40 years.
ECONOMY:
Industry: copper mining, food processing, textiles, rubber,
chemicals.
Export crops: tobacco.
Food crops: corn, rice, sorghum, millet, wheat.
MWANDI HOSPITAL STAFF AVG. INCOME: $50 per month
(1/3 - 1/2 of income goes towards food in Mwandi)
Endowed with huge copper reserves and fertile farmland, Zambia looked to
the future with optimism after independence from Britain in 1964. But copper prices
plummeted in the mid-1970s, and transport costs soared. The economy has been in decline
ever since, and copper, vital to Zambia's economy, could run out by the turn of the
century. Farming will become increasingly important; only a fifth of the arable land is
cultivated. Thundering Victoria Falls and other power sources bring self-sufficiency in
hydroelectricity.
Zambia's first multiparty elections in 19 years were held in 1991.
Drought, labor strikes, and political violence threaten to derail the government's
efforts to reform the ailing economy.
Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised Sixth Edition, 1995 |
