White people in Zambia
{{short description|Racial and multi-ethnic group}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox ethnic group|
| group = White people in Zambia
| image =
| caption =
| regions = Lusaka and in the copperbelt{{cn|date=June 2024}}
| population = 40,000 (0.3%)
| langs = English, Afrikaans{{cn|date=June 2024}}
| rels = Christianity, Judaism{{cn|date=June 2024}}
| related = White people in Botswana, White people in Zimbabwe, White South Africans
}}
White people in Zambia or White Zambians are people from Zambia who are of European descent and who do not regard themselves, or are not regarded as, being part of another racial group. Many are of British ancestry and are descendants of people who worked in the Copperbelt Province.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4etLAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|title= The African Christian Diaspora: New Currents and Emerging Trends in World Christianity|isbn= 978-1-4411-3667-1|last1= Adogame|first1= Afe|date= 4 April 2013|publisher= A&C Black}}
Background
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The first Europeans to discover Zambia were the Portuguese in the late 1700s.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WD-MDwAAQBAJ&dq=first+europeans+to+discover+zambia+portuguese&pg=PT23 | title=A Guide to Agribusiness in Zambia.: Untapped Opportunities | isbn=9781796019025 | last1=Tembo | first1=Felix | date=6 March 2019 | publisher=Xlibris Corporation }}
In the 1960s, White Zambians tended to favour white-minority rule in Rhodesia and the apartheid system in South Africa, although small numbers prevented them from establishing a similar form of government in Zambia. At the Copperbelt mines, 6,500 expatriate workers held South African citizenship. White Zambians made up the second-largest group of immigrants moving to South Africa by 1967, fearful of the changing political climate in Zambia.
Between 1964 and 1972, white Zambians were disproportionately represented in the officer corps of the Zambian Defence Force.{{sfn|Fischer|Morris-Jones|2012|pp=206-207}} Upon independence, most of the senior officer corps, including the chief of staff of the Zambian Army, were White Zambians.{{sfn|Fischer|Morris-Jones|2012|pp=206-207}} By 1972, sufficient numbers of qualified black Zambian personnel had been trained to replace them, and many of the white senior officers retired. For a number of years afterwards, white Zambians were explicitly barred from enlisting in the national military and received a blanket exemption from conscription.
In 1966, Over half the whites lived on the Copperbelt, 18% lived in Lusaka, and some 95% lived in all near the line of rail from the Copperbelt to the Victoria Falls.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JyHtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA355|title= Politics in Zambia|page=355|isbn= 978-0-520-36377-9|last1= Tordoff|first1= William|date= 28 May 2021|publisher= Univ of California Press}}
Modern day
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In 2014, Zambia had a White population of European origin which numbered approximately 40,000. Since independence, the community has never exceeded 1.1% of Zambia's population. Many long-term residents had voluntarily retained South African or British nationality. However, only about 40,000 hold Zambian citizenship. Guy Scott, a White Zambian citizen and former Vice President, became Acting President of Zambia after the unexpected death of President Michael Sata.[https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/world/africa/zambia-white-president/index.html Zambia's Guy Scott makes history as white president in sub-Saharan Africa] CNN. 29 October 2014 This made him the first head of state of European White descent in Africa since F. W. de Klerk in 1989, and the first-ever under a democratically elected government.{{cn|date=January 2024}}
Population chart
| class="wikitable"
|+White Population of Zambia, 1911–2015 !Government !Year !Whites !Change !Natives !Percentage of Whites |
| rowspan="3" |British South
Africa Company (1891–1924) |1911 |1,497 | - |n/a |n/a |
|---|
| 1923
|3,750 | +2,253 |1,753,000{{sfn|Morier-Genoud|2012|p=196}} |0.2% |
| 1924
|4,000 | +250 |n/a |n/a |
| rowspan="10" |British
Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (1924–1953) |1925 |4,624 | +624 |n/a |n/a |
| 1931
|13,846 | +9,222 |n/a |n/a |
| 1932
|10,553 | -3,293 |n/a |n/a |
| 1933
|11,278 | +725 |n/s |n/a |
| 1935
|10,000 | -1,278 |n/a |n/a |
| 1940
|15,188 | +5,188 |2,099,000{{sfn|Morier-Genoud|2012|p=196}} |0.7% |
| 1943
|18,745 | +3,537 |n/a |n/a |
| 1945
|21,371 | +2,626 |n/a |n/a |
| 1946
|21,919 | +548 |n/a |n/a |
| 1951
|37,221 | +15,302 |n/a |n/a |
| rowspan="5" |Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953–1963) |1954 |60,000 | +22,779 |n/a |n/a |
| 1956
|64,800 | +4,800 |n/a |n/a |
| 1960
|76,000 | +11,200 |3,082,627 |2% |
| 1961
|75,000 | -1,000 |3,269,151 |2% |
| 1963
|74,000 | -1,000 |3,368,961 |2% |
| rowspan="6" |Republic of
Zambia (1964–present) |1964 | -4,000 |3,472,843 |0.2% |
| 1966
|70,000 | - |3,692,409 |.2% |
| 1970
|35,000 | -35,000 |4,179,000 |.1% |
| 1977
| -25,000 |5,288,891 |.02% |
| 2005
|30,000 | +20,000 |11,470,022 |.03% |
| 2014
|40,000 | +10,000 |14,950,544 |.03% |
See also
References
{{Commons category|White people of Zambia}}
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite book|last=Kaplan|first=Irving|title=South Africa: A Country Study|pages=846}}
}}
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book|last1=Fischer|first1=Georges |last2=Morris-Jones|first2=W. H. |title=Decolonisation and After: The British French Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3zso3tOBy8C|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-27788-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Morier-Genoud|first=Eric |title=Sure Road? Nationalisms in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique|url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=sT_Snk-gvyEC|page=196|keywords=zambia population 1941}}|year=2012|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-22261-8}}
{{refend}}
Further reading
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book|editor-last=Tordoff|editor-first=William |last1=Molteno|first1=Robert|display-authors=etal |title=Politics in Zambia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jyNfbUVSS9QC|year=1974|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02593-6}}
- {{cite book|last=Levinson|first=David |title=Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hIEYAAAAIAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Oryx Press|isbn=978-1-57356-019-1}}
{{refend}}
{{Ethnic groups in Zambia}}
{{White people}}
{{Zambia topics}}