Zambia Culture & Language

English is Zambia's official language, used for business, education and law; Nyanja is the main language of Lusaka and Bemba follows, with Lozi in the west and dozens more beside them. The cultures beneath the languages are old kingdoms -- the Bemba and their Luba-Lunda origins, the Lozi under the Litunga, whose Kuomboka at the end of the rains is the ceremony visitors most often see -- and the state has spent sixty years insisting, with the slogan "One Zambia, One Nation", that they are one people. It has largely worked.

The manner is quiet and formal. Dress conservatively; do not kiss in public; carry identification, which may be asked for at any time; do not photograph officials or official buildings. Same-sex relations are illegal with long sentences and pornography is illegal, and the visitor's private life stays private. Christianity is the majority faith and Sunday is kept.

The visitor's Zambia is largely the safari camp and the falls town, and both run on a professional guiding culture that is the country's real cultural export: the walking guide, born in the Luangwa, is a Zambian invention that the rest of Africa copied.

English is the official language and the one a visitor needs: it is the language of business, education, law and every lodge and hotel. Nyanja (Chewa) is the main language of Lusaka and the east, Bemba of the Copperbelt and the north, Lozi of the western floodplain, Tonga of the south around the falls, and there are dozens more; a greeting in the local one -- muli bwanji in Nyanja, mwapoleni in Bemba -- is the courtesy that changes a conversation.