Zambia’s capital,
Lusaka, is a sprawling, swollen city that has grown too fast and has
little appeal for travellers. Though it does straddle the Great North
Road; the main highway runs through the guts of Africa, so you'll
undoubtedly pass through the city en route to or from East Africa
and the Victoria Falls at Livingstone.
Lusaka didn't exist before the 20th century, and until 1931 when the
country’s capital was moved here from Livingstone, it was just
a small, sleepy agricultural village. There was rapid growth during
the 1960s, and it’s now a city of two million people and
one of the fastest-growing cities in central Africa. It covers an area
of over 70 sq km; there has been no influx control and the city is
bursting at the seams. It is a sprawling, unplanned metropolis with
many multistorey buildings, high-walled suburbs and busy shanty towns.
It is not the cleanest city in the world, and petty theft occurs.
But Lusaka is also a city undergoing a face-lift. New modern shopping
malls and smart fast food outlets are being built, old buildings are
being refurbished and the pot holes in the roads are being filled
in. Viewed from the villages, Lusaka is the glittering capital. It
still persuades rural Zambians to take the bus there in search of
jobs and dreams.
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