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Article: Zambia's future--After its elections.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ZAMBIA is a landlocked and sparsely populated country, with ten million people, made up of more than seventy ethnic groups, living in an area the size of France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland combined. At independence from Britain in 1964 the country (formerly Northern Rhodesia) was the third largest copper producer, after the United States and the Soviet Union. However, with world copper prices collapsing in the mid-1970s, the economy was devastated. This, combined with maladministration under the country's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, who ruled from independence until 1991, has meant that Zambia is now one of the poorest countries in the world.
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