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Spotlight - Autumn 2003
edited by Maggie Currey
Who moved the capital?
When Natal Daily News feature writer Anil Singh stated in an
article for that newspaper that Dr. Kenneth Kaunda had moved the
capital of Zambia from Livingstone to Lusaka, an old Northern Rhodesia/Zambia
hand, Norman Knight, wrote to the paper to correct him, saying that
this had been done by the British government in 1934. The British
had decided soon after taking over the government of the country
from the BSA Company that Livingstone did not make a good capital,
he said. ’It was hot and unhealthy – malaria was rife
– and too far away from the mining developments taking place
in the north.’ After a survey, it was decided to build the
new capital on a ridge about a mile from the Lusaka railway station
and it was declared ‘open’ by Prince George in 1934,
says Mr. Knight, who went to Northern Rhodesia as a Colonial Service
cadet in 1937. He left in 1955, but returned to Zambia from 1964
to 1969. He lives in Durban.
Correspondence and Membership queries:
Jo Herkes
Honorary
Secretary
Zambia Society and Trust
4, Ashurst Way, East Preston, Littlehampton BN16 1AG
Tel: 01903 783 765
Fax: 01903 785 977
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