| Kabwe | |
|---|---|
| The Big Tree National Monument cape fig tree is a prominent feature in downtown Kabwe, Zambia. | |
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Kabwe
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Zambia |
| Admin. division | Central Province |
| Elevation | 3,879 ft (1,182 m) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 210,000 |
Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province with a population estimated at 210,000. Formerly named Broken Hill, it was founded when the Broken Hill lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also has a claim to being the birthplace of Zambian politics.[1] It is an important transportation and mining centre.
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The name Kabwe or Kabwe-Ka Mukuba means 'ore' or 'smelting' but the European/Australian prospectors named it after a similar mine in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.[2] The mine became the largest in the country until overtaken in the early 1930s by larger copper mining complexes on the Copperbelt. Apart from lead and zinc it also produced silver, manganese and heavy metals such as cadmium, vanadium, and titanium in smaller quantities.[3]
In 1921 a human fossil (a skull) called Broken Hill Man or Rhodesian Man (classified as Homo rhodesiensis or Homo heidelbergensis) was found in the mine.
The mine, which occupies a 2.5 km² site just 1 km south-west of the town centre, is now closed but metals are still extracted from old tailings. A study by the Blacksmith Institute found Kabwe to be one of the ten worst polluted places in the world due mostly to heavy metal (mostly zinc and lead) tailings making their way into the local water supply.[4]
The first railway in the country, operated by Rhodesian Railways (when the territory was administered as North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia) reached the Broken Hill mine as early as 1906, and the town became the northern base for the railway, which was the second biggest employer after the mining industry. A locomotive maintenance facility was constructed there. In 1909 the railway reached Ndola in what was to become the Copperbelt in the late 1920s.
The railway workers' unions played a large role in politics of the country. In racially-segregated colonial times before Africans had the vote, the town was the seat of Roy Welensky, leader of the powerful Rhodesia Railway Workers Union (RRWU), who became Prime Minister of the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was opposed by the Northern Rhodesia Railway Trade Union (the black Africans' union) led by Dixon Konkola and also based in Kabwe.[1]
Today the town is the headquarters of Zambia Railways but employment levels on the railway have been heavily cut back.
Reflecting Kabwe's central location and railway union base, it was chosen as the site for a rally held on October 26, 1958 at Mulungushi Rock north of the city by the Kaunda-Kapwepwe breakaway group from the Zambian African National Congress. Later, they founded the political party UNIP which led the successful independence movement and continued to hold conferences at Mulungushi Rock, which became known as the 'birthplace of independence' in Zambia.[1]
The name was changed to Kabwe in 1966, shortly after independence. As well as being on the main Lusaka-Copperbelt railway line it lies on the Great North Road. To the east of the city are the hydro-electric power stations of the Mulungushi Dam, Mita Hills Dam and Lunsemfwa Falls, built to power the mine and town.
Closure of the mine led to economic decline for Kabwe.[2] It has a number of manufacturing industries including the Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles plant established with Chinese investment in the 1980s, but after suffering large losses this plant has closed (temporarily according to management) at the beginning of 2007.
Other industries include pharmaceuticals, milling and cotton ginning, and leather tanning.[2]
Commercial farming areas surround the city about 10 km from the centre, and the road and rail links provide ready access to markets of the Copperbelt and Lusaka.
| Climate data for Kabwe | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 26 (78) |
26 (78) |
26 (78) |
26 (78) |
24 (75) |
22 (71) |
23 (73) |
25 (77) |
29 (84) |
31 (87) |
29 (84) |
26 (78) |
25.8 (78.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 17 (62) |
17 (62) |
16 (60) |
14 (57) |
11 (51) |
8 (46) |
9 (48) |
11 (51) |
15 (59) |
18 (64) |
18 (64) |
17 (62) |
14.0 (57.2) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 231 (9.1) |
185 (7.3) |
114 (4.5) |
23 (0.9) |
3 (0.1) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
3 (0.1) |
18 (0.7) |
94 (3.7) |
239 (9.4) |
909 (35.8) |
| Source: Weatherbase [5] | |||||||||||||
To the east and west of Kabwe are areas with good but so-far undeveloped tourist potential, advantaged by Kabwe's central location and proximity to Lusaka and its international airport:[6],[7]
Source[2]