Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) gained independence from the United Kingdom on 24th October 1964. It is a landlocked country in Southern Africa and its capital is Lusaka.
The flag of Zambia was adopted on 24th October 1964. The flag is used both as the national flag and ensign (ensign is a flag flown on a vessel to indicate its nationality). The Zambia flag has a green background with an orange-coloured African fish eagle (national bird of Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Sudan) in flight above a rectangular block of three vertical stripes. The stripes are red, black and orange. The green represents the lush vegetation and landscape of Zambia, red symbolises the country’s struggle for freedom, black for the Zambian people and orange represents the country’s mineral wealth – mainly copper. The placing of the African fish eagle above the vertical block of colours was intended to demonstrate the people’s ability to rise above the country’s problems.
In 1966, the flag of Zambia was modified slightly with the green changing to a lighter shade and the eagle altered to be more like the one used in Zambia’s coat of arms.
From 1924 to 1964 Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia and the flag consisted of a blue ensign with the Union Jack in the canton, with a fish eagle holding a fish in its claws along with six wavy lines symbolising the rivers of Northern Rhodesia rushing over Victoria Falls (a waterfall on the Zambezi river named after Queen Victoria by the explorer and missionary David Livingstone). In 1953, Northern Rhodesia joined with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Malawi) to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This flag was used until 31st December 1963 when the federation was dissolved. The flag consisted of a blue ensign with the union jack in the canton. A rising sun, taken from the Arms of Nyasaland, a lion rampant from the flag of Southern Rhodesia and black and white wavy lines from the Arms of Northern Rhodesia were depicted on the shield shown on the flag.
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