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The history of Somalis in Zambia 🇿🇲🤝🇸🇴 began in the late 1960s as a targeted economic recruitment effort and evolved through waves of refugee migration into an established mercantile community.
*In a sense, this is a pushback against @joseph_kalimbwe, who I feel doesn't have a proper grasp of Zambian history and is mostly looking for "the next thing" to whine about and try to create relevancy.
it's important to know the history of Somali people in Zambia, not paint them with broad brush strokes.
sadly, he's blocked me so probably he won't see this. it's sad that he's doesn't honestly engage with people and isn't willing to learn anything that runs counter to whatever he comes up with in his mind.
1. Genesis: The "Hell Run" and Expatriate Drivers (1960s)
• The Economic Blockade: Following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by Ian Smith’s white-minority regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1965, Zambia faced a severe trade and fuel blockade cutting off its southern transit routes.
• The Tanzania Link: President Kenneth Kaunda partnered with Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere to establish the Zambia-Tanzania Road Services Limited—famously known as the “Hell Run”—along the Great North Road to haul vital copper exports out and fuel/imports in.
• Recruitment of Somali Drivers: Lacking a sufficient local pool of heavy-duty and fuel-tank drivers capable of navigating the harsh terrain, the Zambian government recruited approximately 70 skilled Somali truck drivers. This marked the first organized arrival of Somalis in Zambia, primarily settling around Lusaka and Ndola (such as Chaisa Township and Bwana Mkubwa).
2. Settlement, Expansion, and Early Tensions (1980s)
• Bwana Mkubwa Settlement (1986): Somali fuel-tank drivers and their expanding families established an unauthorized settlement near the Bwana Mkubwa Railway Station outside Ndola, consisting of self-built mud houses, wells, and community spaces.
• Government Action: Prompted by media reports and concerns over unapproved squatting, President Kaunda’s UNIP government demolished the Bwana Mkubwa settlement. However, rather than leaving Zambia, the community dispersed into townships like Ndeke, Twapia, and expanded footprints in Lusaka, gradually bringing in wives, relatives, and building deep-rooted commercial networks.
3. Civil War and the Refugee Wave (1991–Onward)
• Outbreak of Somalia’s Civil War: When state collapse and civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991, a new wave of Somali refugees and asylum seekers began arriving in Zambia.
• Intra-Diaspora Strains: By the late 1990s, political and clan divisions from back home occasionally spilled over into the diaspora, leading to internal community friction, security scrutiny, and occasional interventions by Zambian immigration authorities.
• Crackdowns and Policy Scrutiny: As numbers grew—with estimates eventually surpassing 5,000 to thousands more concentrated in urban hubs like Lusaka and Ndola—Zambian security forces periodically conducted sweeps and crackdowns on undocumented migrants or illegal settlements (such as high-profile detentions in Lusaka in 2010).
4. Contemporary Status and Economic Role
• Business and Trade: Today, the Somali diaspora in Zambia is heavily integrated into the nation’s commercial fabric. Somali-run enterprises span retail and wholesale trade, transport and logistics, hotels, restaurants, and the oil and gas sectors, with Somali businesswomen playing prominent community and economic roles.
• Second-Generation Integration: Many early settlers have children and grandchildren who were born in Zambia, speaking local languages alongside Somali and holding deep socio-economic ties to the country.
I. Cox retweeted
🇿🇲 ZAMBIA LAUNCHES NEW GOLD REFINERY, JOINING AFRICA’S GROWING LIST OF GOLD-PRODUCING NATIONS REFINING LOCALLY
Getaway Magazine writing stories about not getting away.
Cocaine worth over R200 million has been seized at OR Tambo International Airport. The operation involved SAPS, SARS Customs and the Border Management Authority.
getaway.co.za/news/cocaine-s…
Russia is a continual disappointment.
This guy flew from Johannesburg to Durban..
via Mazini 🇸🇿 lol
on eSwatini Air ERJ145 typical avgeek nonsense.
youtube.com/watch?v=qkosAxnV…
If the Zimbabwe economy 🇿🇼📈 is doing so well why are so many of them taking the mortal risk of fighting for Russia in Ukraine like poor Burundians?
Russia is expanding military recruitment in some of Africa’s poorest countries to offset heavy losses and manpower shortages in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian intelligence report.
Recruitment surged in Burundi (699 recruits, up from 30 in 2025) and Zimbabwe (530, up from 65), with increases also reported in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon and DR Congo.
The shift follows warnings and objections from several African governments over recruitment practices, including false promises of civilian jobs.
Ukraine says it has identified 45,959 foreigners from 151 countries who signed Russian military contracts, including 5,451 Africans.
Source: Bloomberg
This has been well reported, but the pressure is increasing.
Don't be tempted. There's a 90% chance you will be shot.
Russia is expanding military recruitment in some of Africa’s poorest countries to offset heavy losses and manpower shortages in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian intelligence report.
Recruitment surged in Burundi (699 recruits, up from 30 in 2025) and Zimbabwe (530, up from 65), with increases also reported in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon and DR Congo.
The shift follows warnings and objections from several African governments over recruitment practices, including false promises of civilian jobs.
Ukraine says it has identified 45,959 foreigners from 151 countries who signed Russian military contracts, including 5,451 Africans.
Source: Bloomberg
THE BUSINESS OF HUNTING RUSSIANS:
New SHADOW PACK compilation, 3rd @SOF_UKR Regiment - precision strikes on Russian recon drone base & launch pad, completely wiping out the structure & enemy personnel inside.
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I. Cox retweeted
This is what Lyman in the Donetsk region looks like right now. Another small town that the Russians continue to turn into ruins. Unfortunately, people still remain in the city, mostly living in basements. Food and water have long been gone. Ukrainian soldiers share their scarce provisions with them, which they receive via drone deliveries.
I. Cox retweeted
Former Vlakplaas commander and convicted apartheid-era police colonel Eugene de Kock has accused former prosecutor Anton Ackerman of shielding senior generals and politicians from prosecution, claiming he was removed because he posed a threat to the system. ewn.co.za/2026/10/26/eugene-…
I. Cox retweeted
He was known as “Prime Evil.” Now he says he knows who gave the orders. Eugene de Kock, former commander of apartheid South Africa’s notorious Vlakplaas death squad, testified today before the Khampepe Commission. He claims prosecutors never approached him for evidence that could expose senior officials behind apartheid-era killings. Before becoming commander of Vlakplaas, De Kock served in Rhodesia with South Africa's security forces. De Kock was sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years in 1996 but was released on parole in 2015.
The Nigerian Ebola 🇳🇬🦠 patient has been medivac'd to CH 🇨🇭, shortly landing at Zurich.
🎥Nigeria has evacuated its index Ebola patient, a woman married to a Swiss diplomat, by air ambulance from the private jet wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on the morning of October 26, 2026, for further medical care in a yet-to-be-identified country
#HomeOfHardTruths
I. Cox retweeted
Anglo American bought Zambia's main brewery in 1994, six years before they bought any mines. A good example of how Anglo was only loosely speaking a mining company in the 1990s.
ALT Page of type-written text. Text reads: "2. AGENDA Privatization of Zambia Breweries Transfer of contract of employees. PREAMBLE: The meeting was called by the Anglo American Corporation to brief the ZCTU on the situation regarding Privatization of the Lusaka Division and the need to transfer employees and their contracts to the new owner - Anglo American Corporation and Indol of South African Breweries."
A member of the KwaZulu Police (bantustan force) guarding ballot boxes on April 30, 1994 during South Africa's first democratic elections.
The KZP would soon be incorporated in the South Africa Police Service.
