Mpika is a town in the

Muchinga Province Muchinga Province is one of the ten provinces of Zambia. It is located in the northeast of the country and borders with Tanzania in the north, Malawi in the east, Eastern Province in the south, Central Province in the southwest, Luapula Provinc ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, lying at the junction of the M1 road to Kasama and Mbala and the

Tanzam Highway The Tanzam Highway leads from Lusaka in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The highway was built from 1968 to 1973 in several stages and was intended to provide seaport access for Zambia and to expand the transport options for Zambia, Malawi ...

( Great North Road) to

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

in the north-east and

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

in the south-west. It also has a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on the

TAZARA Railway The Tazara Railway, also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway, is a railway in East Africa linking the port of Dar es Salaam in east Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's Central Province. The single-track railway is ...

about away. Mpika is situated between the Muchinga Escarpment to the east and vast

miombo Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) chara ...

plains to the west. The town has an estimated population of 40,000 inhabitants (2008), while the district population is 149,063 inhabitants as of the

2022 Zambian census The 2022 census of Zambia was a detailed enumeration of the Zambian population that became the sixth national census in the country since independence. It began on August 18, 2022, and concluded by September 14, 2022. It became Zambia's first-ever ...

.2022 Census of Population and Housing - Preliminary Report
(PDF)

History

In about 1930, Mpika was selected as a way-point on the air route from Europe to South Africa, and an airfield was built there. Gervas Clay, wife to

Betty Clay Betty St Clair Clay (née Baden-Powell; 16 April 1917 – 24 April 2004) was the younger daughter of Olave Baden-Powell, the first Chief Guide, and Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. Career Clay enrolled in t ...

, was posted to Luwingu in 1930 as a Provincial Administrator in Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service. One of his tasks was to arrange for the purchase and transport of dried fish and maize to Mpika to supply the construction workers. His letters from England came out by sea to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, by rail to Broken Hill (now

Kabwe Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province and the Kabwe District, with a population estimated at 288,598 at the 2022 census. Named Broken Hill until 1966, it was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also ...

), by lorry from

Kapiri Mposhi Kapiri Mposhi is a Zambian town and the seat of the Kapiri Mposhi District in Central Province. Located north of Lusaka, it stands on the Great North Road and is significant for the railway connection between the Zambia Railways line from Kitw ...

to Mpika (280 miles) and Kasama (another 136 miles), and from Kasama by runner to Luwingu (124 miles).http://www.spanglefish.com/northernrhodesiajournal/library.asp "Early days in NR" The mailman was clad in a red fez and scarlet tunic and shorts, and barefoot, and referred to as a "Scarlet Runner". Previously, the Great North Road (also known as the Great North Rut) was an earth road, marked by an incredible number of pot-holes. By 1939, his letters to and from home travelled by air – from "Scarlet runner" to airmail in only nine years which indicated the rapid pace of change in

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

at this time.

Climate

Mpika has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Cwa'').

Transport

The Great North Road is in steady state of repair, still it take from Lusaka (ca. 640 km) around 8 hours, Kasama (ca. 210 km) is appr. 3 hours away and Nakonde (Zambian Border Post to Tanzania, 380 km) appr. 5 hours. Several bus operators offer coach services in all directions, but operate only over day (Lusaka to Mpika estm. US$20). In 2007, an extension of

Malawi Railways Malawi Railways was a government corporation that ran the national rail network of Malawi, Africa, until privatisation in 1999. With effect from 1 December 1999, the Central East African Railways consortium led by Railroad Development Corporati ...

From

Mchinji Mchinji is a town and the capital of the Mchinji District in the Central Region, Malawi, Central Region of Malawi. Mchinji Boma, located from the Zambian border and from the national capital, Lilongwe, is the major hub of government and genera ...

and

Chipata Chipata is a city and administrative centre of the Eastern Province of Zambia and Chipata District. It was declared the 5th city of the country, after Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe and Livingstone, by President Edgar Lungu on 24 February 2017. The cit ...

to Mpika was proposed, with a junction linking with the

."Extending beyond Chipata". ''Railways Africa''. November 2007.
/ref>

Tourism and infrastructure

The tourism sector is growing steadily in and around Mpika. ''Mpika Tourism Association'' is a newly founded non-profit organisation providing information and linkages to local accommodation and service providers; the information centre/office is situated at ''Bayama's Lodge'' behind Continental Filling Station. Mpika town offers a good market with local products, 5 filling stations, GM Trading supermarket, accommodation of all standards. Various piturescque waterfalls are situated in the whole region. North- and South Luangwa National Parks are just 5–8 hours away, but the roads are seasonal (please ask at info-centre). Touristic Highlights of the region are Shiwa Ng'andu (colonial style manor house), Kapishya Hotsprings, Mutinondo Wilderness Camp, Nachikufu caves (rock paintings).

Education

Many local schools are battling in bad infrastructure with overcrowded classrooms and teachers shortages. TAZARA workshops offers the biggest training centre of railway related education in whole Zambia, several other regional colleges offer further education in teaching, mid-wifery, nursing, farmers- and skills training. In the 1970s the Swedish government aid agency SIDA founded ZCA (Zambia College for Agriculture).

References