Zambia is a country in the south-central part of Africa, with about 20 million people today. Its capital and biggest city is Lusaka. It has no coast at all — it is surrounded on every side by other countries, with Zimbabwe to the south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north — so everything it sells must travel by road or rail through a neighbour to reach a port. Zambia is famous above all for copper. The north of the country holds one of the great copper areas of the world, and for most of the last hundred years the country's money and jobs have risen and fallen with the world price of that one metal. It also shares Victoria Falls with Zimbabwe, so tourism matters too. Its history is worth a sentence, because it explains the name. Britain ruled the area and called it Northern Rhodesia, after Cecil Rhodes, a British businessman. When the country became independent in 1964, its people dropped that name and chose Zambia, after the Zambezi river. This is a common pattern in Africa: a new country takes a name from its own land rather than keeping the name of the man who took it. Zambia is a member of the Commonwealth, the group of countries once ruled by Britain. English is the official language there, used in schools and government, alongside many local languages.