Center for Open Access in Science ▪ Belgrade - SERBIA 4 th International e-Conference on Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences http://centerprode.com/conferences/4IeCSHSS.html ISBN (Online) 978-86-81294-03-1 ▪ 2019: 141-150 _________________________________________________________________________ © Authors. Terms and conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) apply. Correspondence: Antonios Maniatis, University of Patras, Department of Administrative Science and Technology, Messologi, GREECE. E-mail: maniatis@dikaio.gr. Zambian Constitutional History Antonios Maniatis University of Patras, GREECE Department of Administrative Science and Technology, Messologi Received 30 October 2019 ▪ Revised 1 December 2019 ▪ Accepted 3 December 2019 Abstract The current study consists of a global overview of the various phases of the State of Zambia, as for the adoption, the application and the amendment of its formal Constitutions. Northern Rhodesia in a way was acquainted with the phenomenon of “constitutions”, granted by the UK. The constitutional history of the Republic of Zambia, into which the former protectorate was transformed in 1964, is divided in two periods, the post-independence period and the post-cold war one. These periods exemplify those of African constitutionalism, which is marked by various authoritarian regimes (1960-1980) and neo-constitutionalism (from 1990 to date). The constitutional history of the sovereign State of Zambia is also dominated by the figure of the President of Republic to such a pitch that even democratic forms of governance essentially have constituted more or less presidentialism. As for the British protectorate of Barotseland, it is no coincidence that it was incorporated in the Republic of Zambia with some privileges on the basis of the 1964 Barotseland Agreement (terminated in 1969), but with no clause in the 1964 Constitution. Keywords: African constitutionalism, Barotseland, constitutional history, constitutional law, Zambia. 1. Introduction The political decolonization of African countries has been a very important process (Adamou, 2018), for which the doctrine has signalized that it was not accompanied by an economic decolonization (Gonidec, 1996). Anyway, one of those countries has been the current Republic of Zambia. Its previous name was “Northern Rhodesia’’ (Lazos, 1979) whilst the geographical term “Rhodesia’’ referred to a region generally comprising the areas that are today Zambia and Zimbabwe. From 1964 and on, it only referred to the former “Southern Rhodesia’’, which was an unrecognized independent State from 1965 to 1979, with the control of white people over the economic life of the country (Lazos, 1979). Rhodesia was equivalent to the territory of the modern Republic of Zimbabwe. Northern Rhodesia in a way was acquainted with the phenomenon of “constitutions’’, granted by the UK. Besides, the constitutional State of Zambia had one of the world’s fastest growing economies for the ten years up to 2014, although it had to settle the legal issue of repaying a very high public debt (Maniatis, 2018).