Zambia Shopping and nightlife

Lusaka’s Great East Road, Kafue Road, Leopards Hill and suburban districts have modern shopping centres featuring bookshops, fashion and homeware stores and supermarkets. Lusaka and most other cities and towns also have open-air markets which sell fresh produce, fabric, new and second hand clothing and homewares. Lusaka’s biggest markets are on Freedom Way, Independence Avenue and west of Cairo Road. While shops offer goods at fixed prices, bargaining is the norm in the markets.

Most tourist hotels and lodges have souvenir shops. These can also be found in Lusaka, Livingstone and near national parks. They sell items designed specifically to appeal to tourists, such as safari clothing, carved wooden masks and animals, pottery and copperware, beadwork, baskets, local gemstones, handmade jewellery and bags and homewares made from batik fabric.

Some souvenir shops are run as local craftworkers’ cooperatives. Tribal Textiles (www.tribaltextiles.co.zm) in Mfuwe, near South Luangwa National Park, is a particularly good example. Its batik workshop is open to the public, allowing you to watch local workers create and copy original designs inspired by traditional patterns and the natural world. The fabrics they produce are made into beautiful homewares, bags and clothing, all of which are for sale.

It’s inadvisable to buy items made from leather in Zambia unless they come with a guarantee that the skin is from animals that have been legitimately farmed for the purpose. Very occasionally you may see items made from ivory for sale; it’s illegal to export more than one such object per person. It’s also illegal to export genuine antiquities. Game trophies such as taxidermy or items made from tooth, bone, horn, shell, claw, skin, hair or feather require an export permit.