Kabwata Cultural Village, National Museum and Craft Markets

Zambia brings together seventy-three ethnic and language groups, from the Lozi floodplains of Barotseland in the west to the Bemba plateaus of the north and the Chewa and Ngoni hills of the east. In Lusaka, you can experience that cultural mosaic through open-air artisan cooperatives, Sunday craft markets and the national museum along Independence Avenue.

Kabwata Cultural Village

Tucked off Burma Road ten minutes south of the centre, Kabwata Cultural Village preserves rows of circular, thatched-roof brick rondavels originally built in the 1930s and 1940s as colonial African housing. Saved from demolition in the 1970s and turned into a living craft cooperative, the village is home to around eighty master woodcarvers, weavers, beadworkers and painters drawn from every province of Zambia. Unlike middleman curio shops, the artisans here live and work on site: you can watch carvers shaping Zambezi teak, rosewood and ebony with adzes into Makishi ceremonial masks, Chokwe stools, drums and wildlife figures, or inspect tightly coiled Makenge root baskets from Mongu that are robust enough to hold water. Bargaining is friendly and direct with the maker; carry Zambian Kwacha notes. On weekend afternoons, traditional drumming and dance troupes often perform in the central arena.

Lusaka National Museum, Freedom Statue and 37d Gallery

Five minutes north on Independence Avenue stands the Freedom Statue, depicting freedom fighter Zanco Mpundu breaking colonial chains at independence in 1964, where wreaths are laid on national holidays. Directly behind it rises the two-storey Lusaka National Museum. The ground floor showcases contemporary Zambian painting and sculpture, while the upper floor walks through prehistoric Stone Age and Iron Age archaeology, traditional village initiation masks, witchcraft ritual objects and the story of Zambia's peaceful struggle for independence led by Kenneth Kaunda. To see where contemporary Zambian visual art is heading today, pair the museum with a visit to 37d Gallery in Kabulonga, which exhibits museum-calibre canvases in a tranquil garden setting, alongside the historic Henry Tayali Visual Arts Gallery at the Showgrounds.

Sunday Pakati Market, Dutch Reformed Market and Kamwala

If your trip includes a weekend, head to the open-air courtyard at Arcades on the Great East Road for the weekly Sunday Pakati Market (or catch the monthly Dutch Reformed Church Market in Kabulonga held on the last Saturday of each month), where dozens of stalls sell polished green Congolese and Zambian malachite, beaten copperware, leather bags and hand-printed linen. For everyday Zambian life, walk the lively textile arcades of Kamwala and Luburma Market south of Cairo Road to buy six-yard lengths of wax-print chitenge cloth.