Kabwe was originally named Broken Hill until 1966. It was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902.
The name Kabwe or Kabwe-Ka Mukuba means ‘ore’ or ‘smelting’ but the European/Australian prospectors named it Broken Hill after a similar mine in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. In 1921 a human fossil, a skull, dubbed Kabwe 1, also “Broken Hill Man” or “Rhodesian Man” (classified as Homo rhodesiensis or Homo heidelbergensis) was found in the mine.
Kabwe also has a claim to being the birthplace of Zambian politics as it was an important political centre during the colonial period.
