His Excellency Dr. Chibamba Favour Kanyama serves as the 18th Ambassador of the Republic of Zambia to the United States of America, a role he assumed in 2023 after a wide-ranging career in media, corporate leadership, development finance, and international communications. A former Director General of the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and later Communications Advisor at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, he has also led a private consultancy focused on leadership and economic strategy. His academic background spans mass communication and economics at the University of Zambia and development finance at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, anchoring his diplomatic work in both public narrative and economic policy.
Zambia, which he represents in Washington, is a landlocked Southern African republic known for its peaceful political transitions, multi-party democracy, and rich natural resources. The country is one of Africa’s leading copper producers and is now seeking to move from dependence on raw mineral exports toward a more diversified economy that includes agriculture, energy, tourism, and value-added processing.
In this conversation, Ambassador Kanyama reflects on his personal journey, Zambia’s evolving economic narrative, and the kind of partnership his country seeks with the United States and the wider international community.
Your career has moved through journalism, international finance, corporate strategy, and national representation. When you reflect on your life beyond titles, which personal turning points most shaped the way you think, decide, and lead today?
There have been many turning points in my journey. I can point out a few that have shaped what I am today. The first was my exposure to journalism as a broadcaster in the early years of my career. Soon after graduating from the University of Zambia, where I studied mass communications and economics, I was given very large responsibilities. In my first year at the national broadcaster, I served as the main reporter for Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia.
Through that work, I interviewed high-profile individuals as a young 25 year old. I interviewed Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. I interviewed Nelson Mandela before he became President, soon after he came out of prison and visited President Kaunda at the Hoyde Resort. Yasser Arafat also came, and I interviewed him as well. I interviewed Olusegun Obasanjo before he became President a second time. I interviewed Yoweri Museveni of Uganda when he chaired COMESA and spent one and a half hours with him in his hotel room. I interviewed Daniel arap Moi of Kenya.
These early encounters helped me understand that I could communicate, negotiate, and engage with anyone. They shaped my diplomatic path. My work with young people in Zambia through a creation of mine called the Teen Vision Trust, which mentored 5,000 young people, taught me that shaping society requires thinking beyond oneself and learning how to understand others. It built my self-awareness and changed the way I relate to people.
I also spent time at the International Monetary Fund as an adviser, which exposed me to international diplomacy and to economic negotiations. I worked on an IMF opinion survey in 2014, engaging 7,222 respondents globally, many from Africa and Latin America who felt the IMF did not serve them well and was not even-handed. I had to communicate those concerns directly to the IMF board, with Christine Lagarde present. That experience taught me how to present difficult truths clearly and respectfully.
In an era of global competition for Africa’s resources and partnerships, how does Zambia protect its economic independence while deepening trade and investment ties with the United States and other major economies?
First, you ensure you are not aligned to only one country. You maximize opportunity and manage risk better. If you depend on one bilateral partner, you lose when circumstances shift. We live in a global world where no single economic power holds every card.
Our interests rest on securing independence, managing our economic profile, trading fairly, and accessing major markets. Zambia maintains healthy relations with the United States, China, and the European Union. Each has its interests, and we protect ours because we are sovereign. Our GDP may be only 30 billion dollars, but in a multilateral setting, our vote carries equal weight. That is why our positions matter.
We secure our interests by investing well, attracting foreign direct investment from many partners, and moving away from dependency. For many years, we relied on donor aid. In 2025, aid cuts forced us to reassess. Our President made it clear that we must look internally, mobilize domestic resources, and fund our own needs through taxes.
When engaging major economies like the United States, we also recognize our leverage. Zambia has voting power, and Zambia has critical minerals essential to U.S. security. This brings both sides to the table. The United States is now investing in the Lobito Corridor, the single largest infrastructure investment in Southern Africa. It will link Angola, the DRC, and Zambia, enabling value addition and job creation. That is how we secure our interests.
Much of effective diplomacy happens quietly, beyond cameras and formal statements. Can you share a moment when private dialogue or quiet persuasion achieved a breakthrough that public negotiation could not, and what that taught you about real influence?
Real influence is not about self-protection. It begins with trust. You may be eloquent and well-informed, but if people do not see honesty in you, you gain nothing. High diplomacy is often built outside the formal table. It takes place in small moments, at cocktail receptions or informal conversations. People read your gestures, your tone, how you excuse yourself, your body language. Those moments determine what happens later at the negotiation table.
We have had breakthroughs during my two and a half years in the United States which are not yet public. Zambia faced several pronouncements this year that strained our bilateral relations. Some expected retaliation. Diplomacy does not work that way. Ambassadors do not protest. We aim for favorable outcomes even when the present looks difficult.
Quiet diplomacy has also shaped our debt negotiations. Under the G20 Common Framework, Zambia has now moved out of its high-risk category in the eyes of sovereign rating agencies. That progress happened through careful engagement with individuals who were not always the most senior. Sometimes the key influencer is a young intern who manages critical data. You must humble yourself and work with whoever can help advance your country’s interests. That is the heart of quiet diplomacy.
When you speak with American policymakers and business leaders, how do you explain Zambia’s trade ambitions in human terms, such as employment, skills development, and long-term national stability, rather than only through figures and agreements?
I often use practical examples. One is a U.S. company investing in Zambia called KoBold Metals. They have already invested 400 million dollars and plan to invest 2.5 billion dollars. They are the first American company we know to invest directly in Zambia’s mining sector.
What stands out is their model. When they first arrived, they expected to bring American technocrats. They soon discovered that Zambia already has highly capable engineers, geologists, and scientists. Today, they have 400 employees, even before production begins. Almost all are Zambian. Only four are American. The CEO is a young Zambian woman.
This shows our human capital is strong across sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, finance, and energy. Knowledge must still evolve, and KoBold Metals has addressed this by aligning Zambian universities with Stanford University. Stanford professors travel to Zambia for sabbaticals, and others teach virtually. This assures American investors that Zambia’s workforce meets global standards.
I also encourage partnerships with other U.S. universities, and more MOUs are being signed. This ensures skills development and long-term stability, and signals that Zambia is ready for sophisticated investment.
Having lived through periods of institutional reform inside Zambia’s media, economic, and governance systems, how has that experience reshaped your approach to both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy in Washington?
Zambia went through a major transition. Under socialism between the late 1960s and early 1990s, 95 percent of the economy was state-run. The reforms of 1991 brought democracy, free markets, and new institutions. I was a journalist at the center of communicating these changes. I was even nicknamed “biting the bullet” for explaining difficult reforms to the public.
We have since experienced unemployment, poverty, strained international relations, and recovery. That history taught me that diplomacy must be evidence-based. In Washington, facts and data drive decisions.
During discussions on the removal of PEPFAR-supported drugs, I realized data alone was insufficient. I told my own story: before 2002, I buried a relative every three months because of HIV/AIDS. After PEPFAR, I could go many years without losing anyone to the disease. When I shared that, one of the architects of PEPFAR stood up and said I should tell that story to President Trump. That is evidence-based diplomacy that connects numbers to human lives.
Representing a nation often requires balancing national expectations, global pressure, and personal conscience. How do you maintain clarity of judgment when these forces compete in complex discussions involving trade, finance, and international governance?
Three things help me. First, I studied the United States deeply when I arrived in 2023. This market is complex. Washington operates through many systems: Capitol Hill, the Executive Branch, the White House, various departments, and numerous think tanks. You must understand each one’s interests.
I created a strategic plan for 2024 to 2026 aligned with Zambia’s national development plan. I consulted the President on his priorities. He pointed out the importance of multilateral institutions based here, such as the World Bank, IMF, and IFC, because of Zambia’s debt challenges. He also emphasized business engagement across all 50 U.S. states.
Second, I consulted U.S. stakeholders. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was especially helpful. They shaped how we present our priorities in ways that resonate with this market. Much of our progress with MOUs and investment partnerships began with that engagement.
You operate in political, business, academic, and cultural circles in the United States. How do you adapt your diplomatic approach across these environments, and what have your American counterparts taught you about the kind of leadership they respect most in global partners?
Americans value openness. They are direct. They speak frankly. There is no offense taken because the culture favors clarity. This taught me to communicate plainly and transparently.
My diplomacy is shaped by Christian values, which helped me engage think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation early on. Shared values create mutual understanding.
Americans also value honesty. The most frequent and difficult questions I receive concern Zambia’s relations with China. I have answered truthfully, including about a recent spill at a Chinese-owned mining operation. These conversations are firm but constructive. Americans respect truthfulness and direct engagement.
If you could quietly redefine how Zambia is perceived in international economic and political circles over the next decade, what specific narrative would you replace the old one with, and what practical changes would support that new perception?
We have long been seen as dependent on a single resource, Copper. It accounts for about 70 percent of exports and 75 to 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings. We have also been seen as heavily indebted, donor-dependent, poor, low GDP, and facing health challenges.
We want to change that narrative. We are moving from being landlocked to being landlinked. We border eight countries by land and two by water, creating ten possible corridors for trade. We aim to diversify toward agriculture, tourism, energy, and processed critical minerals.
Soon we will sign an MOU with a U.S. company to process Copper, Cobalt, and four other critical minerals into finished products. We want our youth to be part of the digital economy and to provide skills to U.S. and global markets. We aim to succeed with the Lobito Corridor and to export beef to the United States once we meet the standards.
This is the narrative we seek: a diversified, innovative, capable Zambia shaping its own future.
