The town, together with most areas of Ndola south of the Kafubu River, is represented in the National Assembly by the Bwana Mkubwa constituency.

During the post World War I years, in 1928, Bwana Mkubwa contained the Baluba, Chambishi, Chibuluma, Mindola, Mufulira, Nkana, and Roan Antelope mining properties.

However, by 1931, there was limited progress on it and a final proposal was rejected chiefly due to worries of lesser profits if there were local government taxation.

[5] Bwana Mkumbwa was one of the main camps used to receive thousands of Polish refugees that arrived in Northern Rhodesia during World War II.

[1] The Rhokana Corporation leased land to the Northern Rhodesian government for a camp under the command of the British army.

The proposal was mooted during the meeting of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) on delimitation public discussion held in March 2011.

[6] Still, the Bwana Mkubwa community participates in projects such as malaria prevention, school facility upgrades, sewage and potable water system improvements, as well as wildlife conservation.

It investigated better sites in the Copperbelt from 1952 onwards which resulted in the Bwana Mkubwa getting into prominence as a copper mining area.

[2] Bwana Mkubwa was recapitalized in 1922 on the strength of a series of experiments made on the ore by Minerals Separation Ltd,[10] In the late 1920s Ernest Oppenheimer prevented the Americans from dominating the Northern Rhodesian mining industry.

[15] In January 2010, First Quantum Minerals (FQM) restarted the Bwana Mkubwa's copper SX/EW (solvent extraction and electrowinning) plant to process stockpiled ore from the depleted Lonshi mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.