[4][5] Commonwealth countries often use the terms nationality and citizenship as synonyms, despite their legal distinction and the fact that they are regulated by different governmental administrative bodies.

[14] Besides foreigners meeting the criteria,[8] those who can register include: Zambians are allowed to renounce their nationality, provided that they comply with registration processes.

[17] Anthropologists have dated remains in the area spanning 30,000 to 100,000 years ago and attributed those inhabitants to be ancestors of Khoisan speakers and Pygmy peoples who reside in the territory today.

By the eleventh century, Arab and Indian traders participated in the exchange of goods along the Zambezi River.

[20] Between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, major migrations of people from the Congo Basin settled in the area.

[21] Though the Portuguese explorer António Fernandes visited the area in 1514, they did not establish settlements, but did become involved in trade.

[20] In 1884, British mining magnate Cecil Rhodes convinced Parliament to grant him a charter to develop the region and protect it from expansion of the Portuguese.

[20][27][28] Under the charter, for the British South Africa Company, Rhodes sent agents to secure agreements from local chiefs to cede mineral rights to the area in exchange for weapons.

[20] In 1889, Rhodes had secured agreements with the Lozi's king, Lewanika, in Barotziland and the northwestern part of the territory, which recognised his authority over his people.

[27] By 28 November 1899 Order in Council, effective in 1900, Britain created a formal protectorate over Barotziland and North-Western Rhodesia.

[33] In Britain, allegiance, in which subjects pledged to support a monarch, was the precursor to the modern concept of nationality.

[36] Marriage did not affect the status of a subject of the realm,[37] but under common law, single women, including divorcées, were not allowed to be parents thus their children could not derive nationality maternally and were stateless unless legitimated by their father.

Thus, a person who was naturalised in Canada, for example, would be considered a foreigner, rather than a British national, in Australia or South Africa.

[43] Under its terms, common law provisions were reiterated for natural-born persons born within the realm on or after the effective date.

[44] For those born abroad on or after the effective date, legitimacy was still required, and nationality could only be derived by a child from a British father (one generation), who was natural-born or naturalised.

[50] Because of a rise in statelessness, a woman who did not automatically acquire her husband's nationality upon marriage or upon his naturalisation in another country, did not lose their British status after 1933.

[51] The 1943 revision allowed a child born abroad at any time to be a British national by descent if the Secretary of State agreed to register the birth.

[53][54] When Britain extended this status over a territory, it took responsibility for both internal and external administration, including defense and foreign relations.

[57][58] Until 1934, when the British Protected Persons Order was drafted, the status of BPP was not statutory, but rather granted at the prerogative of the monarch.

[53] Under the 1934 Order, Belonger status with regard to protected territories was defined to mean persons born before or after the Order in a protectorate who possessed no nationality and were not a British subject, or persons born abroad to a native of a protectorate who were stateless and not British subjects.

[61] Under the terms of the British Nationality Act 1948, BPPs of the Northern Rhodesia Protectorate status did not change.

Persons from the protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyassaland could only acquire federation nationality if their father was a British subject.

[70][71] Those CUKCs and BPPs who did not become nationals of Zambia at independence, including the large Asian community who had been registered in Northern Rhodesia but not born there, retained their status as CUKCs or BPPs if they had been born, registered, or naturalised in a place, or were the wife of someone so described, which remained part of the United Kingdom and its colonies on 24 October 1964.

[85] Amendments were made to the 1975 Citizenship Act in 1986 to clarify that this provision meant only those with right to reside who had a valid entry permit could apply.

An amendment enacted in 1990 to the Citizenship Act allowed children who were born with dual nationality to retain both affiliations.

Though it authorised enactment of a new nationality law, none was promulgated, and the 1975 Citizenship Act, as amended remained in force.

This gender discriminatory language was removed from the 2016 constitution allowing adoptees to acquire nationality from either parent.