Reformed Church in Zambia rapidly. In the late 1950s eleven congregations with 3,300 members were in Zambia. Since 1982 it extended its mission work into Eastern Province, Luapula Province, Northern, Central and Northwest Zambia. The denomination was an Afrikaans church, but English service were introduced in the early 1990s. By 2000 the Reformed Church in Zambia covers all Province of the country. In 1996 the Reformed Church in Zambia formed. It had more than 500,000 members in 154 congregations, and 102 pastors, 39 evangelists in 16 presbyteries. The official languages are English, Nyanja, Chewa, Ngoni, Nsenga, Chichewa and Chewa. The Reformed Church is a
Zambia the world's fastest economically reformed countries. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is headquartered in Lusaka. The territory of what is now Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia from 1911. It was renamed Zambia at independence in 1964. The new name of Zambia was derived from the Zambezi river (Zambezi may mean "Grand River"). The area of modern Zambia is known to have been inhabited by the Khoisan until around AD 300, when migrating Bantu began to settle around these areas. These early hunter-gatherer groups were later either annihilated or absorbed by subsequent more organised Bantu groups.