Mbala is Zambia’s most northerly large town and seat of Mbala District, occupying a strategic location close to the border with Tanzania and controlling the southern approaches to Lake Tanganyika, 40 km by road to the north-east, where the port of Mpulungu is located. It had a population of about 20,000 in 2006. Under the name Abercorn, Mbala was a key outpost in British colonial control of this part of south-central Africa.