Luanshya Nightlife

Luanshya was quite well stocked with places to go for evening entertainment. With it being a mining town, the company had made sure there were lots of amenities to keep its hundreds of contract workers happy. They built first-class facilities including the Rugby Club, Golf Club, Tennis Club, Cricket Club, Horticultural Club, Makoma Dam and so on, all of which held fairly regular weekend dances in their large bar areas. After I met Sue at my one and only Horticultural Club dance, we usually frequented the Saturday night dances at the Rugby Club from there on. It was a lively and cosy spot with the beers flowing and a great 2-man disco setup called 'Disco2000' and wow, we thought that was a really distant future time!

In my earlier days in town I often frequented the African bars to enjoy their ambiance. Cold Castle or Lion beers were standard fare as we enjoyed the great beat of the local rumba bands blaring away on scratchy record players. I've still got a few old 45 rpm records to remind me of the sounds! The majority of the customers were African men and there was no problem with men dancing with men when the beat simply got to be too much to resist! It was also common to see men walking down the streets of Luanshya holding hands. It was also customary for volunteers posted in more distant locations to stay with their buddies when travelling around the country. As a result, I often took guys who were visiting with me to these bars and we really enjoyed those evenings out seeing how the Zambians entertained themselves! They had interesting names too, like Phyllis's Pleasure Palace or Theo's Bar & Delicatessen.