orthodox Zambian art consists chiefly of wood carving, pottery making, and basket weaving. Among musical instruments, drums are the most widely used, but there also are stringed bows, flutes, horns and pipes, xylophones, bells, rattles, and the kalimba, or “African piano,” made of strips of steel attached to a small board and vibrated by the fingers. Music, dancing, and song are used in tribal rituals and celebrations, as well as for entertainment, varying in form among ethnic groups. With the object of preserving cultural variety, a government initiative in the 1980s led to the revival of many orthodox ceremonies. Some, such as the kuomboka of the Lozi, survived essentially unchanged; others have taken up new forms. The National Dance Troupe performs the orthodox dances of many groups. There is a national museum at Livingstone and another on the Copperbelt. The Moto-Moto Museum at Mbala focuses on the traditions of the Bemba people, and there are small field museums at some national monuments. Relics of the nation's past are the concern of the Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Historical Monuments and Relics.

The Zambia Publishing House is a government-backed publisher of the works of Zambian authors and school textbooks. The few other publishers are mainly church-supported. Zambian scholars have contributed to knowledge in a wide range of disciplines, often in locally published academic journals, though opportunities for research have been limited in recent years by general economic difficulties.