Nine years ago, when Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland united to form the Central African Federation, this new Commonwealth nation looked good to foreign capital. Lured primarily by the riches of Northern Rhodesia's famed Copper Belt (current production: 600,000 tons a year), U.S. and European companies swarmed in to throw up everything from oil refineries to auto assembly plants. Before long, the federation's sprawling capital of Salisbury, a city about the size of El Paso, began to enjoy a wild building boom.
Today, 20% of the office space in Salisbury is vacant, and only by imposing rigid exchange controls has...
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