Is Lusaka safe for solo female travellers? An honest guide
Lusaka is, for the most part, a comfortable city for a woman travelling alone, and the honest version of that answer is neither a blanket reassurance nor a warning but the same practical realism you would apply to most cities: the ordinary precautions go a long way here, the risks are mostly opportunistic rather than targeted, and a great many women travel through Zambia solo without trouble while still travelling with their wits about them.
Getting around
The single most useful habit is to control how you move. Use the ride app, Yango, rather than hailing anything off the street, which keeps your route and your driver on record and takes the negotiation out of every trip; avoid walking alone after dark, particularly in quiet or unlit areas, and treat a hired driver for a full day as the easy, inexpensive way to move around without thinking about it. The city is not built for walking between areas in any case, which quietly solves part of the problem.
Out and about
Lusaka is a relatively conservative city, and dressing on the modest side of whatever you would normally wear draws less attention and is the path of least friction, especially away from the more cosmopolitan restaurants and cafés. Attention, where it comes, is far more often verbal than anything else, the same low-grade street comment a woman might field in many cities, and a calm, firm disinterest usually ends it. Keep an eye on your belongings in crowded markets, keep your phone pocketed rather than in hand on the street, and trust the instinct that tells you to leave a situation that feels off.
None of this is unique to Lusaka, and none of it should keep a solo woman away; the city is welcoming, Zambians are generally warm and helpful, and the traveller who books her transport, watches her surroundings, and keeps to well-populated places in the evenings will almost certainly find it an easy and rewarding place to explore on her own.
Knowing the city well enough to move through it with confidence, which areas suit which hours and how Lusaka actually works, is what the forthcoming Lusaka City Guide is written to give you. It is on its way; you can see what's coming next and register your interest here.