To find out about my grandfather Saka's life, I'm heading to Luanshya, in Zambia's Copperbelt.

By the end of World War II, nearly 70% of British copper came from this region -- most of it used for weapons.

When my grandfather started working here, at the Roan Antelope mine in the early '50s, Africa's Copperbelt was helping to prop up Britain's failing economy.

-[NEWSREEL:] The famous Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia is one of the world's biggest production centers of that important metal, combining both African and European labor.

-I'm heading to the miners' living quarters, to meet Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa, a Zambian expert on race relations.

-If you look at this picture, -Okay.

-what do you see?

-Yeah, there's a mix of... white and Black workers.

It looks harmonious.

Looks like they're together.

-So, the- the picture is a- is a bit misleading.

The reality was vastly different.

Everything was segregated: housing, shopping, communal areas.

The situation was, in effect, similar to what was happening in South Africa -- apartheid.

-It really is quite shocking.

I've only really heard that word, "apartheid," in association with South Africa.

So, there was an apartheid in Zambia as well?

-There was, on the Copperbelt.

-I mean, it's just unbelievable, really.

-If you look at this map, this is a map of the mine at the time.

So this is where white mineworkers lived.

You can see the index.

-Cinema, playing fields, swimming baths, golf club, and a hospital.

Wow.

It's very well-structured and planned there.

-That's right.

White mineworkers lived in posh suburbs... -Mmm.

-while African mineworkers, like your grandfather, -Mm-hmm.

-Saka, -were crammed into these small African townships.

-Yeah, it just looks like two completely contrasting worlds.

-The conditions were- were bad.

African mineworkers lived in a house like this one: -poor, unserviced housing.

-Right.

-And then you look at this house.

-Uh huh.

Wow.

-This is a house where the European mineworkers lived.

-Okay.

It's- it's just so unfair, and blatantly unfair.

-European mineworkers were getting paid ten times more than what African mineworkers were getting.

-Wow.

Ten times more.

-These are slavery conditions, in effect.

-Terrible.

I mean, it's just really saddening to think of my grandfather in apartheid, and subject to such discrimination.

Um... Yeah.

It's just really upsetting.

I can imagine it angered a lot of people.

-People like your grandfather didn't just sit back to accept their condition.

There was a movement called Cha-Cha-Cha.

It was a series of relatively violent protests.

They fought against these policies, desegregation, and they demanded independence.

-So, my grandfather knew it wasn't right, what was happening to him, and he wasn't going to accept it.