| Sioma | |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Pushpin Map: | Zambia |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Sioma in Zambia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  Zambia |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Western |
| Subdivision Type2: | District |
| Subdivision Name2: | Sioma |
| Coordinates: | -16.6056°N 23.5053°W |
| Timezone1: | CAT |
| Utc Offset1: | +2 |
Sioma is a town on the west bank of the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia. Since 2012 it has been the capital of the Sioma District.[1]
Sioma is located on the west bank of the Zambezi River 130km (80miles) north of Sesheke and 150km (90miles) south of the provincial capital Mongu. The town is situated approximately 60km (40miles) south of the town of Senanga which marks the southern extent of the Barotse Floodplain.
Vegetation in the area is predominantly Dry Kalahari woodland.[2]
Annually, the town gets an average of of rain.[2]
An Early Iron Age site was excavated at Sioma which has been dated to the mid centuries of the first millennium.[3] Some of the pottery at the site resembles that which is found in Nqoma, Angola.[4]
In the 1880s the Portuguese explorer Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto and American James Dabney McCabe both described the settlement as a hamlet. Pinto also described how the Lui government forced local residents to act as porters for canoes attempting to get around the nearby Ngonye Falls.[5] [6]
Expansion of the town started in 1957 when the catholic Irish Capuchin Franciscans established the Saint Anthony mission station on the Zambezi river at the town.[7]
In 2012 the town was made the capital of the newly created Sioma District.[8]