CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Atan Shansonga

former Zambian Ambassador to the United States

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 10, 2022
Entity authorityQ23880228
Source-derived summary

Atan Shansonga (born November 1955) is a Zambian diplomat, and the former Zambian Ambassador to the United States.

Atan Shansonga was born in November 1955.

Shansonga was Ambassador to the United States from 2000 to 2002, and was arrested in Lusaka in 2002 as part of an investigation into the diversion of millions of dollars out of Zambia when President Frederick Chiluba was in office. Shansonga fled from Zambia in 2004, and is now based in England.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Atan Shansonga” as former Zambian Ambassador to the United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1955, 2000, 2002, 2004—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1955-11. The account is most persuasive where Atan, Shansonga and former can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as former Zambian Ambassador to the United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 10, 2022. The linked authority identifier is Q23880228. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1955, 2000, 2002 and 2004.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Atan Shansonga”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Atan Shansonga primary sources, Atan Shansonga archive and Atan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Atan Shansonga”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Atan Shansonga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.