Lake Mweru
Encyclopedia
Lake Mweru is a freshwater
lake
on the longest arm of Africa
's second-longest river, the Congo
. Located on the border between Zambia
and Democratic Republic of the Congo
, it makes up 110 km of the total length of the Congo, lying between its Luapula River
(upstream) and Luvua River
(downstream) segments.
Mweru means 'lake' in a number of Bantu languages
, so it is often referred to as just 'Mweru'.
, which comes in through swamps from the south, and the Kalungwishi River
from the east. At its north end the lake is drained by the Luvua River
, which flows in a northwesterly direction to join the Lualaba River
and thence to the Congo
. It is the second-largest lake in the Congo's drainage basin
and is located 150 km west of the southern end of the largest, Lake Tanganyika
.
The Luapula forms a swampy delta
almost as wide as the southern end of the lake. In a number of respects the lower river and lake can be treated as one entity. For a lake in a region with pronounced wet and dry seasons, Mweru does not change much in level and area. The annual fluctuation in level is 1.7m, with seasonal highs in May and lows in January. This is partly because the Luapula drains out of the Bangweulu Swamps and floodplain which tend to regulate the water flow, absorbing the annual flood and releasing it slowly, and partly because Mweru's outlet, the Luvua, drops quickly and flows swiftly, without vegetation to block it. A rise in Mweru is quickly offset by a faster flow down the Luvua.
Mweru's average length is 118 km and its average width is 45 km, with its long axis oriented northeast-southwest. Its elevation is 917 m, quite a bit higher than Tanganyika (763 m). It is a rift valley lake
lying in the Lake Mweru-Luapula graben
, which is a branch of the Great Rift Valley
. The western shore of the lake in DR Congo exhibits the steep escarpment
typical of a rift valley lake, rising to the Kundelungu Mountains beyond, but the rift valley escarpment is less pronounced on the eastern shore.
Mweru is shallow in the south and deeper in the north, with two depressions in the north-eastern section with maximum depths of 20 m and 27 m.
A smaller very marshy lake called Mweru Wantipa
(also known as the Mweru Marshes) lies about 50 km to its east, and north of the Kalungwishi. It is mostly endorheic
and actually takes water from the Kalungwishi through a dambo
most of the time, but in times of high flood it may overflow into the Kalungwishi and Lake Mweru.
and Swahili
traders (of ivory
, copper
and slaves) who used Kilwa Island on the lake as a base at one time. They used trade routes from Zanzibar
on the Indian Ocean
to Ujiji
on Lake Tanganyika to Mweru and then to the Lunda
, Luba, Yeke or Kazembe kingdoms, the last being on the southern shores of Mweru. Western trade routes went from those kingdoms to the Atlantic, so Mweru lay on a transcontinental trade route.
Between 1796 and 1831 Portuguese
traders/explorers Pereira, Francisco de Lacerda
and others visited Kazembe from Mozambique
to get treaties to use the trade route between their territories of Mozambique and Angola
. The Portuguese must have known of the lake, and the visitors only had to walk to higher ground about 5 km north of Kazembe's Kanyembo
capital to see the lake 10 km distant. However they were more interested in trade routes than discovery, they had approached from the south and their movements were restricted by Mwata Kazembe, and they did not provide an account of it. Explorer and missionary David Livingstone
, who referred to it as 'Moero', is credited with its discovery during his travels of 1867-'8.
Livingstone witnessed the devastation and suffering caused by the slave trade in the area to the north and east of Mweru, and his accounts did help rally opposition to it. The last of the slave trading in the area was as late as the 1890s, however. Meanwhile between 1870 and 1891, skirmishes and wars between the Yeke
king Msiri and neighbouring chiefs and traders unsettled the area. Few Europeans had visited Mweru since Livingstone, until Alfred Sharpe
in 1890–1 and the Stairs Expedition in 1892 both passed by on their way to seek treaties with Msiri. The Stairs Expedition killed Msiri and took Katanga for the King Leopold II of Belgium
. Sharpe left one of his officers to set up the first colonial outpost in the Luapula-Mweru valley, the British
boma
at Chiengi
in 1891.
The western shore of Luapula-Mweru became part of the Belgian Congo
and the eastern shore part of Northern Rhodesia
, a British
protectorate
. Although Kilwa Island is closer to the western shore, it was allocated to Northern Rhodesia, and consequently Zambia has 58% of the lake waters, and DR Congo 42%.
The first Belgian outposts on the lake were set up at Lukonzolwa and Pweto which were at various times the headquarters of their administration of Katanga. They stamped out the slave trade going north-east around the lake. The first mission station on the lake was established in 1892 by Scottish missionary Dan Crawford
of the Plymouth Brethren
at Luanza on the Belgian side of the lake.
The British moved their boma from Chiengi
to the Kalungwishi, with one or two British officers (such as Blair Watson), and a force of African police. In conjunction with operations around Abercorn further down the trade route, this was enough to end the slave trade going east from Mweru, but not enough to bring Mwata Kazembe under British rule, and a military expedition had to be sent in 1899 from British Central Africa
(Nyasaland
) to do that job (see the article on Alfred Sharpe
for more details).
The move of the boma from Chiengi to Kalungwishi had the effect of leaving the Belgian boma at Pweto a free rein at the northern end of the lake, leading a hundred years later to about 33 km² of Zambian territory next to Pweto being ceded to the DR Congo (then Zaire). See the Luapula Province border dispute
for further details and references.
After 1900, the Belgian Congo province of Katanga
on the western shores of the lake developed faster than the Northern Rhodesian side, the Luapula Province
and the town of Kasenga a few hours by boat up the Luapula River became the most developed in the Luapula-Mweru valley, and until the 1960s was the main commercial centre with better services and infrastructure than elsewhere. The Elizabethville
mines started up more quickly than those of the Copperbelt, and Kasenga supplied its workforce with fish. Since 1960, political crises, government neglect and wars on the Congolese side have produced a deterioration in infrastructure, while peace on the Zambian side has produced an increase in population and services, causing the balance to change .
, Kashikishi
and Chiengi
, and on the DR Congo side, Kilwa (the town opposite the island), Lukonzolwa and Pweto
.
Besides Kilwa Island, there are two other inhabited islands in the lake: Zambia's Isokwe Island of 3 km², and a 2 km² Congolese island next to the mouth of the Luapula. (Two other islands in the Luapula swamps have shores on the lake).
The Congolese side of the lake was affected by the Second Congo War
of 1999-2003, from which it is still recovering. Many refugees entered Zambia at Pweto and were accommodated in camps in Mporokoso
and Kawambwa
districts.
operated a regular service by a paddle steamer
, the Charles Lemaire, between Kasenga on the Luapula and Pweto
at the outlet of the Luvua River, a distance of nearly 300 km if a stop at Kilwa was included. Boats still ply that route today. Water transport is less used on the Zambian side, except to Kilwa Island, Isokwe Island and Chisenga Island (in the Luapula swamps).
The Mweru area was served only by dirt roads until the main Luapula Province
road on the Zambian side was tarred to Nchelenge in 1987; the population around the lake has grown, much of it exploiting the rich fishery of the lake. When the Copperbelt mines shed workers in the 1980s and 1990s, many ex-miners relocated to the lake shores particularly around Nchelenge-Kashikishi.
The dirt roads on the Congolese side have been neglected and are in poor condition, and many people cross into Zambia to travel by road. See Congo Pedicle road
for more details.
, called pale ('pa-lay') in Chibemba, which traditionally were dried on racks or mats in the sun and packed in baskets for market. (Smoking
and salting
fish are more recent processes in the area). Catfish (one species of which grows up to 2 m in length), a kind of carp, tiger fish, elephant fish and sardine-like fish are also caught.
Commercial fishing on Lake Mweru and the Luapula River was pioneered by Greek
fishermen from the Dodecanese islands who settled in Kasenga, DR Congo, on the western bank of the Luapula 150 km up river from the lake in the first half of the 19th Century. They used boats built in Greek style powered by charcoal
-fuelled steam engine
s, later replaced with diesel
. They supplied the workforce of the copper mines
in Lubumbashi
(later the whole Copperbelt) with fish which was packed in ice at Kasenga and transported from there in trucks. It was estimated in 1950 there were 50 Greek boats catching 4000 t of fresh fish per year. It would take a week for a boat to do the round trip to the lake and fill its hold, lined with ice carried on board.
In recent decades the catch has declined due to over-fishing, and is estimated at 13,000 tonnes caught from 4,500 small craft, mainly plank boats. Congolese fishermen catch the most despite have the slightly smaller share of the waters. The Tilapia are caught by gill nets, and do not reach the size they once did. Since the 1980s, 'chisense' fishing increased. This method is used to catch small pelagic fish
called kapenta
, originally from beaches but now using lights on boats at night to attract the fish which are then scooped up in fine nets.
is an open-cast mine 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) north of Kilwa in DR Congo by dirt road, and 23 kilometres (14.3 mi) west of the lake.
The mine was sold by Anvil Mining
to Mawson West, an Australian company, in March 2010.
When the mine is operating, heavy trucks carrying concentrate
cross Mweru on a large motorised pontoon
ferry
from Kilwa to Nchelenge, a distance of 44 kilometres (27.3 mi), then drive 2500 kilometres (1,553.4 mi) to a copper smelter in Tsumeb
, Namibia
.
despite being regarded as "truly beautiful". Lack of access in the past, a lack of wildlife conservation
, and wars in DR Congo between 1996 and 2003 have not helped. 60 years ago the western and northern shores of the lake were home to large herds of elephant, the Luapula floodplain supported herds of lechwe
, and the Lusenga Plains National Park and Mweru Wantipa National Park
were noted for Cape buffalo, a great variety of antelope
and lion
. Most animal populations have been reduced by hunting, loss of habitat, and poaching. On the Zambian side perhaps only Mweru Wantipa National Park
has tourism potential. On the Congolese side the Parc National de Kundelungu in the mountains 75 km south-west of the lake may be in better condition.
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...
lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
on the longest arm of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
's second-longest river, the Congo
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
. Located on the border between Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, it makes up 110 km of the total length of the Congo, lying between its Luapula River
Luapula River
The Luapula River is a section of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. It is a transnational river forming for nearly all its length part of the border between Zambia and the DR Congo...
(upstream) and Luvua River
Luvua River
The Luvua River is a river in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . It flows from the northern end of Lake Mweru on the Zambia-Congo border in a northwesterly direction for to its confluence with the Lualaba River opposite the town of Ankoro...
(downstream) segments.
Mweru means 'lake' in a number of Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, so it is often referred to as just 'Mweru'.
Physical Geography
Mweru is mainly fed by the Luapula RiverLuapula River
The Luapula River is a section of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. It is a transnational river forming for nearly all its length part of the border between Zambia and the DR Congo...
, which comes in through swamps from the south, and the Kalungwishi River
Kalungwishi River
The Kalungwishi River flows west in northern Zambia into Lake Mweru. It is known for its waterfalls, including the Lumangwe Falls, Kabweluma Falls, Kundabwiku Falls and Mumbuluma Falls....
from the east. At its north end the lake is drained by the Luvua River
Luvua River
The Luvua River is a river in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . It flows from the northern end of Lake Mweru on the Zambia-Congo border in a northwesterly direction for to its confluence with the Lualaba River opposite the town of Ankoro...
, which flows in a northwesterly direction to join the Lualaba River
Lualaba River
The Lualaba River is the greatest headstream of the Congo River by volume of water. However, by length the Chambeshi River is the farthest headstream. The Lualaba is 1800 km long, running from near Musofi in the vicinity of Lubumbashi in Katanga Province. The whole of its length lies within the...
and thence to the Congo
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
. It is the second-largest lake in the Congo's drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
and is located 150 km west of the southern end of the largest, Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal in Siberia; it is also the world's longest freshwater lake...
.
The Luapula forms a swampy delta
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
almost as wide as the southern end of the lake. In a number of respects the lower river and lake can be treated as one entity. For a lake in a region with pronounced wet and dry seasons, Mweru does not change much in level and area. The annual fluctuation in level is 1.7m, with seasonal highs in May and lows in January. This is partly because the Luapula drains out of the Bangweulu Swamps and floodplain which tend to regulate the water flow, absorbing the annual flood and releasing it slowly, and partly because Mweru's outlet, the Luvua, drops quickly and flows swiftly, without vegetation to block it. A rise in Mweru is quickly offset by a faster flow down the Luvua.
Mweru's average length is 118 km and its average width is 45 km, with its long axis oriented northeast-southwest. Its elevation is 917 m, quite a bit higher than Tanganyika (763 m). It is a rift valley lake
Rift Valley lakes
The Rift Valley lakes are a group of lakes in the Great Rift Valley formed by the East African Rift which runs through the whole eastern side of the African continent from north to south...
lying in the Lake Mweru-Luapula graben
Graben
In geology, a graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. Graben is German for ditch. Graben is used for both the singular and plural....
, which is a branch of the Great Rift Valley
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...
. The western shore of the lake in DR Congo exhibits the steep escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
typical of a rift valley lake, rising to the Kundelungu Mountains beyond, but the rift valley escarpment is less pronounced on the eastern shore.
Mweru is shallow in the south and deeper in the north, with two depressions in the north-eastern section with maximum depths of 20 m and 27 m.
A smaller very marshy lake called Mweru Wantipa
Lake Mweru Wantipa
Lake Mweru Wantipa is a lake and swamp system in the Northern Province of Zambia. It has been regarded in the past as something of mystery, displaying fluctuations in water level and salinity which were not entirely explained by variation in rainfall levels; it has been known to dry out almost...
(also known as the Mweru Marshes) lies about 50 km to its east, and north of the Kalungwishi. It is mostly endorheic
Endorheic
An endorheic basin is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other bodies of water such as rivers or oceans...
and actually takes water from the Kalungwishi through a dambo
Dambo
Dambo is a word used for a class of complex shallow wetlands in central, southern and eastern Africa, particularly in Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are generally found in higher rainfall flat plateau areas, and have river-like branching forms which may be nowhere very large, but common enough to add up...
most of the time, but in times of high flood it may overflow into the Kalungwishi and Lake Mweru.
Exploration
The lake was known to ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and Swahili
Swahili people
The Swahili people are a Bantu ethnic group and culture found in East Africa, mainly in the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya, Tanzania and north Mozambique. According to JoshuaProject, the Swahili number in at around 1,328,000. The name Swahili is derived from the Arabic word Sawahil,...
traders (of ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and slaves) who used Kilwa Island on the lake as a base at one time. They used trade routes from Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
on the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
to Ujiji
Ujiji
Ujiji is the oldest town in western Tanzania, located about 6 miles south of Kigoma. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 4,100. Part of the Kigoma/Ujiji urban area, the regional population was about 50,000 in 1978....
on Lake Tanganyika to Mweru and then to the Lunda
Lunda Kingdom
The Kingdom of Lunda , also known as the Lunda Empire, was a pre-colonial African confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia. Its central state was in Katanga....
, Luba, Yeke or Kazembe kingdoms, the last being on the southern shores of Mweru. Western trade routes went from those kingdoms to the Atlantic, so Mweru lay on a transcontinental trade route.
Between 1796 and 1831 Portuguese
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
traders/explorers Pereira, Francisco de Lacerda
Francisco de Lacerda
Dr Francisco José Maria de Lacerda was a Portuguese explorer in the 18th century. He led an expedition to the Kazembe region of Zambia in 1798. After his death on this mission, the group was led by Francisco Pinto.-External links:*...
and others visited Kazembe from Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
to get treaties to use the trade route between their territories of Mozambique and Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. The Portuguese must have known of the lake, and the visitors only had to walk to higher ground about 5 km north of Kazembe's Kanyembo
Kanyembo
Kanyembo is the principal centre of the population on the Mofwe Lagoon, the largest of several lagoons in the Luapula River swamps south of Lake Mweru, in the Luapula Province of Zambia. It takes its name from its traditional ruler, Chief Kanyembo, one of the senior chiefs of the Kazembe-Lunda...
capital to see the lake 10 km distant. However they were more interested in trade routes than discovery, they had approached from the south and their movements were restricted by Mwata Kazembe, and they did not provide an account of it. Explorer and missionary David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
, who referred to it as 'Moero', is credited with its discovery during his travels of 1867-'8.
Livingstone witnessed the devastation and suffering caused by the slave trade in the area to the north and east of Mweru, and his accounts did help rally opposition to it. The last of the slave trading in the area was as late as the 1890s, however. Meanwhile between 1870 and 1891, skirmishes and wars between the Yeke
Yeke Kingdom
The Yeke Kingdom of the Garanganze people in Katanga, DR Congo was short-lived, existing from about 1856 to 1891 under one king, Msiri, but it became for a while the most powerful state in south-central Africa, controlling a territory of about half a million square kilometres...
king Msiri and neighbouring chiefs and traders unsettled the area. Few Europeans had visited Mweru since Livingstone, until Alfred Sharpe
Alfred Sharpe
Sir Alfred Sharpe was a professional hunter who became a British colonial administrator and Commissioner of the British Central Africa Protectorate from 1896 until 1910...
in 1890–1 and the Stairs Expedition in 1892 both passed by on their way to seek treaties with Msiri. The Stairs Expedition killed Msiri and took Katanga for the King Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
. Sharpe left one of his officers to set up the first colonial outpost in the Luapula-Mweru valley, the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
boma
Boma (enclosure)
A boma is a livestock enclosure, a stockade or kind of fort, or a district government office. The term is used in many parts of eastern, central and southern Africa and is incorporated into many African languages as well as colonial varieties of English, French and German.As a livestock enclosure,...
at Chiengi
Chiengi
Chiengi or Chienge was a historic colonial boma of the British Empire in central Africa and today is a settlement in the Luapula Province of Zambia, and headquarters of Chiengi District...
in 1891.
Historical development
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
and the eastern shore part of Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
, a British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
. Although Kilwa Island is closer to the western shore, it was allocated to Northern Rhodesia, and consequently Zambia has 58% of the lake waters, and DR Congo 42%.
The first Belgian outposts on the lake were set up at Lukonzolwa and Pweto which were at various times the headquarters of their administration of Katanga. They stamped out the slave trade going north-east around the lake. The first mission station on the lake was established in 1892 by Scottish missionary Dan Crawford
Dan Crawford (missionary)
Dan Crawford , also known as 'Konga Vantu', was a Scottish missionary of the Plymouth Brethren in central-southern Africa. He was born in Greenock, son of a Clyde boat captain...
of the Plymouth Brethren
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
at Luanza on the Belgian side of the lake.
The British moved their boma from Chiengi
Chiengi
Chiengi or Chienge was a historic colonial boma of the British Empire in central Africa and today is a settlement in the Luapula Province of Zambia, and headquarters of Chiengi District...
to the Kalungwishi, with one or two British officers (such as Blair Watson), and a force of African police. In conjunction with operations around Abercorn further down the trade route, this was enough to end the slave trade going east from Mweru, but not enough to bring Mwata Kazembe under British rule, and a military expedition had to be sent in 1899 from British Central Africa
British Central Africa
The British Central Africa Protectorate existed in the area of present-day Malawi between 1893 and 1907.-History:The Shire Highlands south of Lake Nyasa and the lands west of the lake had been of interest to the British since they were first explored by David Livingstone in the 1850s, and...
(Nyasaland
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
) to do that job (see the article on Alfred Sharpe
Alfred Sharpe
Sir Alfred Sharpe was a professional hunter who became a British colonial administrator and Commissioner of the British Central Africa Protectorate from 1896 until 1910...
for more details).
The move of the boma from Chiengi to Kalungwishi had the effect of leaving the Belgian boma at Pweto a free rein at the northern end of the lake, leading a hundred years later to about 33 km² of Zambian territory next to Pweto being ceded to the DR Congo (then Zaire). See the Luapula Province border dispute
Luapula Province border dispute
This article deals with the disputed area on the borders of the Belgian Congo and Zambia, in Luapula Province.-Origins in the 1894 treaty:Zambia's formal northern frontier boundary was legally signed in the Anglo-Belgian Treaty of 1894, long after the 1884 Berlin Conference...
for further details and references.
After 1900, the Belgian Congo province of Katanga
Katanga Province
Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...
on the western shores of the lake developed faster than the Northern Rhodesian side, the Luapula Province
Luapula Province
Luapula Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces, and is located in the north of the country. The provincial capital is Mansa. Luapula Province was named after the Luapula River....
and the town of Kasenga a few hours by boat up the Luapula River became the most developed in the Luapula-Mweru valley, and until the 1960s was the main commercial centre with better services and infrastructure than elsewhere. The Elizabethville
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi is the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, second only to the nation's capital Kinshasa, and the hub of the southeastern part of the country. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the relatively prosperous Katanga Province, lying near the Zambian border...
mines started up more quickly than those of the Copperbelt, and Kasenga supplied its workforce with fish. Since 1960, political crises, government neglect and wars on the Congolese side have produced a deterioration in infrastructure, while peace on the Zambian side has produced an increase in population and services, causing the balance to change .
Centres of population on the lake
Many fishing villages dot Mweru's shores. A number are seasonal camps. The main towns on the Zambian side are NchelengeNchelenge
Nchelenge is a town in the Luapula Province of northern Zambia, lying on the south eastern shore of Lake Mweru. It is contiguous with Kashikishi, and they are sometimes referred to as Nchelenge-Kashikishi...
, Kashikishi
Kashikishi
Kashikishi is a town on the south-eastern shore of Lake Mweru in the Luapula Province of Zambia. It lies just north of the district headquarters Nchelenge, and close enough for them to be considered twin towns; they are sometimes referred to as Nchelenge-Kashikishi.While Nchelenge is the seat of...
and Chiengi
Chiengi
Chiengi or Chienge was a historic colonial boma of the British Empire in central Africa and today is a settlement in the Luapula Province of Zambia, and headquarters of Chiengi District...
, and on the DR Congo side, Kilwa (the town opposite the island), Lukonzolwa and Pweto
Pweto
Pweto is a town in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . It is the administrative center of the Pweto Territory. The town was the scene of a decisive battle in December 2000 during the Second Congo War which resulted in both sides making more active efforts to achieve...
.
Besides Kilwa Island, there are two other inhabited islands in the lake: Zambia's Isokwe Island of 3 km², and a 2 km² Congolese island next to the mouth of the Luapula. (Two other islands in the Luapula swamps have shores on the lake).
The Congolese side of the lake was affected by the Second Congo War
Second Congo War
The Second Congo War, also known as Coltan War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power; however, hostilities continue to this...
of 1999-2003, from which it is still recovering. Many refugees entered Zambia at Pweto and were accommodated in camps in Mporokoso
Mporokoso
Mporokoso is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, lying at an elevation of nearly 1500 m on the flat plateau about 75 km south east of Lake Mweru Wantipa and 100 km south-west of Lake Tanganyika...
and Kawambwa
Kawambwa
Kawambwa is a town in the Zambian province of Luapula located on the edge of the northern Zambian plateau above the Luapula valley at an altitude of 1300 m...
districts.
Transport
The BelgiansBelgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
operated a regular service by a paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
, the Charles Lemaire, between Kasenga on the Luapula and Pweto
Pweto
Pweto is a town in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . It is the administrative center of the Pweto Territory. The town was the scene of a decisive battle in December 2000 during the Second Congo War which resulted in both sides making more active efforts to achieve...
at the outlet of the Luvua River, a distance of nearly 300 km if a stop at Kilwa was included. Boats still ply that route today. Water transport is less used on the Zambian side, except to Kilwa Island, Isokwe Island and Chisenga Island (in the Luapula swamps).
The Mweru area was served only by dirt roads until the main Luapula Province
Luapula Province
Luapula Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces, and is located in the north of the country. The provincial capital is Mansa. Luapula Province was named after the Luapula River....
road on the Zambian side was tarred to Nchelenge in 1987; the population around the lake has grown, much of it exploiting the rich fishery of the lake. When the Copperbelt mines shed workers in the 1980s and 1990s, many ex-miners relocated to the lake shores particularly around Nchelenge-Kashikishi.
The dirt roads on the Congolese side have been neglected and are in poor condition, and many people cross into Zambia to travel by road. See Congo Pedicle road
Congo Pedicle road
The Congo Pedicle road crosses the Congolese territory of the Congo Pedicle and was constructed by and is maintained by Zambia to connect its Copperbelt and Luapula Provinces...
for more details.
Mweru Luapula Fishery
Mweru has always been noted for its large fine bream, Tilapia macrochirTilapia
Tilapia , is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the tilapiine cichlid tribe. Tilapia inhabit a variety of fresh water habitats, including shallow streams, ponds, rivers and lakes. Historically, they have been of major importance in artisan fishing in Africa and the...
, called pale ('pa-lay') in Chibemba, which traditionally were dried on racks or mats in the sun and packed in baskets for market. (Smoking
Smoking (cooking technique)
Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood...
and salting
Salting (food)
Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt. It is related to pickling . It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt-cured foods are dried and salted cod and salt-cured meat.Salting is used because most bacteria, fungi and other potentially...
fish are more recent processes in the area). Catfish (one species of which grows up to 2 m in length), a kind of carp, tiger fish, elephant fish and sardine-like fish are also caught.
Commercial fishing on Lake Mweru and the Luapula River was pioneered by Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
fishermen from the Dodecanese islands who settled in Kasenga, DR Congo, on the western bank of the Luapula 150 km up river from the lake in the first half of the 19th Century. They used boats built in Greek style powered by charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
-fuelled steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s, later replaced with diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
. They supplied the workforce of the copper mines
Copper extraction
Copper extraction techniques refers to the methods for obtaining copper from its ores. This conversion consists of a series of chemical, physical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other...
in Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi is the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, second only to the nation's capital Kinshasa, and the hub of the southeastern part of the country. The copper-mining city serves as the capital of the relatively prosperous Katanga Province, lying near the Zambian border...
(later the whole Copperbelt) with fish which was packed in ice at Kasenga and transported from there in trucks. It was estimated in 1950 there were 50 Greek boats catching 4000 t of fresh fish per year. It would take a week for a boat to do the round trip to the lake and fill its hold, lined with ice carried on board.
In recent decades the catch has declined due to over-fishing, and is estimated at 13,000 tonnes caught from 4,500 small craft, mainly plank boats. Congolese fishermen catch the most despite have the slightly smaller share of the waters. The Tilapia are caught by gill nets, and do not reach the size they once did. Since the 1980s, 'chisense' fishing increased. This method is used to catch small pelagic fish
Pelagic fish
Pelagic fish live near the surface or in the water column of coastal, ocean and lake waters, but not on the bottom of the sea or the lake. They can be contrasted with demersal fish, which do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish which are associated with coral reefs.The marine pelagic...
called kapenta
Kapenta
The Tanganyika sardine, known as Kapenta in Zambia and Zimbabwe or Dagaa or Ndgaa elsewhere, is really two species both of which are small, planktivorous, pelagic, freshwater clupeid originating from Lake Tanganyika in East Africa...
, originally from beaches but now using lights on boats at night to attract the fish which are then scooped up in fine nets.
Mining
The Dikulushi Copper MineCopper extraction
Copper extraction techniques refers to the methods for obtaining copper from its ores. This conversion consists of a series of chemical, physical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other...
is an open-cast mine 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) north of Kilwa in DR Congo by dirt road, and 23 kilometres (14.3 mi) west of the lake.
The mine was sold by Anvil Mining
Anvil Mining
Anvil Mining is a copper producer that has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2002.The company headquarters are based in Montreal, Canada.Anvil is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange....
to Mawson West, an Australian company, in March 2010.
When the mine is operating, heavy trucks carrying concentrate
Concentrate
A concentrate is a form of substance which has had the majority of its base component removed. Typically this will be the removal of water from a solution or suspension such as the removal of water from fruit juice...
cross Mweru on a large motorised pontoon
Pontoon (boat)
A pontoon is a flotation device with buoyancy sufficient to float itself as well as a heavy load. A pontoon boat is a flattish boat that relies on pontoons to float. Pontoons may be used on boats, rafts, barges, docks, floatplanes or seaplanes. Pontoons may support a platform, creating a raft. A...
ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
from Kilwa to Nchelenge, a distance of 44 kilometres (27.3 mi), then drive 2500 kilometres (1,553.4 mi) to a copper smelter in Tsumeb
Tsumeb
Tsumeb is a city of 15,000 inhabitants and the largest town in Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb is the home of the world-famous Tsumeb mine, and the "gateway to the north" of Namibia. It is the closest town to the Etosha National Park...
, Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
.
Tourism
Lake Mweru is undeveloped for tourismTourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
despite being regarded as "truly beautiful". Lack of access in the past, a lack of wildlife conservation
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife conservation is the preservation, protection, or restoration of wildlife and their environment, especially in relation to endangered and vulnerable species. All living non-domesticated animals, even if bred, hatched or born in captivity, are considered wild animals. Wildlife represents all...
, and wars in DR Congo between 1996 and 2003 have not helped. 60 years ago the western and northern shores of the lake were home to large herds of elephant, the Luapula floodplain supported herds of lechwe
Lechwe
The Lechwe, or Southern Lechwe, is an antelope found in Botswana, Zambia, south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-eastern Namibia, and eastern Angola, especially in the Okavango Delta, Kafue Flats and Bangweulu Swamps....
, and the Lusenga Plains National Park and Mweru Wantipa National Park
Mweru Wantipa National Park
Mweru Wantipa National Park is named after Lake Mweru Wantipa in the Northern Province of Zambia. Once hosting abundant wildlife including lion, elephant, and black rhinoceros, it has had no management and protection for several decades, and lacks visitor facilities...
were noted for Cape buffalo, a great variety of antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
and lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
. Most animal populations have been reduced by hunting, loss of habitat, and poaching. On the Zambian side perhaps only Mweru Wantipa National Park
Mweru Wantipa National Park
Mweru Wantipa National Park is named after Lake Mweru Wantipa in the Northern Province of Zambia. Once hosting abundant wildlife including lion, elephant, and black rhinoceros, it has had no management and protection for several decades, and lacks visitor facilities...
has tourism potential. On the Congolese side the Parc National de Kundelungu in the mountains 75 km south-west of the lake may be in better condition.
See also
- Rift Valley lakesRift Valley lakesThe Rift Valley lakes are a group of lakes in the Great Rift Valley formed by the East African Rift which runs through the whole eastern side of the African continent from north to south...
- Luapula RiverLuapula RiverThe Luapula River is a section of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. It is a transnational river forming for nearly all its length part of the border between Zambia and the DR Congo...
- Luvua RiverLuvua RiverThe Luvua River is a river in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . It flows from the northern end of Lake Mweru on the Zambia-Congo border in a northwesterly direction for to its confluence with the Lualaba River opposite the town of Ankoro...
- Kalungwishi RiverKalungwishi RiverThe Kalungwishi River flows west in northern Zambia into Lake Mweru. It is known for its waterfalls, including the Lumangwe Falls, Kabweluma Falls, Kundabwiku Falls and Mumbuluma Falls....
- Kazembe
- Katanga ProvinceKatanga ProvinceKatanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...
- Msiri
- Lake Mweru WantipaLake Mweru WantipaLake Mweru Wantipa is a lake and swamp system in the Northern Province of Zambia. It has been regarded in the past as something of mystery, displaying fluctuations in water level and salinity which were not entirely explained by variation in rainfall levels; it has been known to dry out almost...
- Luapula Province border disputeLuapula Province border disputeThis article deals with the disputed area on the borders of the Belgian Congo and Zambia, in Luapula Province.-Origins in the 1894 treaty:Zambia's formal northern frontier boundary was legally signed in the Anglo-Belgian Treaty of 1894, long after the 1884 Berlin Conference...
- Luapula ProvinceLuapula ProvinceLuapula Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces, and is located in the north of the country. The provincial capital is Mansa. Luapula Province was named after the Luapula River....