Luapula River
The Luapula River is a north-flowing river of central Africa, within the Congo River watershed.[note 2] It rises in the wetlands of Lake Bangweulu (Zambia), which are fed by the Chambeshi River. The Luapula flows west then north, marking the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo before emptying into Lake Mweru. The river gives its name to Zambia's Luapula Province.[2]
Source and upper Luapula
The Luapula drains Lake Bangweulu and its swamps into which flows the Chambeshi River, the source of the Congo. There is no single clear channel connecting the two rivers and the lake, but a mass of shifting channels, lagoons and swamps, as the explorer David Livingstone found to his cost. (He died exploring the area, and one of his last acts was to question Chief Chitambo about the course of the Luapula.)[3][4] The channel boldly marked as the 'Luapula' and confidently shown on many maps flowing south out of Lake Bangweulu at 11°25'S 29°49'E can be seen on satellite images such as Google Earth to actually peter out into green vegetation around 11°46'S 29°48'E.[5]
Below the Bangweulu swamps and floodplain, the Luapula flows steadily in an arc south-west turning north-west then north, with some rapids and well-known set of cataracts, Mambilima Falls near the main road.[2] A far less well-known site is Tangwa, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south where the river has eroded a gap through rocky hills carving huge caves, arches, and potholes, and leaving giant boulders, including two balancing rocks called 'God's Corn Bin'.[6]
The Luapula Valley
From the
For many practical study purposes, the lower Luapula and Mweru can be considered as one entity. They lie in a rift valley or graben once considered separate from the East African Rift but now seen as a branch of it. Mweru, however, drains not into Lake Tanganyika in the Albertine Rift but via the Luvua River, which has cut a deep, narrow zigzag valley to join the Lualaba River, as the upper Congo is named. The Luapula is part of the longest tributary of the Congo, and hence, by convention, is part of its source, even though the upper Lualaba carries more water.
Overlying the edge of the rift valley 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of the Luapula Swamps is the
The Luapula Swamps
The swamps stretch along the last 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the river before it reaches the lake, and for much of that, they are 30 kilometres (19 mi) wide, covering an area of about 2,500 square kilometres (970 sq mi). There are four inhabited islands in the DR Congo part of the delta, including the largest in the system which is connected to dry land in the dry season. Zambia has three inhabited islands in the delta including Chisenga Island. There are also many lagoons, the largest of which is Mofwe Lagoon on the Zambian side.[5]
As in the Bangweulu Swamps, floating beds of papyrus are a feature of the swamps, which often block channels and change the shape of lagoons. However, the main river channel does not get blocked and stays consistently about 400 metres (1,300 ft) wide. It has not developed the branching channels typical of river deltas.[5]
Very tall
Crocodile and hippopotamus are common and a hazard for fishermen and travellers. However, the Shila people used to hunt hippopotamus using nothing more than harpoons thrown from canoes.[6]
On the western side of the delta in DR Congo is a broad grassy floodplain covering about 1600 km2. At the end of the rainy season, the combined Luapula wetlands exceed 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi).[5] The floodplain was home to herds of lechwe and the shy sitatunga, the famous semi-aquatic antelopes of the region, but both are believed extinct in the lower Luapula due to hunting and the lack of wildlife management.
Human settlement
The upper and middle reaches of the Luapula are quite sparsely populated.
The natural resources of the lower valley, which include fisheries in the river, lagoons and wetlands with fertile farmland at the margins, attracted the
Some of the first missionaries in Central Africa were also attracted to the valley. The first was the Garanganze Mission of the Plymouth Brethren at Mambilima around 1892, followed by the London Missionary Society at Mbereshi in 1900.[9]
The first large town of the colonial era was the river port, Kasenga, in DR Congo, which grew prosperous in the 1930s from supplying fish to Elizabethville and other towns of the Katanga Copperbelt via the first motor road to reach the valley. Most of the fish was caught in Lake Mweru and brought by boat up the Luapula to Kasenga, where it was packed in ice produced in several plants. Although the fish catch has declined and most now travels on the better roads of Zambia, Kasenga remains the only port on the river.[6] For more on the fisheries of the area, see Lake Mweru.
On the Zambian side of the Luapula, an outbreak of
Water transport on the Luapula
Before the advent of road transport, people travelled by canoe along the river between lakes Bangweulu and Mweru.[4]
The lower river between Kasenga and Kilwa on Mweru is now the only stretch of the river carrying much boat transport and most of that is now for DR Congo, where roads are frequently impassable. Up to the late 1940s, the upper Luapula from Kapalala to Lake Bangweulu and the Chambeshi River was one of the most important stretches for river transport in the then
River crossings
The first vehicle
See also
- Congo Pedicle with map showing the river's course
- Luvua River
- Congo River
- Katanga Province
Notes
- ^ Towns in Zambia (1–5): 1 Chiengi, 2 Kashikishi, 3 Nchelenge, 4 Mwansabombwe, and 5 Mwense
Towns in DR Congo (6–8): 6 Kilwa, 8 Kasenga. Other features (9–11): 9 Chisenga Island, 10 the largest swamp island (in DR Congo), 11 the main floodplain.
- ^ The Luapula is not part of the Congo River itself, but some sources[1] use the Luapula and its tributary, the Chambeshi, to measure the furthest length of the Congo River system.
References
- ^ Pourtier, Roland and Sautter, Gilles François. "Congo River". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/place/Congo-River. Accessed 8 March 2024
- ^ a b Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000
- ^ Blaikie, William Garden (1880): The Personal Life Of David Livingstone. Project Gutenberg Ebook #13262, release date: August 23, 2004.
- ^ a b c David Livingstone and Horace Waller (ed.): The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his Death. Two volumes, John Murray, 1874.
- ^ a b c d e Google Earth accessed 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f William Lammond: "The Luapula Valley" The Northern Rhodesia Journal, Vol 2 No 5 (1954), pp50−55. Accessed 16 December 2017.
- ^ "Luizi". Earth Impact Database. Planetary and Space Science Centre University of New Brunswick Fredericton. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- ^ P Master, P. Dumont and H. Ladmirant: "Age Constraints On The Luizi Structure". 64th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting'.' (2001). Accessed 30 March 2007. The Luizi structure can be seen on Google Earth at decimal latitude/longitude 10.16 S, 28.00 E.
- ^ Bwalya S Chuba: "Mbeleshi in a history of the London Missionary Society", Pula Press, Gaborone (2000).
- ^ NRZAM website: H. C. Marshall: "Water Transport in the Bangweulu Swamps". The Northern Rhodesia Journal, Vol III, No 3 pp.189−197 (1957). Accessed 27 March 2007.
- Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.