View source for Luapula River

{{Short description|Tributary of the Congo River}}
{{About|the river|the genus of crickets|Laupala (disambiguation){{!}}Laupala}}{{Redirects here|Luapula|the province|Luapula Province|the constituency|Luapula (constituency)}}[[File:Luvua - Luapula - Chambeshi River DRC.svg|thumb|The Luapula River is the middle stretch in red.]]
[[File:Mweru-Luapula.jpg|thumb|260px|The Luapula (bottom) forms a swampy delta where it enters Lake Mweru (center, in black), as shown in this false-colour NASA satellite image. Blue lines mark the swamp and its islands (9, 10); a dotted line marks the river's floodplain (11). Red dots (1–8) are towns. See note for full legend.{{NoteTag| Towns in Zambia (1–5): 1 Chiengi, 2 Kashikishi, 3 Nchelenge, 4 Mwansabombwe, and 5 Mwense

Towns in DR Congo (6–8): 6 [[Pweto]], 7 [[Kilwa, Katanga|Kilwa]], 8 [[Kasenga]].

Other features (9–11): 9 Chisenga Island, 10 the largest swamp island (in DR Congo), 11 the main floodplain.}}]]

The '''Luapula River''' is a north-flowing river of central Africa, within the [[Congo River]] watershed.{{NoteTag|The Luapula is not part of the Congo River itself, but some sources<ref>Pourtier, Roland and Sautter, Gilles François. "Congo River". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/place/Congo-River. Accessed 8 March 2024</ref> use the Luapula and its tributary, the [[Chambeshi River|Chambeshi]], to measure the furthest length of the Congo River system.}} 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]].<ref name="ITM">Terracarta/International Travel Maps, Vancouver Canada: "Zambia, 2nd edition", 2000</ref>

== Source and upper Luapula ==
{{For|wildlife and vegetation at the source of the Luapula|Lake Bangweulu|Bangweulu Wetlands}}

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, [[lagoon]]s 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.)<ref name="Blaikie">Blaikie, William Garden (1880): ''The Personal Life Of David Livingstone''. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13262 Project Gutenberg Ebook #13262], release date: August 23, 2004.</ref><ref name="DL">[[David Livingstone]] and [[Horace Waller (activist)|Horace Waller]] (ed.): ''The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his Death''. Two volumes, John Murray, 1874.</ref> 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.<ref name="Google">[http://earth.google.com Google Earth] accessed 2007.</ref>

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.<ref name="ITM" /> A far less well-known site is Tangwa, about {{convert|40|km}} 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'.<ref name="Lammond">William Lammond: [http://www.nrzam.org.uk/NRJ/V2N5/V2N5.htm "The Luapula Valley"] ''The [[Northern Rhodesia Journal]]'', Vol 2 No 5 (1954), pp50−55. Accessed 16 December 2017.</ref>

== Valley ==

From the [[Chembe Bridge]] to Lake Mweru, the {{convert|300|km}} long Luapula Valley has a higher rural population than the plateau through which it cuts to a depth of up to {{convert|500|m}}. The river is known for this valley and for its long thin [[River delta|delta]] entering Lake Mweru, usually referred to as the Luapula Swamps. The well-populated part of the valley starts north from Mambilima Falls, and along the rest of its length is nicknamed 'Mwapoleni Road', after the [[Chibemba]] greeting called out as people pass each other.<ref name="Lammond" />

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 {{convert|60|km}} west of the Luapula Swamps is the [[Luizi crater|Luizi structure]], a {{convert|12.6|km}} wide series of concentric rings. It has been recently confirmed as a [[Astrobleme|meteoritic impact crater (an astrobleme)]] formed less than 600 million years ago.<ref>{{Cite Earth Impact DB | name = Luizi | accessdate = 2016-04-08}}</ref><ref name="Master">
[http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2001/pdf/5182.pdf 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.</ref>

== Swamps ==

The swamps stretch along the last {{convert|100|km}} of the river before it reaches the lake, and for much of that, they are {{convert|30|km}} wide, covering an area of about {{convert|2500|km2}}. There are four inhabited islands in the DR Congo part of the delta, including the largest in the system which is accessible overland during 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.<ref name="Google" />

As in the Bangweulu Swamps, floating beds of [[Cyperus papyrus|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 {{Convert|400|m}} wide. It has not developed the branching channels typical of river deltas.<ref name="Google" />

Very tall [[Phragmites|reeds]] grow at the edge of the swamps in most places, making it difficult to see over the lagoons from land or to find the way to the maze of narrow channels used by [[Dugout (boat)|dugout]] canoes. Guides are needed to navigate through them, and they are a haven for smuggling between the two countries sharing the swamps.

[[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.<ref name="Lammond" />

On the western side of the delta in DR Congo is a broad grassy floodplain covering about 1600&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>. At the end of the rainy season, the combined Luapula wetlands exceed {{convert|4000|km²}}.<ref name="Google" /> 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 [[Eastern Lunda|Lunda]] invaders of [[Kazembe|Mwata Kazembe]] to settle there around 1750. Their present capital is at [[Mwansabombwe]] on the edge of the delta. [[Arab]] traders and slavers from [[Zanzibar]] and [[Portugal|Portuguese]] traders from [[Mozambique]] were attracted to the area in the 18th and 19th Centuries. [[David Livingstone]] was the first [[United Kingdom|Briton]] to visit in 1867. He did not explore the river but in his hunt for the origin of the [[Nile]], Mwata Kazembe was the first to tell him that the Luapula connects the Chambeshi/Bangweulu and Mweru/Luvua/Lualaba systems. Livingstone wrongly believed the Lualaba then flowed to the Nile rather than to the River Congo.<ref name="DL" />

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.<ref>Bwalya S Chuba: "Mbeleshi in a history of the London Missionary Society", Pula Press, Gaborone (2000).</ref>

The first large town of the [[Early modern period|colonial era]] was the river port, [[Kasenga]], in DR Congo, which grew prosperous in the 1930s from supplying fish to [[Lubumbashi|Elizabethville]] and other towns of the [[Katanga Province|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.<ref name="Lammond" /> For more on the [[Fishery|fisheries]] of the area, see ''[[Lake Mweru]]''.

On the Zambian side of the Luapula, an outbreak of [[African trypanosomiasis|sleeping sickness]] made the [[British Empire|British]] [[Colonialism|colonial]] authorities move their Fort Rosebery [[Boma (enclosure)|boma]] out of the valley onto the plateau at [[Mansa, Zambia|Mansa]],<ref name="Lammond" /> while fears of [[malaria]] in the Luapula Swamps made them establish the next on the plateau at [[Kawambwa]]. Consequently, the towns and villages in the valley, such as the largest, [[Mwansabombwe]], do not have the same ex-colonial character as the administrative towns. However, following the lead of missionary builders and Mwata Kazembe, from the early 1900s, most housing in the valley was of solid brick construction, [[mudbrick|sun-dried brick]] mainly, but with some burnt brick.<ref name="Lammond" />

== Water transport ==

Before the advent of road transport, people travelled by canoe along the river between lakes Bangweulu and Mweru.<ref name="DL" />

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 [[Northern Rhodesia]]. Goods travelled by road from the [[railhead]] at Sakania {{convert|10|km}} north of [[Ndola]] to Kapalala to be loaded onto dugout canoes and small boats. During [[World War I]], a fleet of 1885 such craft were used to convey [[matériel]] to Chambeshi from where it went on a military road to [[Mbala, Zambia|Mbala]] for the [[East African Campaign (World War I)|East African Campaign]]. Unfortunately, the floating papyrus and other vegetation frequently choked the channels through the Bangweulu swamps joining the lake, the Luapula and the Chambeshi, making it difficult to use larger motorboats.<ref>[http://www.nrzam.org.uk/NRJ/V3N3/V3N3.htm 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.</ref>

== River crossings ==

The first vehicle [[Pontoon (boat)|pontoon]] ferries were at Kasenga, Kapalala and Shiniama near Matanda. None remain, though a passenger ferry operates between Kasenga and Kashiba, Zambia. Around 1950 the [[Chembe Ferry]] on the [[Congo Pedicle road]] became on the main vehicle crossing. The river there is {{convert|400|m}} wide but can flood to {{convert|1|km}} wide in a heavy rainy season. In 1983 the first bridge over the river was built, the {{convert|2.5|km|adj=on}} long [[Luapula Bridge]] on the [[Samfya]]-[[Serenje]] Road. The bridge approaches include nearly {{convert|20|km}} of elevated causeway over wetlands and another {{convert|40|km}} of embankment over flood plain.<ref name="Google" /> The second bridge over the river, the {{convert|320|m|adj=on}} long [[Chembe Bridge]] was completed in 2008 to replace the Chembe Ferry.

== See also ==

* [[Congo Pedicle]] ''with map showing the river's course''
* [[Luvua River]]
* [[Congo River]]
* [[Katanga Province]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}
* Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.

{{Rivers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo}}
{{Rivers of Zambia}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|9.41384|S|28.52188|E|type:river_region:ZM|display=title}}

[[Category:Luapula River| ]]
[[Category:International rivers of Africa]]
[[Category:Rivers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
[[Category:Rivers of Zambia]]
[[Category:Lake Bangweulu]]
[[Category:Lake Mweru]]
[[Category:Miombo]]
[[Category:Border rivers]]
[[Category:Democratic Republic of the Congo–Zambia border]]