TheAfrican Great Lakes (Swahili:Maziwa Makuu;Kinyarwanda:Ibiyaga bigari) are a series oflakes constituting the part of theRift Valley lakes in and around theEast African Rift. The series includesLake Victoria, thesecond-largestfreshwater lake in the world by area;Lake Tanganyika, the world's second-largest freshwater lake by volume and depth;Lake Malawi, the world's eighth-largest freshwater lake by area; andLake Turkana, the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largestalkaline lake.[1] Collectively, they contain 31,000 km3 (7,400 mi3) of water, which is more than eitherLake Baikal or theNorth American Great Lakes. This total constitutes about 25% of the planet's unfrozen surface fresh water. The large rift lakes of Africa are the ancient home of great biodiversity, and 10% of the world's fish species live in this region.
The following are included on most lists of the African Great Lakes, grouped bydrainage basin. The exact number of lakes considered part of the African Great Lakes varies by list, and may include smaller lakes in the rift valleys, especially if they are part of the same drainage basin as the larger lakes, such asLake Kyoga.
TheSwahili language is the most commonly spoken language in the African Great Lakes region.[5] It also serves as a national or official language of five nations in the region: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Because of its high population—estimated to be more than 50 million people in 2020[6]—and the agricultural surplus in the region, the area became organized into a number of small states. The most powerful of these monarchies wereBuganda,Bunyoro,Karagwe, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Being the long-sought source of theNile and the watershed triple point between the rivers Nile, Congo and Zambezi, the region had long been of interest to Europeans. The first Europeans to arrive in the region in any numbers wereChristianmissionaries who had limited success in converting the locals, but did open the region to later colonization. Increased contact with the rest of the world led to a series of devastatingepidemics affecting both humans and livestock.
The highlands are relatively cool, with average temperatures ranging between 17 °C (63 °F) and 19 °C (66 °F) and abundant rainfall. Major drainage basins include those of the Congo-Zaire, Nile, and Zambezi rivers, which drain into theAtlantic Ocean,Mediterranean Sea, andIndian Ocean, respectively.
Forests are dominant in the lowlands of the Congo-Zaire Basin, while grasslands and savannas (dry grasslands) are most common in the southern and eastern highlands. Temperatures in the lowlands average about 35 °C (95 °F). AroundLake Turkana, the climate is hot and very dry. A short rainy season in October is followed by a longer one from April to May.
The Western Rift Valley lakes are freshwater and home to an extraordinary number ofendemic species. More than 1,500cichlid fish species live in the lakes,[8] as well as other fish families. The lakes are also important habitats for a number of amphibian species.Nile crocodiles are numerous.Mammals includeelephants,gorillas andhippopotamus.
The Lake Turkana area is home to hundreds of species of birds endemic to Kenya. Theflamingo wades in its shallows. The East African rift system also serves as aflyway for migrating birds, bringing in hundreds more. The birds are essentially supported byplankton masses in the lake, which also feed the fish there.
Vegetation ranges from rainforest to savanna grasses. In some lakes, rapidly growing invasive plants, like the surface-chokingwater hyacinth and shore-cloggingpapyrus, are problems. Water hyacinth have thus far affected only Lake Victoria.
Until 12 million years ago, the bountiful waters of the equatorial plateau either flowed west into theCongo River system or east to theIndian Ocean. This was changed by the formation of the Great Rift Valley. Arift is a weak place in Earth's crust due to the separation of twotectonic plates, often accompanied by agraben, or trough, in which lake water can collect. This rift began when East Africa, impelled by currents in themantle, began separating from the rest of Africa, moving to the northeast. The basins that resulted from the geological uplifts filled with water that now flowed north.
Lake Victoria is not actually within the Rift Valley. It occupies a depression between the Eastern and Western Rifts, formed by the uplift of the rifts to either of its sides.
Around two to three million years ago, Lake Turkana was larger and the area more fertile, making it a center for earlyhominids.Richard Leakey led numerousanthropological excavations in the area, which yielded many important discoveries ofhominin remains. The two-million-year-oldSkull 1470 was found in 1972. It was originally thought to beHomo habilis, but some anthropologists have assigned it to a new species,Homo rudolfensis, named after the lake (previously known as Lake Rudolf). In 1984, theTurkana Boy, a nearly complete skeleton of aHomo erectus boy was discovered. In 1999, a 3,500,000-year-old skull was discovered there, namedKenyanthropus platyops, which means "flat-faced man of Kenya".
Fishing—primarily oftilapia species but also ofNile perch—provides the main livelihood for people in the region. With four Great Lakes on its borders, Uganda ranks as one of the world's largest producers of freshwater fish. The climate and rich volcanic soils in the highlands also sustain intensely cultivated croplands.
The economies of the Great Lakes region states have different structures and are at various stages of development. The GDP real growth rate ranges from 1.8 percent in Burundi[9] to 4.4 in the DRC.[10] GDP per capita fluctuates between $600 in DRC[11] and Burundi and $800 in Uganda.[12]
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