Mweru is mainly fed by theLuapula River, which comes in through swamps from the south, and theKalungwishi River from the east. At its north end the lake is drained by theLuvua River, which flows in a northwesterly direction to join theLualaba River and thence to theCongo. It is the second-largest lake in the Congo'sdrainage basin and is located 150 kilometres (93 mi) west of the southern end of the largest,Lake Tanganyika.[1]
The Luapula forms a swampydelta 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 1.7 metres (5 ft 7 in), with seasonal highs in May and lows in January.[3] This is partly because the Luapula drains out of theBangweulu 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.[1] A rise in Mweru is quickly offset by a faster flow down the Luvua.
Mweru's average length is 118 kilometres (73 mi) and its average width is 45 kilometres (28 mi), with its long axis oriented northeast–southwest. Its elevation is 917 metres (3,009 ft), quite a bit higher than Tanganyika (763 metres (2,503 ft)).[1] It is arift valley lake lying in the Lake Mweru-Luapulagraben, which is a branch of theEast African Rift.[4] The western shore of the lake in DR Congo exhibits the steepescarpment typical of a rift valley lake, rising to theKundelungu 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 and 27 metres (66 and 89 ft).[3]
A smaller very marshy lake calledMweru Wantipa (also known as the Mweru Marshes) lies about 50 kilometres (31 mi) to its east, and north of the Kalungwishi. It is mostlyendorheic and actually takes water from the Kalungwishi through adambo most of the time, but in times of high flood it may overflow into the Kalungwishi and Lake Mweru.[5]
The lake was known toArab andSwahili traders (ofivory,copper andslaves) who usedKilwa Island on the lake as a base at one time. They used trade routes fromZanzibar on theIndian Ocean toUjiji on Lake Tanganyika to Mweru and then to theLunda,Luba,Yeke orKazembe kingdoms, the last being on the southern shores of Mweru. Western trade routes went from those kingdoms to theAtlantic, so Mweru lay on a transcontinental trade route.[6]
Between 1796 and 1831Portuguese traders/explorers Pereira,Francisco de Lacerda and others visited Kazembe fromMozambique to get treaties to use the trade route between their territories of Mozambique andAngola. The Portuguese must have known of the lake, and the visitors only had to walk to higher ground about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Kazembe'sKanyembo capital to see the lake 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) 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.[7] Explorer and missionaryDavid Livingstone, who referred to it as 'Moero', is credited with its discovery during his travels of 1867-'8.[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 theslave trading in the area was as late as the 1890s, however. Meanwhile, between 1870 and 1891, skirmishes and wars between theYeke kingMsiri and neighbouring chiefs and traders unsettled the area. Few Europeans had visited Mweru since Livingstone, untilAlfred Sharpe in 1890–1 and theStairs Expedition in 1892 both passed by on their way to seek treaties with Msiri. The Stairs Expedition killed Msiri and took Katanga for the KingLeopold II of Belgium. Sharpe left one of his officers to set up the first colonial outpost in the Luapula-Mweru valley, theBritishboma atChiengi in 1891.
Lake Mweru and its main inlets, the lower Luapula River and its swamps, and the Kalungwishi. Also shown is Mweru's outlet, the Luvua River going on north to the Lualaba and Congo rivers. Water shows up as black in this false-colour NASA satellite image. The extent of the swamps is shown by the solid blue line, and the extent of floodplain is shown as a dotted line. The towns are, in Zambia: 1 Chiengi, 2 Kashikishi, 3 Nchelenge, 4 Mwansabombwe, 5 Mwense; in DR Congo: 6 Pweto, 7 Kilwa, 8 Kasenga. Other features: 9: Chisenga Island, 10 the largest swamp island (in DR Congo), 11 the main floodplain.
The western shore of Luapula-Mweru became part of theBelgian Congo and the eastern shore part ofNorthern Rhodesia, aBritishprotectorate.Lake Mweru to Tanganyika is an area which was exposed to European influence at a very early date, when the lakes were the chief entrance to Northern Rhodesia.[9] 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 missionaryDan Crawford of thePlymouth Brethren at Luanza on the Belgian side of the lake.
The British moved theirboma fromChiengi to the Kalungwishi, with one or two British officers (such asBlair Watson), and a force of African police. In conjunction with operations aroundAbercorn 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 fromBritish Central Africa (Nyasaland) to do that job (see the article onAlfred 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 square kilometres (13 sq mi) of Zambian territory next to Pweto being ceded to the DR Congo (then Zaire). See theLuapula Province border dispute for further details and references.
After 1900, the Belgian Congo province ofKatanga on the western shores of the lake developed faster than the Northern Rhodesian side, theLuapula 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. TheElizabethville mines started up more quickly than those of theCopperbelt, 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.
Many fishing villages dot Mweru's shores. A number are seasonal camps. The main towns on the Zambian side areNchelenge,Kashikishi andChiengi, and on the DR Congo side,Kilwa (the town opposite the island),Lukonzolwa andPweto.
BesidesKilwa Island, there are two other inhabited islands in the lake: Zambia's Isokwe Island of 3 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi), and a 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) 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 theSecond Congo War of 1999–2003, from which it is still recovering. Many refugees entered Zambia at Pweto and were accommodated in camps inMporokoso andKawambwa districts.
TheBelgians operated a regular service by apaddle steamer, theCharles Lemaire, betweenKasenga on the Luapula andPweto at the outlet of the Luvua River, a distance of nearly 300 kilometres (190 mi) 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 mainLuapula 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 theCopperbelt 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. SeeCongo Pedicle road for more details.
Drawing of a syntype ofThoracochromis moeruensis (Boulenger, 1899), a haplochromine cichlid from Lake Mweru
Mweru has always been noted for itslongfin tilapia, (Oreochromis macrochir), calledpale ('pa-lay') inChibemba, which traditionally were dried on racks or mats in the sun and packed in baskets for market. (Smoking andsalting fish are more recent processes in the area). Catfish (one species of which grows up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in length), a kind of carp,tigerfish,elephantfish and sardine-like fish are also caught.
Commercial fishing on Lake Mweru and the Luapula River was pioneered byGreek fishermen from theDodecanese islands who settled in Kasenga, DR Congo, on the western bank of the Luapula 150 kilometres (93 mi) upriver from the lake in the first half of the 19th Century. They used boats built in Greek style powered bycharcoal-fuelledsteam engines, later replaced withdiesel. They supplied the workforce of thecopper mines inLubumbashi (later the wholeCopperbelt) 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 4,000 short tons (3,600 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.[7][10]
In recent decades the catch has declined due to over-fishing and is estimated at 13,000 long tons (13,000 t) tonnes caught from 4,500 small craft, mainly plank boats. Congolese fishermen catch the most despite having a slightly smaller share of the waters.[11] The Tilapia are caught bygill nets, and do not reach the size they once did. Since the 1980s, 'chisense' fishing increased. This method is used to catch smallpelagic fish calledkapenta, originally from beaches but now using lights on boats at night to attract the fish which are then scooped up in fine nets.[12]
TheDikulushiCopper Mine is anopen-cast mine 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Kilwa in DR Congo by dirt road, and 23 kilometres (14 mi) west of the lake. The mine was sold byAnvil Mining toMawson West, an Australian company, in March 2010.[13]When the mine is operating, heavy trucks carryingconcentrate cross Mweru on a large motorisedpontoonferry from Kilwa to Nchelenge, a distance of 44 kilometres (27 mi), then drive 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) to a coppersmelter inTsumeb,Namibia.[14]
Lake Mweru is undeveloped fortourism despite being regarded as "truly beautiful".[15] Lack of access in the past, a lack ofwildlife 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 oflechwe, and theLusenga Plain National Park andMweru Wantipa National Park were noted forCape buffalo, a great variety ofantelope andlion. Most animal populations have been reduced by hunting, loss of habitat, and poaching. On the Zambian side perhaps onlyMweru Wantipa National Park has tourism potential. On the Congolese side theParc National de Kundelungu in the mountains 75 kilometres (47 mi) south-west of the lake may be in better condition.
^David Livingstone andHorace Waller (ed.):The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his Death. Two volumes, John Murray, London, 1874.
