Congo River

For other uses, see Congo River (disambiguation).

The Congo River (Kongo: Nzâdi Kôngo, French: Fleuve Congo, Portuguese: Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world by discharge volume, following the Amazon and Ganges rivers. It is also the world's deepest recorded river, with measured depths of around 220 m (720 ft).^[8] The Congo-Lualaba-Chambeshi River system has an overall length of 4,700 km (2,900 mi), which makes it the world's ninth-longest river. The Chambeshi is a tributary of the Lualaba River, and Lualaba is the name of the Congo River upstream of Boyoma Falls, extending for 1,800 km (1,100 mi).

Congo River Fleuve Congo Zaire River Fleuve Zaïre
The Congo River near Kisangani, Congo
The drainage basin of the Congo River
Physical characteristics
Source	Lualaba River
• location	Boyoma Falls
• elevation	1,590 m (5,220 ft)
Mouth	Atlantic Ocean
• coordinates	06°04′30″S 12°27′00″E / 6.07500°S 12.45000°E / -6.07500; 12.45000
Length	4,700 km (2,900 mi)
Basin size	4,014,500 km^2 (1,550,000 sq mi)^[1]
Width
• minimum	200 m (660 ft) (Lower Congo); 1,440 m (4,720 ft) (Middle Congo)^[2]^[3]^[4]
• maximum	19,000 m (62,000 ft) (mouth)
Depth
• average	12 to 75 m (39 to 246 ft) (Lower Congo); 5 to 22 m (16 to 72 ft) (Middle Congo)^[2]^[3]^[4]
• maximum	220 m (720 ft) (Lower Congo); 50 m (160 ft) (Middle Congo)^[2]^[3]^[4]
Discharge
• location	Atlantic Ocean (near mouth)
• average	41,200 m^3/s (1,450,000 cu ft/s)^[1]
• minimum	23,000 m^3/s (810,000 cu ft/s)^[1]
• maximum	75,000 m^3/s (2,600,000 cu ft/s)^[1]
Discharge
• location	Kinshasa, Brazzaville (498 km upstream of mouth; Basin size: 3,659,900 km^2 (1,413,100 sq mi)
• average	(Period: 1902-2019)40,500 m^3/s (1,430,000 cu ft/s)^[6]^[5]
• minimum	22,000 m^3/s (780,000 cu ft/s) (1905)^[5]
• maximum	77,000 m^3/s (2,700,000 cu ft/s) (1961)^[5]
Discharge
• location	Kisangani (2,240 km upstream of mouth; Basin size: 974,330 km^2 (376,190 sq mi)
• average	(Period: 1951-2012)7,640 m^3/s (270,000 cu ft/s)^[6]^[5]
• minimum	3,240 m^3/s (114,000 cu ft/s)^[7]
• maximum	13,930 m^3/s (492,000 cu ft/s)^[7]
Discharge
• location	Kindu (2,705 km upstream of mouth; Basin size: 810,440 km^2 (312,910 sq mi)
• average	2,213 m^3/s (78,200 cu ft/s)^[7]
• minimum	640 m^3/s (23,000 cu ft/s)^[7]
• maximum	7,640 m^3/s (270,000 cu ft/s)^[7]
Discharge
• location	Bukama (3,695 km upstream of mouth; Basin size: 63,090 km^2 (24,360 sq mi)
• average	322 m^3/s (11,400 cu ft/s)^[7]
• minimum	52 m^3/s (1,800 cu ft/s)^[7]
• maximum	1,229 m^3/s (43,400 cu ft/s)^[7]
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Lubudi, Lomami, Lulonga, Ikelemba, Ruki, Kasai, Inkisi
• right	Lufira, Luvua, Lukuga, Luama, Elila, Ulindi, Lowa, Maiko, Lindi, Aruwimi, Itimbiri, Mongala, Ubangi, Sangha, Likouala, Alima, Léfini

Measured along with the Lualaba, the main tributary, the Congo River has a total length of 4,370 km (2,720 mi). It is the only major river to cross the Equator twice.^[9] The Congo Basin has a total area of about 4,000,000 km² (1,500,000 sq mi), or 13% of the entire African landmass.

Name

The name Congo/Kongo originates from the Kingdom of Kongo once located on the southern bank of the river. The kingdom in turn was named after the indigenous Bantu Kongo people, known in the 17th century as "Esikongo".^[10] South of the Kingdom of Kongo proper lay the similarly named Kakongo kingdom, mentioned in 1535. Abraham Ortelius labelled "Manicongo" as the city at the mouth of the river in his world map of 1564.^[a] The tribal names in Kongo possibly derive from a word for a public gathering or tribal assembly. The modern name of the Kongo people or Bakongo was introduced in the early 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

The name Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word, nzere ("river"), a truncation of nzadi o nzere ("river swallowing rivers").^[11] The river was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zahir or Zaire as the name used by the inhabitants remained common.^[12] The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are named after it, as was the previous Republic of the Congo which had gained independence in 1960 from the Belgian Congo. The Republic of Zaire during 1971–1997 was also named after the river's name in French and Portuguese.

Basin and course

 

Aerial view from the west of the Congo River with upstream half of Pool Malebo and Mbamu

Main article: Congo Basin

The Congo's drainage basin covers 4,014,500 km² (1,550,000 sq mi),^[1] an area nearly equal to that of the European Union. The Congo's discharge at its mouth ranges from 23,000 to 75,000 m³/s (810,000 to 2,650,000 cu ft/s), with an average of 41,000 m³/s (1,400,000 cu ft/s).^[1] The river transports annually 86 million tonnes of suspended sediment to the Atlantic Ocean and an additional 6% of bedload.^[13]

The river and its tributaries flow through the Congo rainforest, the second largest rainforest area in the world, after the Amazon rainforest in South America. The river also has the second-largest flow in the world, behind the Amazon; the second-largest drainage basin of any river, behind the Amazon; and is one of the deepest rivers in the world, at depths greater than 220 m (720 ft).^[8][14] Because its drainage basin includes areas both north and south of the Equator, its flow is stable, as there is always at least one part of the river experiencing a rainy season.^[15]

The sources of the Congo are in the highlands and mountains of the East African Rift, as well as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru, which feed the Lualaba River, which then becomes the Congo below Boyoma Falls. The Chambeshi River in Zambia is generally taken as the source of the Congo in line with the accepted practice worldwide of using the longest tributary, as with the Nile River.

The Congo flows generally toward the northwest from Kisangani just below the Boyoma Falls, then gradually bends southwestward, passing by Mbandaka, joining with the Ubangi River and running into the Pool Malebo (Stanley Pool). Kinshasa (formerly Léopoldville) and Brazzaville are on opposite sides of the river at the Pool, where the river narrows and falls through a number of cataracts in deep canyons (collectively known as the Livingstone Falls), running by Matadi and Boma, and into the sea at Muanda.

Lower Congo constitutes the 'lower' parts of the great river; that is the section of the river from the river mouth at the Atlantic coast to the twin capitals of Brazzaville and Kinshasa. In this section of the river, there are two significant tributaries, both on the left or south side. The Kwilu River originates in the hills near the Angolan border and enters the Congo some 100 km upstream from Matadi. The other is the Inkisi River, that flows in a northerly direction from the Uíge Province in Angola to the confluence with the Congo at Zongo some 80 km downstream from the twin capitals. Because of the vast number of rapids, in particular the Livingstone Falls, this section of the river is not operated continuously by riverboats.

Drainage basin

The Congo basin covers ten countries and accounts for about 13% of Africa. The highest point in the Congo basin is in the Ruwenzori Mountains, at an altitude of around 4,340 m (14,240 ft) above sea level.

Main article: Congo Basin

Distribution of the Congo basin area between countries:^[16]

Country	Area (km^2)	(%)
Angola	305,760	8.2
Burundi	18,728	0.51
Cameroon	85,300	2.3
Central African Republic	402,000	10.8
Democratic Republic of the Congo	2,307,800	62.15
Gabon	1,146	0.03
Republic of the Congo	248,400	6.7
Rwanda	382	0.01
Tanzania	166,800	4.5
Zambia	176,600	4.8
For the Congo basin	3,712,316	100.0

The most important hydrological stations along the Congo river are:^[16]

Station	River kilometer (rkm)	Altitude (m)	Basin size (km^2)	Multiannual average discharge
				Start year	(m^3/s)
Lower Congo
Banana	0	0	3,730,740	1915	41,400
Inga	188	78		1959	41,100
Kinshasa, Brazzaville	498	269	3,659,900	1902	40,500
Middle Congo
Mossaka	898	289	2,490,000
Mbandaka	1,157	303	1,683,800	1907	19,000
Yangambi	2,133	371	1,069,100	1907	8,358
Kisangani	2,240	380	974,330	1907	7,079
Upper Congo (Lualaba)
Boyoma Falls	2,310	400		1907	6,550
Ubundu	2,390	418		1907	6,378
Kindu	2,705	448	810,440	1912	2,213
Ankoro	3,455	556	171,000	1935	901
Bukama	3,695	567	63,090	1933	322

Discharge

The Congo River discharge at Kinshasa/Brazzaville stations since the start of measurements (1902 to 2021):^[6][5][17]

Water year	Discharge (m^3/s)			Water year	Discharge (m^3/s)			Water year	Discharge (m^3/s)
	Min	Mean	Max		Min	Mean	Max		Min	Mean	Max
1902/03	30,850	38,670	51,020	1942/43	31,190	42,150	55,200	1982/83	24,360	35,560	49,020
1903/04	28,700	40,680	53,850	1943/44	27,090	39,360	50,270	1983/84	24,000	33,310	51,700
1904/05	22,350	34,710	49,960	1944/45	30,960	38,890	56,250	1984/85	27,000	38,810	51,300
1905/06	27,280	38,820	48,310	1945/46	28,120	38,820	61,300	1985/86	24,200	36,740	55,400
1906/07	23,980	34,190	45,680	1946/47	34,900	43,470	50,350	1986/87	24,900	38,700	60,400
1907/08	28,350	38,950	65,760	1947/48	33,560	44,210	62,740	1987/88	25,700	39,110	57,300
1908/09	35,460	45,330	54,350	1948/49	29,080	39,610	53,960	1988/89	25,600	37,830	62,800
1909/10	29,960	41,920	60,160	1949/50	29,480	42,140	56,940	1989/90	24,300	35,970	55,800
1910/11	26,080	38,220	55,440	1950/51	28,150	39,614	62,780	1990/91	33,600	40,880	54,100
1911/12	30,930	40,240	53,260	1951/52	31,900	40,360	55,020	1991/92	24,000	34,640	49,100
1912/13	27,730	36,380	42,280	1952/53	25,850	37,100	49,370	1992/93	27,100	36,790	58,100
1913/14	26,280	35,860	56,810	1953/54	27,690	37,870	51,450	1993/94	30,100	38,730	53,000
1914/15	25,220	34,090	47,450	1954/55	32,220	44,130	60,790	1994/95	28,500	39,970	65,400
1915/16	27,760	38,500	59,680	1955/56	30,490	42,420	55,490	1995/96	29,500	40,860	58,900
1916/17	29,270	42,200	55,920	1956/57	32,840	42,300	54,520	1996/97	28,400	38,370	57,600
1917/18	27,440	34,850	43,840	1957/58	26,010	35,330	50,870	1997/98	32,100	45,000	71,000
1918/19	23,740	33,650	44,630	1958/59	25,440	36,500	57,720	1998/99	31,100	41,230	62,200
1919/20	27,230	37,880	59,540	1959/60	35,380	46,450	59,540	1999/00	28,700	40,120	69,300
1920/21	30,590	40,940	55,850	1960/61	35,060	47,410	80,830	2000/01	33,900	42,960	55,800
1921/22	25,830	37,980	58,140	1961/62	40,420	55,240	76,300	2001/02	29,600	43,070	66,800
1922/23	29,540	41,080	59,870	1962/63	39,630	51,230	67,950	2002/03	33,600	43,120	64,800
1923/24	30,610	42,620	63,370	1963/64	32,930	48,510	69,410	2003/04	25,800	38,150	56,700
1924/25	32,180	41,330	64,170	1964/65	28,370	43,100	62,350	2004/05	25,600	37,640	57,500
1925/26	31,770	43,920	61,660	1965/66	36,670	48,380	63,040	2005/06	26,800	38,090	53,100
1926/27	27,000	37,710	47,350	1966/67	31,420	41,770	65,540	2006/07	31,900	42,160	63,900
1927/28	31,430	41,120	51,730	1967/68	36,970	46,960	58,560	2007/08	30,700	41,590	62,000
1928/29	29,080	39,280	57,930	1968/69	43,170	51,830	66,420	2008/09	29,900	41,160	56,800
1929/30	27,860	40,130	48,210	1969/70	34,480	47,290	62,820	2009/10	32,100	42,010	54,600
1930/31	28,850	37,480	49,130	1970/71	28,180	40,040	54,330	2010/11	22,000	35,480	56,300
1931/32	29,860	40,700	56,380	1971/72	29,380	38,470	55,880	2011/12	24,800	37,070	54,900
1932/33	27,700	40,950	50,950	1972/73	25,760	37,290	50,400	2012/13	27,800	39,660	56,600
1933/34	31,090	40,700	63,670	1973/74	31,530	39,560	52,180	2013/14	30,300	42,080	57,800
1934/35	31,830	43,560	57,310	1974/75	29,960	41,340	63,650	2014/15	26,000	37,860	61,100
1935/36	32,640	41,650	56,770	1975/76	32,410	42,710	59,240	2015/16	29,800	41,360	58,700
1936/37	31,400	42,120	57,900	1976/77	33,390	45,760	57,770	2016/17	26,400	37,260	53,800
1937/38	30,100	40,060	56,790	1977/78	33,150	43,550	62,440	2017/18	28,600	40,130	60,100
1938/39	29,040	41,260	62,380	1978/79	33,570	45,180	52,280	2018/19	28,200	40,770	70,900
1939/40	30,210	42,110	52,780	1979/80	33,340	41,150	59,530	2019/20	35,200	50,250	67,200
1940/41	31,370	40,320	57,110	1980/81	29,680	40,710	52,160	2020/21	28,700	40,830	59,200
1941/42	31,190	42,150	55,200	1981/82	29,270	38,930	49,020

Tributaries

 

Course and drainage basin of the Congo River with countries marked

 

Course and drainage basin of the Congo River with topography shading

The main river and tributaries are (sorted in order from the mouth heading upstream):

Left tributary	Right tributary	Length (km)	Basin size (km²)	Average discharge (m^3/s)
Lower Congo (river mouth to Kinshasa)
M'pozo		170		79
Kwilu		284	6,500	89
Inkisi		392	13,500	291
	Djoué	175	6,225	158
Middle Congo (Kinshasa to the Boyoma Falls)
Nsele		193	4,500	77
Lufimi		250	11,500	199
Kasai		2,153	884,370	11,600
	Léfini		14,000	423
	Nkeni		8,000	249
	Alima	500	21,030	700
	Likouala	615	69,800	1,053
	Sangha	1,395	191,953	2,471
Irebu		35	7,380	106
	Ubangi	2,299	651,918	5,936
Ruki		1,200	173,790	4,500
Ikelemba		345	12,510	222
Lulonga		705	76,950	2,040
	Mongala	590	52,200	709
	Itimbiri	535	50,490	773
	Aruwimi	1,287	116,100	2,200
Lomami		1,798	109,080	2,062
	Lindi	600	60,300	1,200
Upper Congo (Lualaba; upstream from the Boyoma Falls)
	Maiko			319
	Lilo			192
Ruiki				126
Lilo				93
	Lowa	600	49,590	1,625
	Ulindi	690	30,240	902
Kasuku				176
	Ambe			68
	Elila	670	27,360	678
Lueki				59
Lubutu				57
	Kunda			41
	Luama	320	25,000	221
	Lukuga	350	271,580	271
Luvidjo		240		70
	Luvua	373	265,260	600
	Kalumen- gongo			67
Lovoi				186
	Lufira	590	51,480	502
Lubudi		370	27,500	192

^[18][19][20]

Lower Congo (river mouth to Kinshasa) Downstream of Kinshasa, from the river mouth at Banana, there are a few major tributaries.

• M'pozo (left)
• Kwilu (left)
• Inkisi (left)
• Djoué (right)

Middle Congo (Kinshasa to the Boyoma Falls)

• Kwa-Kassai (left)
  • Fimi
    • Lukenie
  • Kwango
    • Kwilu
  • Sankuru
• Alima (right)
• Likouala-Mossaka (right)
• Sangha (right)
  • Kadéï (570 km, 41,000 km², 466 m³/s)
• Ubangi (right)
  • Mbomou
  • Uele
• Tshuapa or Ruki (left)
• Lulonga (left)
  • Lopori
  • Maringa
• Mongala (right)
• Itimbiri (right)
• Aruwimi (right)
• Lomami (left)
• Lindi (right)

Upper Congo (Lualaba; upstream from the Boyoma Falls)

• Lowa (right)
• Ulindi (right)
• Elila (right)
• Luama (right)
• Lukuga (right)
• Luvua (right)
  • Luapula (740 km, 173,386 km², 741 m³/s)
    • Chambeshi (500 km, 44,427 km², 185 m³/s)

Economic importance

 

The town of Mbandaka is a busy port on the banks of the Congo River.

 

The Congo River at Maluku.

Although the Livingstone Falls prevent access from the sea, nearly the entire Congo above them is readily navigable in sections, especially between Kinshasa and Kisangani. Large river steamers worked the river until quite recently.^[when?] The Congo River still is a lifeline in a land with few roads or railways.^[21] Railways now bypass the three major falls, and much of the trade of Central Africa passes along the river, including copper, palm oil (as kernels), sugar, coffee, and cotton.^[22]

Hydroelectric power

The Congo River is the most powerful river in Africa. During the rainy season over 50,000 cubic metres (1,800,000 cu ft) of water per second flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Opportunities for the Congo River and its tributaries to generate hydropower are therefore enormous. Scientists have calculated that the entire Congo Basin accounts for 13 percent of global hydropower potential. This would provide sufficient power for all of Sub-Saharan Africa's electricity needs.^[23]

Currently, there are about 40 hydropower plants in the Congo Basin. The largest are the Inga dams, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) southwest of Kinshasa. The project was launched in the early 1970s, when the first dam was completed.^[24] The plan (as originally conceived) called for the construction of five dams that would have had a total generating capacity of 34,500 megawatts (MW). To date only the Inga I and Inga II dams have been built, generating 1,776 MW.^[23]

In February 2005, South Africa's state-owned power company, Eskom, announced a proposal to expand generation through improvements and the construction of a new hydroelectric dam. The project would bring the maximum output of the facility to 40,000 megawatts (MW).^[25] It is feared that these new hydroelectric dams could lead to the extinction of many of the fish species that are native to the river.^[26]

Natural history

 

The beginning of the Livingstone Falls (Lower Congo Rapids) near Kinshasa

The current course of the Congo River formed between 1.5 and 2 million years BP, during the Pleistocene.^[27][28] It is likely that during this period many upper tributaries of the Congo were captured from adjacent river basins, including the Uele and upper Ubangi from the Chari system^[29] and the Chambeshi River^[30] alongside a number of upper Kasai River tributaries from the Zambezi system.^[31]

The Congo's formation may have led to the allopatric speciation of the bonobo and the common chimpanzee from their most recent common ancestor.^[32] The bonobo is endemic to the humid forests in the region, as are other iconic species like the Allen's swamp monkey, dryas monkey, aquatic genet, okapi, and Congo peafowl.^[33][34]

In terms of aquatic life, the Congo River Basin has a very high species richness and among the highest known densities of endemics.^[35] As of 2009^[update], almost 800 fish species have been recorded from the Congo River Basin (not counting Lake Tanganyika, which is connected but ecologically very different),^[36] and large sections remain virtually unstudied.^[37] For example, the section in Salonga National Park, which is about the size of Belgium, had still not been sampled at all in 2006.^[38] New fish species are scientifically described with some regularity from the Congo River Basin, and many undescribed species are known.^[39]

The Congo has by far the highest diversity of any African river system; in comparison, the next richest are the Niger, Volta and Nile with about 240, 140 and 130 fish species, respectively.^[36][40] Because of the great ecological differences between the regions in the Congo basin —including habitats such as river rapids, deep rivers, swamps, and lakes— it is often divided into multiple ecoregions (instead of treating it as a single ecoregion). Among these ecoregions, the Livingstone Falls cataracts has more than 300 fish species,^[41] including approximately 80 endemics^[26] while the southwestern part (Kasai River basin) has more than 200 fish species, of which about a quarter are endemic.^[42]

The dominant fish families – at least in parts of the river – are Cyprinidae (carp/cyprinids, such as Labeo simpsoni), Mormyridae (elephant fishes), Alestidae (African tetras), Mochokidae (squeaker catfishes), and Cichlidae (cichlids).^[43] Among the natives in the river is the huge, highly carnivorous giant tigerfish. Three of the more unusual endemics are the whitish (non-pigmented) and blind Lamprologus lethops, which is believed to live as deep as 160 metres (520 ft) below the surface,^[26] Heterochromis multidens, which is more closely related to cichlids of the Americas than other African cichlids,^[44] and Caecobarbus geertsii, the only known cavefish in Central Africa.^[45] There are also numerous endemic frogs and snails.^[43][46] Several hydroelectric dams are planned on the river, and these may lead to the extinction of many of the endemics.^[26]

Several species of turtles and the slender-snouted, Nile and dwarf crocodile are native to the Congo River Basin. African manatees inhabit the lower parts of the river.^[47]

History

Pre-colonial history

Main article: Pre-colonial history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

See also: Category:Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

 

17th-century map of the Congo estuary

 

In this 1853 map of Africa, the remaining Unexplored Region essentially corresponds to the Congo basin

The entire Congo basin is populated by Bantu peoples, divided into several hundred ethnic groups. Bantu expansion is estimated to have reached the middle Congo by about 500 BC and the upper Congo by the first century AD. Remnants of the aboriginal population displaced by the Bantu migration, Pygmies/Abatwa of the Ubangian phylum, remain in the remote forest areas of the Congo Basin.

The Kingdom of Kongo was formed in the late 14th century from a merging of the kingdoms of Mpemba Kasi and Mbata Kingdom on the left banks of the lower Congo River. Its territorial control along the river remained limited to what corresponds to the modern Kongo Central province. European exploration of the Congo began in 1482 when Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão discovered the river estuary^[48] (likely in August 1482), which he marked by a Padrão, or stone pillar (still existing, but only in fragments) erected on Shark Point. Cão sailed up the river for a short distance, establishing contact with the Kingdom of Kongo. The full course of the river remained unknown throughout the early modern period.^[b]

The upper Congo basin runs west of the Albertine Rift.^[48] Its connection to the Congo was unknown until 1877. The extreme northeast of the Congo basin was reached by the Nilotic expansion at some point between the 15th and 18th centuries, by the ancestors of the Southern Luo speaking Alur people. Francisco de Lacerda followed the Zambezi and reached the uppermost part of the Congo basin (the Kazembe in the upper Luapula basin) in 1796.

The upper Congo River was first reached by the Arab slave trade by the 19th century. Nyangwe was founded as a slavers' outpost around 1860. David Livingstone was the first European to reach Nyangwe in March 1871.^[48] Livingstone proposed to prove that the Lualaba connected to the Nile, but on 15 July, he witnessed a massacre of about 400 Africans by Arab slavers in Nyangwe, which experience left him too horrified and shattered to continue his mission to find the sources of the Nile, so he turned back to Lake Tanganyika.^[49][50]

Early European colonization

Main article: Colonization of the Congo Basin

 

Henry M Stanley with the officers of the Advance Column, Cairo, 1890. From the left: Dr. Thomas Heazle Parke, Robert H. Nelson, Henry M. Stanley, William G. Stairs, and Arthur J. M. Jephson

 

Congo River Allegory by Thomas Vinçotte.^[51]

The Europeans had not reached the central regions of the Congo basin from either the east or west, until Henry Morton Stanley's expedition of 1876–77, supported by the Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo. At the time one of the last open questions of the European exploration of Africa was whether the Lualaba River fed the Nile (Livingstone's theory), the Congo,^[52] or even the Niger River. Financed in 1874, Stanley's first trans-Africa exploration started in Zanzibar and reached the Lualaba on October 17, 1876. Overland he reached Nyangwe, the center of a lawless area containing cannibal tribes at which Tippu Tip based his trade in slaves. Stanley managed to hire a force from Tippu Tip to guard him for the next 150 kilometres (90 mi) or so, for 90 days.

The party left Nyangwe overland through the dense Matimba forest. On November 19 they reached the Lualaba again. Since the going through the forest was so heavy, Tippu Tip turned around with his party on December 28, leaving Stanley on his own, with 143 people, including eight children and 16 women. They had 23 canoes. His first encounter with a local tribe was with the cannibal Wenya. In total Stanley reports 32 unfriendly meetings on the river, some violent, even though he attempted to negotiate a peaceful thoroughfare. But the tribes were wary as their only experience of outsiders was with slave traders.

On January 6, 1877, after 640 kilometres (400 mi), they reached Boyoma Falls (called Stanley Falls for some time after), consisting of seven cataracts spanning 100 kilometres (60 mi) which they had to bypass overland. It took them to February 7 to reach the end of the falls. Here Stanley learned that the river was called Ikuta Yacongo,^[53] proving to him that he had reached the Congo and that the Lualaba did not feed the Nile.

From this point, the tribes were no longer cannibals^{[clarification needed]} but possessed firearms, apparently as a result of Portuguese influence^{[citation needed]}. Some four weeks and 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi) later he reached Stanley Pool (now Pool Malebo), the site of the present day cities Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Further downstream were the Livingstone Falls, misnamed as Livingstone had never been on the Congo: a series of 32 falls and rapids with an elevation change of 270 metres (900 ft) over 350 kilometres (220 mi). On 15 March they started the descent of the falls, which took five months and cost numerous lives. From the Isangile Falls, five falls from the foot, they beached the canoes and Lady Alice and left the river, aiming for the Portuguese outpost of Boma via land.

On August 3 they reached the hamlet Nsada. From there Stanley sent four men with letters forward to Boma, asking for food for his starving people. On August 7 relief came, being sent by representatives from the Liverpool trading firm Hatton & Cookson. On August 9 they reached Boma, 1,001 days since leaving Zanzibar on November 12, 1874. The party then consisted of 108 people, including three children born during the trip. Most probably (Stanley's own publications give inconsistent figures), he lost 132 people through disease, hunger, drowning, killing and desertion.^[54][55]

Kinshasa was founded as a trading post by Stanley in 1881 and named Léopoldville in honor of Leopold II of Belgium. The Congo Basin was privately claimed by Leopold II as Congo Free State in 1885 where the many Atrocities in the Congo Free State were committed until the region was called the Belgian Congo.

See also

•  Africa portal

• Congo river waterway (free of climate change variations, Matadi-Kinshasa requires canalization to be navigable)
• Congo river hydropower (9-16% of World hydropower potential, 4% used)
• List of crossings of the Congo River
• 2021 Congo River disaster

Notes

1. Manikongo was properly the title of the kings of Kongo; their capital was at the site of modern M'banza-Kongo, capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province. Ortelius had no knowledge of the orography of Africa and drew fictitious courses for its rivers; his Congo upstream of its estuary turns sharply south, flowing through what would correspond to Angola and Botswana.
2. The Dieppe maps of the mid-16th century show the Congo only as a minor river while having the Nile run throughout the continent, rising in Southern Africa. The same interpretation is in essence still found in Jan Blaeu's Atlas Maior of 1660. Jacques Bellin's map of the Congo in Histoire Generale Des Voyages by Antoine François Prévost (1754) shows awareness of the river reaching further inland, to the provinces of Sundi and Pango, but has no detailed knowledge of its course.

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General sources

• Cana, Frank Richardson (1911). "Congo" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 914–917.
• Forbath, Peter (1979). The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-47573-7.
• Jeal, Tim (2007). Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22102-8.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Congo River (category)

• The Royal Geography Society's Hidden Journeys project:
  • – Tim Butcher recounts his trip through the Congo on the route of 19th-century explorer Sir Henry Morgan Stanley.
• Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law Peace Palace Library
• The Congo Project, American Museum of Natural History