Kalabo | |
|---|---|
City | |
  Kalabo | |
| Coordinates: 14°59′28″S22°40′44″E / 14.99111°S 22.67889°E | |
| Country | Zambia |
| Province | Western Province |
| District | Kalabo District |
| Elevation | 1,019 m (3,343 ft) |
| Population (2020) [1] | |
| • Total | 7,731 |
| Estimate | |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (CAT) |
| Climate | Cwa |
Kalabo is an urban centre and the seat of Kalabo District, in the Western Province of Zambia. [2]
The town is located on the plains west of the Zambezi River and the Barotse Floodplain, and approximately 58 kilometres (36 mi), by road east of the town of Sikongo, Zambia, close to the border with Angola. [3] This is approximately 660 kilometres (410 mi), by road, west of Lusaka, Zambia's capital and largest city. [4]
The geographical coordinates of Kalabo are:14°59'28.0"S, 22°40'44.0"E (Latitude:-14.991111; Longitude:22.678889). [5] Kalabo sits at an average elevation of 1,019 metres (3,343 ft) above mean sea level. [6]
Kalabo has a fairly dry tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw), [7] characterized by warm to hot temperatures and distinct wet and dry seasons. June and July are the coolest months, while October is the hottest month with average high temperatures exceeding 35 °C (95 °F). The wet season, from November to March, experiences significant rainfall, while the dry season, from May to October, is marked by a lack of precipitation. [8]
| Climate data for Kalabo (1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 39.5 (103.1) | 37.6 (99.7) | 37.0 (98.6) | 38.4 (101.1) | 35.0 (95.0) | 33.6 (92.5) | 33.4 (92.1) | 37.5 (99.5) | 39.4 (102.9) | 40.3 (104.5) | 39.8 (103.6) | 38.0 (100.4) | 40.3 (104.5) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 30.4 (86.7) | 30.6 (87.1) | 30.5 (86.9) | 30.4 (86.7) | 29.3 (84.7) | 27.4 (81.3) | 27.3 (81.1) | 31.0 (87.8) | 33.8 (92.8) | 35.4 (95.7) | 33.1 (91.6) | 31.5 (88.7) | 29.2 (84.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.9 (76.8) | 24.9 (76.8) | 24.0 (75.2) | 21.3 (70.3) | 18.7 (65.7) | 18.4 (65.1) | 21.6 (70.9) | 24.6 (76.3) | 26.7 (80.1) | 25.8 (78.4) | 25.2 (77.4) | 23.4 (74.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 18.8 (65.8) | 19.2 (66.6) | 19.2 (66.6) | 17.6 (63.7) | 13.3 (55.9) | 10.0 (50.0) | 9.5 (49.1) | 12.1 (53.8) | 15.4 (59.7) | 18.0 (64.4) | 18.4 (65.1) | 18.9 (66.0) | 14.7 (58.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 15.6 (60.1) | 15.6 (60.1) | 13.1 (55.6) | 7.7 (45.9) | 4.8 (40.6) | 2.0 (35.6) | 2.8 (37.0) | 4.6 (40.3) | 7.6 (45.7) | 11.0 (51.8) | 8.5 (47.3) | 14.5 (58.1) | 2.0 (35.6) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 197.8 (7.79) | 149.9 (5.90) | 141.7 (5.58) | 40.3 (1.59) | 0.6 (0.02) | 0.1 (0.00) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.8 (0.03) | 15.5 (0.61) | 70.6 (2.78) | 140.0 (5.51) | 757.2 (29.81) |
| Source: NOAA [8] | |||||||||||||
It is situated on the bank of the Luanginga River across which a small pontoon ferry connects to a dirt track going north-west to the Angolan border. Kalabo is the base for the Liuwa Plain National Park which can be reached by off-road vehicles about 20 kilometres (12 mi), north of the pontoon. Zambia's Western Province was formerly known as Barotseland, and Liuwa Plain was the Barotse king's hunting grounds which Lewanika made into a game reserve in the 19th century. [9]
In 2010, the national population census and household survey enumerated the population of Kalabo Town at 2,178 people. [10] In 2020, the town's population was estimated at 7,731 inhabitants. [1]
Access to Kalabo by road was difficult but now after the completion of the road between Kalabo and Mongu, it is now easier. The section crossing the floodplain is called the Barotse Floodplain Causeway and is counted as an extension of the Lusaka-Mongu Road. The Mongu-Kalabo Road measures 70 kilometres (43 mi) in length. [11] The city of Mongu is the provincial capital of Zambia's Western Province. [12]
Before the construction of the road, Kalabo was usually cut off by road in the rainy season. The dirt tracks across the floodplain from Mongu become flooded, and frequently in poor condition at other times. The tracks go to two ferries across the main channel of the Zambezi, a northern one near Libonda accessed from Mongu via Limulunga, and a southern one at Sandaula accessed via Lealui. In recent years dirt roads on raised earth embankments have been constructed from Mongu to Lealui and from Kalabo to Sandaula. This is part of an ambitious long-term regional plan to provide the first ever major link between the road networks of Zambia and Angola via a paved causeway across the floodplain and a bridge over the Zambezi, replacing the ferry. A paved highway would then be built from Kalabo north-west to the Angolan border and beyond. Although originally intended for completion in 2006, construction has proved more difficult than anticipated and large sections were washed away in floods in 2003/2004, resulting in funding shortfalls. [13]
Kalabo is also served by Kalabo Airport, approximately 4 kilometres (2 mi), west of the town. [14]
This article is about the Transport in Zambia.
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers 1,390,000 km2 (540,000 sq mi), slightly less than half of the Nile's. The 2,574 km (1,599 mi) river rises in Zambia and flows through eastern Angola, along the north-eastern border of Namibia and the northern border of Botswana, then along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses the country to empty into the Indian Ocean.
Western Province is one of the 10 provinces in Zambia and encompasses most of the area formerly known as Barotseland. The capital is Mongu, and together with the neighbouring town of Limulunga, Mongu is treated as the capital of Barotseland.
Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi and Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language| Khelobedu. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola. Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa including half of the north-Western and western provinces of Zambia inhabiting the region of Barotseland.
Barotseland is a region between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe including half of north-western province, southern province, and parts of Lusaka, Central, and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia and the whole of Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province. It is the homeland of the Lozi people or Barotse, or Malozi, who are a unified group of over 46 individual formerly diverse tribes related through kinship, whose original branch are the Luyi (Maluyi), and also assimilated Southern Sotho tribe of South Africa known as the Makololo.
Lealui or Lialui is the dry season residence on the Barotse Floodplain of the Litunga, king of the Lozi people of western Zambia. It is located about 14 km west of the town of Mongu and about 10 km east of the river's main channel. At the end of the rainy season, generally in March as the Upper Zambezi flood waters encroach on the compound, the Litunga moves to Limulunga on higher ground. The move is celebrated in the Kuomboka festival, one of Zambia's most important and popular.
Mongu is the capital of Western Province in Zambia and was the capital of the formerly-named province and historic state of Barotseland. Its population is 179,585, and it is also the headquarters of Mongu District. Mongu is the home of the Litunga, King of the Lozi people.
Mwinilunga is a town in the North-Western Province of Zambia. It is the headquarters of Mwinilunga District, one of the province's eleven districts.
Limulunga is one of the two compounds of the Litunga, king of the Lozi people of western Zambia. It lies on high ground at the edge of the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi river, about 15 km north of the town of Mongu and 21 km east of the main channel of the river. The Litunga's other compound at Lealui is used during the dry season, with Limulunga being used during the rainy season. The annual move between the two compounds is celebrated in the Kuomboka festival.
Lewanika was the Lozi Litunga (King) of Barotseland from 1878 to 1916 . A detailed, although biased, description of King 'Lubossi' can be found in the Portuguese explorer Alexandre de Serpa Pinto's 1878–1879 travel narrative Como eu atravessei a África.
Liuwa Plain National Park is a 3,369-square-kilometre (1,301 sq mi) national park in Zambia's Western Province. "Liuwa" means "plain" in the local Liuwa language, a dialect of Lozi language, and the plains originally served as a hunting ground for Lubosi Lewanika, the Litunga of the Lozi people. The area was designated as a protected area by Lubosi Lewanika in the early 1880s, and as a national park in 1972, when Zambia's government took over management. The nonprofit conservation organization African Parks has managed Liuwa in partnership with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and the Barotse Royal Establishment since 2003.
The Litunga of Barotseland is the King of the Barotse people. The Litunga resides near the Zambezi River and the town of Mongu, at Lealui on the floodplain in the dry season, and on higher ground at Limulunga on the edge of the floodplain in the wet season. The Litunga moves between these locations in what is known as the Kuomboka ceremony.
The Luena River of Zambia's Western Province rises just west of the Kafue National Park and flows west through Kaoma to become a tributary of the Zambezi. In the dry season, just below its confluence with its seasonal tributary the Luampa River, it ends in swamps or marshes on the Luena Flats east of Lukulu. In the wet season the Luena Flats flood and overflow into the Ndandu channel or floodplain which leads south-west to the Barotse Floodplain of Zambezi north of Limulunga and Mongu. It is the widest 'tributary' floodplain of the Barotse Floodplain, reaching 20 kilometres (12 mi) wide at its mouth.
The Barotse Floodplain, also known as the Bulozi Plain, Lyondo or the Zambezi Floodplain, is one of Africa's great wetlands, on the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia. It is a designated Ramsar site, regarded as being of high conservation value.
The Lusaka–Mongu Road of Zambia runs 580 km from the capital, Lusaka, to Mongu, capital of the Western Province. It connects that province to the rest of the country, as well as being one of two routes to the south-west extremity of North-Western Province. It also serves as the main highway of the western half of Central Province. The entire route from Lusaka to Mongu is designated as the M9 road.
The T1 or Lusaka–Livingstone Road is the main highway of the Southern Province of Zambia. It begins 55 kilometres south of the city of Lusaka and heads south-west to the principal tourist destination, Victoria Falls in Livingstone, via Mazabuka, Monze, Choma and Kalomo, measuring approximately 430 kilometres (267 mi). The entire route is part of Trans-African Highway network number 4 or Cairo-Cape Town Highway between Cairo and Cape Town.
Shangombo District with headquarters at Shangombo is located in Zambia. As of the 2010 Zambian Census, the district had a population of 84,070 people. This population is a combined figure with the newly created district of Sioma which was created by halving the primary district. The western part of the half retains the name Shangombo while the eastern part is called Sioma District.
Sioma is a town on the west bank of the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia. Since 2012 it has been the capital of the Sioma District.
Kalabo Airport is an airport serving the town of Kalabo, in Kalabo District and surrounding communities in the Western Province of Zambia.
The M10 road is a road in Zambia. It goes from Livingstone, through Sesheke and Senanga, to Mongu. The road is approximately 508 kilometres and follows the Zambezi River for its entire length.