Kalemie | |
---|---|
Provincial capital and city | |
Ville de Kalemie | |
Motto(s): Build our Nation, Spirit of Patriotism | |
Coordinates: 05°54′46″S29°11′26″E / 5.91278°S 29.19056°E | |
Country | DR Congo |
Province | Tanganyika |
Founded | 1891 |
Founded by | Alphonse Jacques |
Communes | Kalemie, Lac, Lukuga |
Government | |
• Mayor | David Mukeba [1] |
Population (2012) | |
• Total | 146,974 |
Time zone | UTC+2 (CAT) |
National language | Swahili |
Climate | Aw |
Kalemie, formerly Albertville or Albertstad, is a city on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Lukuga River, that drains Lake Tanganyika to the Lualaba River, runs through the city. Kalemie is the capital of Tanganyika Province.
From 1886 to 1891, the Society of Missionaries of Africa had founded catholic missions at the north and south ends of Lake Tanganyika. Léopold Louis Joubert, a French soldier and armed auxiliary, was dispatched by Archbishop Charles Lavigerie's Society of Missionaries of Africa to protect the missionaries. The missionaries abandoned three of the new stations due to attacks by Tippu Tip and Rumaliza. [2] By 1891 the Arab slave traders had control of the entire western shore of the lake, apart from the region defended by Joubert around Mpala and St Louis de Mrumbi. [3] The anti-slavery expedition under Captain Alphonse Jacques—financed by the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society—came to the relief of Joubert on 30 October 1891. [4] When the Jacques expedition arrived Joubert's garrison was down to about two hundred men, poorly armed with "a most miscellaneous assortment of chassepots, Remingtons and muzzle-loaders, without suitable cartridges." He also had hardly any medicine left. [5] [6] [7] Captain Jacques asked Joubert to remain on the defensive while his expedition moved north. [8]
On 30 December 1891 Captain Alphonse Jacques' anti-slavery expedition founded the military post of Albertville on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and tried to put an end to the Arab slave trade in the region. Albertville was located 15 km (9.3 mi) south of the Lukuga River. Sergeant Alexis Vrithoff was killed on 5 April 1892 when defending Albertville against an attack by Arab slavers under Rumaliza. His troops, based at Kataki, surrounded Albertville on that day and besieged the outpost for several months, from 16 August 1892 until 1 January 1893. Eventually, Rumaliza's forces had to retreat because of the arrival of the Long-Duvivier-Demol Anti-Slavery expedition, a relief column sent from Brussels at captain Alphonse Jacques's aide.
After the Arabs left the territory, the original Albertville was gradually abandoned, and the name became attached to the military post of M'Toa to the north of the Lukuga, the site of present-day Kalemie. [9]
In 1914 Albertville was the base for the Belgo-Congolese forces in the East African campaign. The railway reached Albertville in 1915, and in 1916 the port was constructed and the coalworks at Greinerville opened. At the end of 1940 a military base was established at Albertville, initially South African and later British, to manage troops in Kenya and Abyssinia. [9]
Albertville was attacked by mercenaries under Major Mike Hoare during operations against the Simba Rebellion in August 1964. [10]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s under the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko the Zairianization policy was implemented, this included numerous changes to the state and to private life, including the renaming of the Congo and its cities, as well as an eventual mandate that Zairians were to abandon their Christian names for more "authentic" ones. In addition, Western-style attire was banned and replaced with the Mao-style tunic labeled the "abacost" and its female equivalent. The policy began to wane in the late 1970s and had mostly been abandoned by 1990.
In 1971, as a result of the Zairianization, Albertville changed its name to Kalemie. The Town of Kalemie also hosts the major University of Kalemie, which maintains the largest library in the region.
Kalemie has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw).
Climate data for Kalemie | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 24.0 (75.2) | 24.3 (75.7) | 24.3 (75.7) | 24.2 (75.6) | 23.6 (74.5) | 21.8 (71.2) | 21.2 (70.2) | 22.7 (72.9) | 24.1 (75.4) | 25.1 (77.2) | 24.2 (75.6) | 23.7 (74.7) | 23.6 (74.5) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 122 (4.8) | 96 (3.8) | 139 (5.5) | 206 (8.1) | 82 (3.2) | 7 (0.3) | 1 (0.0) | 7 (0.3) | 31 (1.2) | 58 (2.3) | 163 (6.4) | 174 (6.9) | 1,086 (42.8) |
Source: Climate-Data.org [11] |
Kalemie serves as an important town in the Katanga province, Manufactures include cement, food products, and textiles.
The town consequently serves as a distribution centre for such minerals as copper, cobalt, zinc,Gold, tin, and coal.
The town is served by Kalemie Airport, with flights to other airports in the country.
Kalemie lies at the centre of railway lines to Nyunzu, Kindu, Kasai, Kabalo, Kamina and Lubumbashi. The construction of a railway Kalemie to Bukavu through the town of Baraka to open up the Kivu region was proposed.
Kalemie lies at the centre of water lines to Kigoma, Tanzania, Mpulungu, Zambia, Uvira, DRC and Bujumbura, Burundi.
Although French is the official language, the main language in Kalemie is a dialect of Kiswahili found in Tanzania. This dialect, known as Kingwana, is spoken along the east side of Congo (including the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Maniema, Katanga and Oriental, Western Kasai and Eastern Kasai) and almost all the way across to the Katangan border with Angola. [12]
Lubumbashi is home to football clubs Tanganyika, FC Etoile Jaune (Yellow Stars) and many more.
The port at Kalemie was built to connect the Great Lakes rail line (from the Kabalo junction on the Lualaba River) to the Tanzanian lake port and railhead at Kigoma, from where the Tanzanian Central Railway Line runs to the seaport of Dar es Salaam. The port was built with a 130 m (430 ft) wharf and 3 mobile cranes, giving it a capacity of 500 t (550 short tons) per day with two shifts. Currently, the cranes are not functional, and vessels cannot reach the wharf due to silting up of the lake next to it. The buildings of the port also require rehabilitation. [13] Moreover, the railway line for 100 km (62 mi) west of Kalemie is 'very degraded' and not fully operational.
Kalemie Port is also used by boat services to the northern Lake Tanganyika ports of Kalundu-Uvira and Bujumbura in Burundi, and southwards to Moba and Mpulungu in Zambia.
Kalemie Port is operated by the railway company SNCC which also operates the railways in DR Congo (except for the Matadi-Kinshasa line) as well as boat services on the eastern waterways in the country.
Kalemie maintains partnership links with the following places:
The Lake Tanganyika earthquake struck on December 5, 2005. The epicentre was approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) below the surface of Lake Tanganyika, some 55 km (34 mi) south-east of Kalemie. At least dozens of houses were destroyed. [15]
Ground transport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has always been difficult. The terrain and climate of the Congo Basin present serious barriers to road and rail construction, and the distances are enormous across this vast country. Furthermore, chronic economic mismanagement and internal conflict has led to serious under-investment over many years.
The Lukuga River is a tributary of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that drains Lake Tanganyika. It is unusual in that its flow varies not just seasonally but also due to longer term climate fluctuations.
Uvira is a city strategically located in the South Kivu Province of the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Covering approximately 16 square kilometers and with an estimated population of 726,000 as of 2024, it borders Bafuliru Chiefdom and Ruzizi Plain Chiefdom to the north, Bavira Chiefdom to the south, and Lake Tanganyika and the Ruzizi River to the east. These rivers form natural boundaries between the DRC and Burundi. Located in the Ruzizi Plain at a low altitude, the city lies between Burundi's Congo-Nile ridge and the Mitumba mountains.
The Société Nationale des chemins de fer du Congo is the national railway company for the inland railways of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Articles related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo include:
Rail transport is provided in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC), the Société commerciale des transports et des ports (SCTP) (previously Office National des Transports until 2011), and the Office des Chemins de fer des Ueles (CFU).
Lieutenant-general Baron Jules Marie Alphonse Jacques de Dixmude, often known as General Jacques, was a Belgian military figure of World War I and colonial advocate.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Tanganyika was a Catholic apostolic vicariate of the White Fathers missionary order at first centered on the mission of Karema in what is now Tanzania, that included parts of what are now Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Malawi. As the number of missions, schools and converts grew, different regions became distinct vicariates covering portions of the original territory.
The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Zaïrois (SNCZ) was the state railway company in Zaire formed in 1974 by combining several privately owned railways. It suffered from lack of maintenance of the tracks and rolling stock, weak management, and external factors such as the Angolan Civil War and the collapse of the economy of Zaire under President Mobutu Sese Seko. Despite two projects funded by the World Bank, it had virtually ceased to function by the 1990s. It was replaced in 1995 by the short-lived private company SIZARAIL, which in turn was replaced by the present Société nationale des chemins de fer du Congo.
The Congo–Arab war or Arab war was a colonial war fought between the Congo Free State and Arab-Swahili warlords associated with the Arab slave trade in the eastern regions of the Congo Basin between 1892 and 1894.
Alexandre Delcommune was a Belgian officer of the armed Force Publique of the Congo Free State who undertook extensive explorations of the country during the early colonial period of the Congo Free State. He explored many of the navigable waterways of the Congo Basin, and led a major expedition to Katanga between 1890 and 1893.
The Holoholo also known as Kalanga are a Bantu ethnic group that inhabit the shores of central lake Tanganyika. The majority of them live near Kalemie city on Lake Tanganyika in Tanganyika Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the opposite shore of the lake in Uvinza District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania.
Mpala is the location of an early Catholic mission in the Belgian Congo. A military station was established at Mpala on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in May 1883. It was transferred to the White Fathers missionaries in 1885. At one time it was hoped that it would form the nucleus of a Christian kingdom in the heart of Africa. However, after a military expedition had to be sent to protect the mission from destruction by local warlords in 1892, civil control returned to the Belgian colonial authorities. The first seminary in the Congo was established at Mpala, and later the mission played an important role in providing practical education to the people of the region.
Léopold Louis Joubert was a French soldier and lay missionary. He fought for the Papal States between 1860 and 1870 during the Italian unification, which he opposed. He later assisted the White Fathers missionaries in East Africa and played an important role in the suppression of the slave trade between 1885 and 1892. He married a local woman and settled by the shore of Lake Tanganyika, where he lived until his death at the age of eighty five.
Muhammad bin Khalfan bin Khamis al-Barwani, commonly known as Rumaliza, was an Arab trader of slaves and ivory, active in Central and East Africa in the last part of the nineteenth century. He was a member of the Arabian Barwani tribe. With the help of Tippu Tip he became Sultan of Ujiji. At one time he dominated the trade of Tanganyika, before being defeated by Belgian forces under Baron Francis Dhanis in January 1894.
Kibanga, formerly called Lavigerieville, is a settlement in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Baraka, also known as Bala'a, is the main city and metropolitan center of the Fizi Territory located in the South Kivu Province in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Baraka is bordered by the Lweba River to the north, the Mutambala River to the south, Lake Tanganyika to the east, and the Lu'e River, Efuma Mountain, and Makundu Mountain to the west.
The Belgian Anti-Slavery Society was a 19th-century organization, with the goal of putting an end to the Arab slave trade in the African continent. The Belgian Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1888, mainly by catholic intellectuals, led by count Hippolyte d'Ursel. The founders were inspired by the preaching of Charles Lavigerie, a French Cardinal, held at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in August 1888. By January 1889 the society counted 700 members and had a working capital of 300.000 francs at its disposal. The abolitionist ideology of the Anti-Slavery Society was, however, closely linked with imperialism. From 1890 to 1899 the Société antiesclavagiste de Belgique organized and funded four military expeditions, sent to fight the Arab/Zanzibari slavers of the eastern Congo Free State regions.
The Compagnie du chemin de fer du Congo supérieur aux Grands Lacs africains was a Belgian railway company established in 1902 in the Congo Free State, later the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provided service in the eastern part of the colony south of Stanleyville (Kisangani) to serve the settlers and mining operations in Katanga. It operated a combination of river steamer service along the Lualaba River and railway links where the river was not navigable, including a link to Lake Tanganyika. In 1960 it became the Société congolaise des chemins de fer des Grands Lacs.
Odon Jadot was a Belgian railway engineer and administrator. He was responsible for building more than 1,650 kilometres (1,030 mi) of railroad in the Belgian Congo. The lines helped carry copper mined in the Katanga Province to the sea via the ports of Matadi in the Congo, Dilolo in Angola and Beira in Mozambique. They also supported troop movements during World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1045).