Congo River

Congo
Image of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, taken by NASA; the Congo River is visible in the center of the photograph. Image of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, taken by NASA; the Congo River is visible in the center of the photograph.
Mouth	Atlantic Ocean
Basin countries	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo
Length	4,667 km (2,900 mi)
Avg. discharge	41,800 m³/s (1,476,376 ft³/s)
Basin area	3,680,000 km² (1,420,848 mi²)

The Congo River (for a time known as the Zaire River) is the largest river in western Central Africa. Its overall length of 2,900 mi.(4,667 km) makes it the second-longest in Africa (after the Nile). The river and its tributaries flow through the second largest rain forest area in the world, second only to the Amazon Rainforest in South America. The river also has the second-largest flow in the world, behind the Amazon, and the second-largest watershed of any river, again trailing the Amazon; its watershed is slightly larger than that of the Mississippi River.

The dense rain forest, heavy rainfall, and poor soil of the basin that is traversed by the Congo results in sparse population, except for small settlements of hunters, farmers, and fishermen along or near the river. Since it is close to the equator, the climate is hot and humid.

Because large sections of the river basin lie both above and below the equator, its flow is stable, as there is always at least one river experiencing a rainy season.[1]

The Congo gets its name from the ancient Kingdom of Kongo, which inhabited the lands at the mouth of the river at the time of European discovery. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, both countries lying along the river's banks, are named after it. Between 1971 and 1997 the government of then-Zaire called it the Zaire River.

The sources of the Congo are in the highlands and mountains of the Great Rift Valley, 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 west from Kisangani just below the falls, then gradually bends southwest, passing by Mbandaka, joining with the Ubangi River, and running into the Malebo Pool (Stanley Pool), a fifty-mile lake. Kinshasa (formerly Léopoldville) and Brazzaville are on opposite sides of the river at the Pool, then 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 the small town of Muanda.

History of exploration

The mouth of the Congo was visited in 1482 by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão, who claimed the area for his king. But trade and the sale of slaves that followed were confined to the coast. Those who tried to sail upriver encountered a narrow gorge that compressed the water into a powerful opposing current. In the river's final 220 miles from the edge of the central plateau to the coast, the Congo River drops more than a thousand feet and has thirty-two rapids. Difficult terrain made exploration on foot also treacherous. In 1816 a British expedition went up as far as Isangila. Henry Morton Stanley was the first European to navigate along the river's length (in the mid-1870s) and report that the Lualaba was not a source of the Nile, as had been suggested. He returned on behalf of King Leopold II of Belgium and claimed huge swaths of land in the Conger River basin for the king.

Economic importance

Today, nearly the entire Congo is readily navigable, and with railways now bypassing the three major falls, much of the trade of central Africa passes along it, including copper, palm oil (as kernels), sugar, coffee, and cotton. The river is also potentially valuable for hydroelectric power, and the Inga Dam below Malebo Pool was the first to exploit the river.

Trade along the river has historically been a carrier of culture as well as commerce.

In February 2005, South Africa's state-owned power company, Eskom, announced a proposal to increase the capacity of the Inga dramatically through improvements and the construction of a new hydroelectric dam. The project would bring the maximum output of the facility to 40 GW, twice that of China's Three Gorges Dam.

Tributaries

Course and Watershed of the Congo River with countries marked

Course and watershed of the Congo River with topography shading.

Sorted in order from the mouth heading upstream.

• Inkisi
  • Nzadi
• Nsele (south side of Pool Malebo)
• Bombo
• Kasai (between Fimi and Congo, known as Kwa)
  • Fimi
  • Kwango
  • Sankuru
• Likouala
• Sangha
• Ubangi
  • Giri
  • Uele
    • Mbomou

Geological history

In the Mesozoic before continental drift opened the South Atlantic Ocean, the Congo was the upper part of a river roughly 7,500 miles (12,000 km) long that flowed west across the parts of Gondwanaland that are now Africa and South America.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Helen Winternitz, East Along the Equator: A Journey up the Congo and into Zaire, 1987. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, NY.
• James L. Newman, The Peopling of Africa: A Geographical Interpretation, 1995. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. ISBN 0300060033
• Congo, 2004. Lucent Books, Farmington Hills, MI. ISBN 1590181115

External links

• Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law See Congo (or Zaïre) River. Peace Palace Library
• Information and a map of the Congo's watershed
• Map of the Congo River basin at Water Resources eAtlas

Credits

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