Everything about African Great Lakes totally explained
The
Great Lakes of
Africa are a series of
lakes in and around the geographic
Great Rift Valley formed by the action of the tectonic
East African Rift. They include
Lake Victoria, the second largest
fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area, and
Lake Tanganyika, the world's second largest in volume as well as the second deepest. The term
Greater Lakes is also used, less commonly, for some of them.
The Great Lakes are divided among three different
catchments (river basins), and a number, such as
Lake Turkana have
internal drainage systems. The following, in order of size from largest to smallest, are included on most lists of the African Great Lakes:
Some call only Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, and
Lake Edward the Great Lakes, as they're the only three that empty into the
White Nile.
Lake Kyoga is part of Great Lakes system, but isn't itself considered a Great Lake, on size grounds. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Kivu both empty into the
Congo River system, while Lake Malawi is drained by the
Shire River into the
Zambezi. Lake Turkana has no outlet.
Two other lakes close to Lake Tanganyika don't appear on the lists despite being larger than Edward and Kivu:
Lake Rukwa and
Lake Mweru.
Because the term is a loose one, it's often preferable to use other categorizations such as
African Rift Valley Lakes or
East African Lakes.
Great Lakes region
The term Great Lake region is likewise somewhat loose. It is used in a narrow sense for the area lying between northern Lake Tanganyika, western Lake Victoria, and lakes Kivu, Edward and Albert. This comprises
Burundi,
Rwanda, north-eastern
DR Congo,
Uganda and north-western
Kenya and
Tanzania. It is used in a wider sense to extend to all of
Kenya and
Tanzania, but not usually as far south as
Zambia,
Malawi and
Mozambique nor as far north as
Ethiopia, though these four countries border one of the Great Lakes.
An estimated 107 million people live in the Great Lakes region.. The area described in the narrow sense above is one of the most densely populated areas of Africa. Because of past volcanic activity this area also contains some of Africa's best farmland. Its altitude gives it a
sub-tropical climate despite being right on the
equator, becoming
temperate in the mountains. This makes tropical diseases of humans and
livestock, such as
trypanosomiasis, less prevalent, so that, for instance,
cattle and other susceptible animals thrive.
Because of the density of population and the agricultural surplus in the region the area became highly organized into a number of small states. The most powerful of these monarchies were
Rwanda,
Burundi,
Buganda, and
Bunyoro. Unusual for sub-Saharan Africa, the traditional borders were largely maintained by the colonial powers.
Being the long sought after source of the
Nile, the region had long been of interest to Europeans. The first Europeans to arrive in the region in any numbers were
missionaries who had limited success in converting the locals, but did open the region to later colonization. The increased contact with the rest of the world led to a series of devastating
epidemics affecting both humans and livestock. These decreased the region's population dramatically, by up to 60% in some areas. The region didn't return to its precolonial population until the 1950s.
While seen as a region with great potential after independence, the region has in recent decades been marred by civil war and conflict, from which only
Tanzania has largely escaped. The worst affected areas have been left in great poverty.
Further Information
Get more info on 'African Great Lakes'.
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