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25-531: The Lukuga runs along the northern edge of the Katanga Plateau . The river leaves Lake Tanganyika at Kalemie and flows through a gap in the highlands westward through Tanganyika Province to join the Lualaba between Kabalo and Kongolo . Typically the river accounts for 18% of water loss from the lake, with the rest being due to evaporation. The Lukuga is heavily mineralized. The proportions of ionic contents where

50-450: A day failed. However, on the return journey, Thomson was gored by a buffalo and subsequently suffered from malaria and dysentery . He is credited with confirming Krapf's 1849 report of snow on Mt Kenya . He was prevented from making an attempt on the mountain by hostile Maasai. Nevertheless, he is commemorated on that mountain by Point Thomson (4,955 m) and Thomson's Flake. He recovered in time to give an account of his experiences at

75-617: A meeting in November 1884 of the Royal Geographical Society , which awarded him their Founder's Medal the following year. His book Through Masai Land followed in January 1885 and was a best seller. One of the first to read it was the young Henry Rider Haggard . His imagination fired by Thomson's expedition, Haggard promptly wrote a book of his own, King Solomon's Mines . Haggard also wrote other well received novels e.g. She , one of

100-583: A route from Dar es Salaam to Lake Nyasa and Lake Tanganyika . Johnston died during the trip and Thomson was left to take the leadership role for the expedition. Thomson successfully led the expedition over 5,000 kilometres (3,000 mi) in 14 months, collecting many specimens and recording many observations. Part of his crew included James Chuma , who also worked closely and assisted the Scottish explorer David Livingstone . In 1883, he embarked on another Royal Geographical Society expedition, this time to explore

125-542: A route from the eastern coast of Africa to the northern shores of Lake Victoria . British Empire traders wanted a route that would avoid potentially hostile Maasai and German traders who were competing in the area. The expedition set out a few months behind the rival German expedition of Gustav A. Fischer . Thomson's leadership was again a success, demonstrating the feasibility of the route and making many important biological, geological, and ethnographic observations, though Thomson's attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in

150-595: A sequel which he wrote with Miss E. Harrison Smith as Ulu: an African Romance volume II . In 1885, Thomson was employed by the National African Company to forestall and hinder German influence in the vicinity of the Niger River , but he returned the following year to the UK to lecture, disillusioned that no further opportunities existed for large-scale exploration in the continent. He became discontented with his life in

175-534: A series succeeding King Solomon's Mines . The novel expands on further adventures of the main characters in King Solomon's Mines . When Thompson read She , he felt it did not represent the lands it was based on, and wrote a novel based on his experiences in the East African region, for example described in his book Through Masai Land . He called this novel Ulu: an African Romance . It was successful enough to demand

200-640: Is a farming and ranching region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Located in the southeastern Katanga Province , it is bordered by the Kundelungu and Mitumba mountain ranges from the north, Muchinga mountain range from the east, and connected to the Lunda Plateau in the south and west. it is 1220 m (4,000 ft) above sea level and is rich in copper and uranium deposits. The altitude makes it cooler than

225-563: Is highly sensitive to longer-term climate variations, such as the Neolithic Subpluvial around 4000 BC. Since 1965 the outflow has tended to increase, although the total outflow of the Congo has been declining. The Lukuga has formed relatively recently, providing a route through which aquatic species of the Congo Basin could colonize Lake Tanganyika. The river is home to hippopotamus and crocodiles. There are low-grade coal deposits along

250-546: The British government to claim the territory known as Zambezia (later Rhodesia, modern day Zimbabwe and Zambia ) as far north as the African Great Lakes . Though he made a sequence of important treaties on the trip, a smallpox epidemic in the intervening country stopped him from achieving the ultimate goal, which was to meet Alfred Sharpe at the court of Msiri , King of Katanga , and to assist Sharpe in incorporating

275-518: The Ruzizi River . Before that, Lake Tanganyika, or separate sub-basins in what is now the lake, may have had no outlet other than evaporation. The Lukuga is of considerable interest to hydrologists, since the volume of water it carries from the lake varies considerably from time to time. The river flow is greatest in May and least in November, corresponding to seasonal fluctuations in the lake level. The river

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300-575: The "fire king" to rule the peripheral areas of their empire such as the Luvua-Lukuga corridor, with the local ruler being a near-equal of the Luba emperor, sending only occasional tributes. The bamdudye and bakasandji secret societies were introduced into the area, providing genesis myths that helped legitimize the fire kings' position. These myths had been adopted and adapted by the Holoholo people of Kalemie by

325-617: The Lukuga River leaves the lake, with magnesium and potassium more prevalent than calcium and sodium, are caused by the Albertine Rift 's hydrothermal inputs, as seen also at the outlets of Lake Kivu and Lake Edward . It seems likely that the present hydrological system was established quite recently when the still-active Virunga volcanoes erupted and blocked the northward flow of water from Lake Kivu into Lake Edward , causing it instead to discharge southward into Lake Tanganyika through

350-615: The UK and struggled to identify new opportunities for exploration. A modest expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco was marred by trouble with porters and local political difficulties. He spent a month in 1889 travelling in central Europe with budding author J. M. Barrie . In 1890, Cecil Rhodes employed Thomson to explore north of the Zambezi , conclude treaties and gain mining concessions from tribal chiefs on behalf of his British South Africa Company , which had been chartered by

375-478: The bar. In 1879 Joseph Thomson came to Kasenge from Pambete, travelling through very rough country. He found that the Lukuga creek was a large and fast-flowing river. He followed the course of the river for a few days, but hostile inhabitants of the region blocked his further explorations. When Hermann von Wissmann reached the river in 1882 he found that the river had become a fast and wide effluent. He also noted that

400-417: The hills through which the "Logumba" passed, and suggested that the river might be an outlet of Lake Tanganyika, and that there could be other outlets further north. Verney Lovett Cameron reached the river at the point where it left the lake in May 1874 on his journey across Africa from east to west. He confirmed that it was the only outlet of Lake Tanganyika, but was unable to get a guide to accompany him down

425-488: The lake level was 4.8 m (16 ft) below the highest watermark. As of 2008, the Lukuga was highly polluted at the point where it entered the Lualaba. In December 2010 the well-known South African kayaker and explorer Hendrik Coetzee was dragged out of his kayak on the Lukuga and killed by a crocodile. 5°40′00″S 26°55′00″E  /  5.66667°S 26.91667°E  / -5.66667; 26.91667 Katanga Plateau The Katanga or Shaba plateau

450-510: The late nineteenth century. The Hemba state of Kyombo Mkubwa became the main client state of the Luba Empire. However, by the time Europeans started to penetrate the region, Msiri 's son Simbi, advancing from the south and forming alliances with the Hemba rulers against incursions from Tippu Tip , had detached Kyombo Mkubwa from the Luba heartland. Around 1871 David Livingstone noticed the break in

475-543: The mineral-rich country into Zambezia by treaty. Thomson's role was to have brought supplies of cloth, gunpowder and other gifts with which to impress Msiri. Without these, Sharpe was rebuffed, and a year later, the Stairs Expedition led by Captain William Stairs , believing itself to be in a race with another attempt by Thomson to reach Katanga, killed Msiri and took Katanga for King Leopold II of Belgium . Unknown to

500-413: The river to verify that it flowed into the Lualaba. In 1876 Henry Morton Stanley visited the lake. When he arrived, the lake level was low and he described the Lukuga as no more than a large creek extending westward for a great distance. However, he agreed that as the lake level rose the Lukuga would act as an outlet. It seems that a sandbar had formed across the river mouth, and the river had silted behind

525-474: The river valleys were densely populated. Around 1800, in the second half of the rule of the Luba Emperor Ilunga Sungu , Luba forces launched raids over the Lualaba that at one point reached as far as Kalemie. Some of the Luba settled in the region, and the people around Kalemie were subject to the Luba in the following reigns of Kumwimbe Ngombe and Ilunga Kabale . The Luba evolved the concept of

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550-625: The river's tributaries north of Kalemie and Moluba. The Lukuga in the north, Lake Tanganyika, the Luvua River to the south and the Lualaba form a territory that was once occupied by the Hemba people in the western part and the Tumbwe people in the more mountainous east. Kasangas of the Tumbwe lineage ruled various small states in this region. The lower Lukuga and the Lualaba were natural lines of communication, and

575-793: The surrounding area, with a mean annual temperature of 19-20 °C. The existence of seasonal rainfall makes Katanga Plateau a fertile arable area as well as an industrial region in DR Congo. It is the source of the Lufira River , which becomes the Lualaba River . Lake Tshangalele is an artificial lake created by a dam on the Lufira and is an important ecological site on the plateau. 11°33′S 26°45′E  /  11.55°S 26.75°E  / -11.55; 26.75 Joseph Thomson (explorer) Joseph Thomson (14 February 1858 – 2 August 1895)

600-604: Was a British geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa . Thomson's gazelle and Thomson's Falls , Nyahururu , are named after him. Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any native nor losing any of his men to violence. His motto is often quoted to be "He who goes gently, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes far." Born in Penpont , Dumfriesshire, he

625-483: Was apprenticed into his father's stone- masonry and quarrying business. He developed a keen amateur interest in geology and botany , which eventually led to his formal education at the University of Edinburgh , studying under Archibald Geikie and Thomas Henry Huxley . On graduating in 1878, he was appointed geologist and naturalist to Alexander Keith Johnston 's Royal Geographical Society expedition to establish

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