Mpulungu

Mpulungu is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, at the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika.

From Mpulungu, boats reach DR Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. The MV Liemba ferry sails from Mpulungu to Kasanga and Kigoma in western Tanzania, with connections from there to Bujumbura.

Mpulungu is also a fishing port and lies at the end of the old Great North Road.

In 2007 it was proposed to give Mpulungu rail access with a junction off the TAZARA line at Nseluka. This link plus another between Mpika and Mchinji would greater shorten the rail distance to a deepwater port at Nacala in Mozambique.

In the period up to the First World War and for about a decade afterwards, all vessels at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika had to lie offshore at Katuta Bay and unload by lighter or local canoe. This was thought highly unsatisfactory as the SS Liemba was then exposed on a lee shore to storms from the Northerly trade winds which could cause a dangerous sharp swell in the shallow waters of the bay. Also the ship’s derricks could not be used efficiently to unload heavier or bulk cargoes like bags of cement or large oil drums.

J.H. Venning, the British South Africa Company Provincial Commissioner in Abercorn – then the Provincial Headquarters – had imported an ex Union Castle Line lifeboat that he used for fishing on the lake. During the course of these expeditions he had come to regard the channel between Kumbula Island and the shore line at Mpulungu as a safe haven. One evening he was discussing the Katuta Bay problem with the Captain of the SS Liemba and mentioned the protected channel. Between them they then formed a plan to take the Governor, who was to visit shortly, on a fishing trip.

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