Water Transport in Zambia

Water transport. and the many navigable inland waterways, in Zambia has a long tradition of practical use in Zambia except in parts of the south. Since draught animals such as oxen were not heavily used, water transport was usually the only alternative to going on foot until the 19th Century. The history and current importance of Zambian waterways, as well as the types of indigenous boats used, provide information on this important aspect of Zambian economy.

The techniques of making temporary boats or rafts by weaving together bundles of buoyant reeds were known to African people living near the many rivers, lakes, lagoons and swamps of what is now Zambia. The coming of the Iron Age introduced tools such as the adze which facilitates the construction of dugout canoes, especially from African teak (Pterocarpus angolensis or 'mulombwa' in Chibemba, 'mulombe' in Chilozi, 'mukwa' in Chishona) which has a long life even when constantly immersed. The dugout then took over as the principal means of fishing and travel by boat, whether paddled in deeper water, or punted in shallow water like makoros in neighbouring Botswana.

When explorer David Livingstone, the first European to see Lake Bangweulu arrived on the western shore of that lake in 1868, he was conveyed across it efficiently in a dugout canoe 45 feet long and 4 feet wide (about 14 m by 1.2 m), paddled by six men. The people of the lake and its wetlands, which cover a completely flat area of more than 10,000 km² in flood, have the ability to navigate unaided across open water or through mazes of swamp channels despite having no landmarks to guide them most of the time.

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