Loange River

History

At the start of the twentieth century, the Loange was inhabited by the Bakongo people, who were described as initially suspicious and hostile to white men by ethnographer Melville William Hilton-Simpson, who led the first documented exploration of the river by non-Africans and was eventually able to peaceably interact with and learn about them over the course of two years.

In the mid-twentieth century, the Loange was navigable up to the town of Kalema near the confluence with the Tobi River. The Compagnie du Kasai, which operated steamboats and barges in the river, cleared snags all the way up to Lake Matshi, which is 80 km downstream from Ilebo.

Today, the DRC's National Road 1 crosses the river at Kalema to connect Kikwit and Kinshasa with Kamina and Lubumbashi. There is no longer any significant river transport on the Loange.

Landscape

In the triple border area of Kwilu, Kwango and Kasai, the Loange river forms a terraced landscape in the loamy soil. The river is full of sandbars, which are especially prominent in the dry season, at which point the river is lowered by as much as 1.5 meters in depth compared to the wet season.

In 1898, the Loange was described by a steamer crewman:

References

References

1. Matias, Victorino. (Jul 7, 2024). "Jornal de Angola - Notícias - Lunda-Norte aposta agora na agricultura mecanizada".
2. (2023-09-14). "Kasai River".
3. Hilton-Simpson, Melville William. (1911). "Land and peoples of the Kasai". [[Constable & Robinson.
4. Hilton-Simpson, Melville William. (1912). "Two Years Among Strange Tribes". [[The Wide World Magazine]].
5. Van Pul, Paul. (Sep 14, 2023). "Hydrography and Navigation on the Congo River: A Century of Visual History". [[Springer Nature]].