Tanganyika map, Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an enormous country of the Central Africa region, featuring 26 provinces, including Tanganyika, which is a part that is incredibly rich in natural resources and possesses a great cultural variety. Belonging to the south-east of the country, the province is named after Lake Tanganyika, the second-deepest freshwater lake in the world, which forms its eastern border. The administrative and economic centre of the Tanzanian province is the lakeside city of Kalemie, which is the capital of Tanganyika.

The province hosts over two million people, part of the diverse ethnicities, with the Luba-Katanga being one of the most dominant populations. The strategic position of Tanganyika along Lake Tanganyika makes it a very important passage through which trade and transport are conducted, connecting the DRC to the neighbouring states like Tanzania, Burundi and Zambia. Its economy mostly depends on agriculture, fishing and mining activities, which are, however, crippled by a lack of investment and war. Tanganyika is, however, a region of tremendous potential, as the fertile soils, rich cultures and the location provide potential for growth and integration into the regional markets.

History

Tanganyika Province's history is also very much intertwined with the history of Katanga, which is a bit larger in size and upon which it was carved. Much as it is the case today, there were many Bantu-speaking communities residing in the region before the advent of colonial occupation, such as the Luba and other related communities whose administration was that of organised chiefdoms and kingdoms. These people were ironworking, traded goods and political societies, stretching over most of southeastern Congo.

Later in the 19th century, King Leopold II of Belgium seized the area, and in 1885, he established the Congo Free State as his own territory. The colonial rule was ardent in resource exploitation and forced labour, where Katanga became one of the primary areas of mining, especially of copper and other minerals. Tanganyika, which was called Katanga, was sucked into this system, although it was relatively isolated and less industrialised than the mining hubs south of Lubumbashi.

Having attained independence in 1960, Congo had Katanga at the centre of one of the most dramatic crises in the early years of the country. Katanga, under Moise Tshombe, proclaimed independence of the rest of Congo in the development of a secessionist eruption that attracted the attention of the United Nations and the rest of the world. This turmoil directly spread to Tanganyika, which was at the time a part of Katanga. In 1961, the Luba-Katanga in the area revolted against the Katanga secessionist state, and this resulted in bloody confrontations. Later on, in 1962- 1966, the region was governed by the central government located in Kinshasa under the names of two provinces, Northern Katanga and Nord Kivu. But in 1966, President Mobutu Sese Seko re-centralised the power and re-integrated Nord-Katanga into the greater Katanga Province, where Tanganyika was governed as a district.

The area stayed under the control of the Katanga administration for decades, yet the area was not outside the larger violations that authorised the DRC. There was fighting in 1998-2003 in Tanganyika, where the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-G), a rebel group backed by Rwanda, engaged in fighting with government troops who backed an allied Mai-Mai militias. Other armed groups were still present in the province even following a formalised ceasefire of the war, especially in the rural regions. The office of the United Nations reported in the mid-2000s that the group of Mai-Mai fighters were still indicative of hundreds of thousands in Tanganyika, where they are prone to act as bandits and fight civilians.

In 2015, it became a full-fledged province (reinstated as such as a result of a national-scale process of decentralisation) and its capital was declared Kalemie. This has been made in an administrative reform which aimed at drawing governance nearer to people as well as encouraging the development of the locality. Ever since that time, Tanganyika has been struggling with the problems of insecurity, poverty, and poor infrastructure, whereas it has witnessed the attempts of reconstruction and peacebuilding.

Culture

The cultures of Tanzania are complex because the country unites multiple peoples who stand in strong communities that survived the hardships of various movements and conflicts throughout the decades. They are the Luba-Katanga, which is the greatest ever ethnic group in the province, and their cultures heavily affect the cultural life in the region. Luba has a rich artistic tradition, and their artistic forms include woodcarving, sculpture, and religious objects that tend to have symbolic and spiritual purposes. Luba artisans carved masks and figures which are very treasured in the Congolese culture, and even in other world societies, as they symbolise ancestral spirits, and express the values in society.

Tanganyika cultural expression is mainly superb through music and dance. Ceremonies, celebrations and storytelling have the use of traditional instruments like drumming, xylophone and thumb pianos (likembe). Traditions live alongside contemporary Congolese music, especially the soukous and rumba, since they are widespread across the province. Music and dance are also key elements of social cohesion in the town of Kalemie and other towns that unite people regardless of ethnicity or age.

One more issue which influences the cultural identity of Tanganyika is the relationship of this province with Lake Tanganyika. On the lake, fishing communities have come up with an open specialisation such as boat-building methods, fishing rituals, and culinary practices, which revolve around fish species abundant in the lake. It is not just the means of livelihood but also a cultural emblem to the people of the province since it symbolises continuity and strength.

Language

Tanganyika has a very diverse ethnic background in terms of languages; it can be seen that language in Tanganyika mirrors the ethnic diversity as well as the incorporation of the language into a larger linguistic environment of the DRC. Kiswahili (Swahili) is another widely spoken lingua franca in the province, along with French, and is used as a lingua franca in much of eastern Congo. Swahili helps entail communication between other ethnic community groups, and it is employed in trade, education, and local administration. Its greatness has been achieved by virtue of the fact that Tanganyika is close to Tanzania and other parts of the Swahili-speaking areas of Lake Tanganyika.

Various communities speak other local languages besides Swahili. Luba-Katanga people speak the Bantu language in close relation to other Luba dialects situated in central and southern Congo, in the country that is referred to as Kiluba. Kiluba is employed in daily, cultural and oral practices, but it is generally replaced by Swahili in urban regions such as Kalemie. Although French is the official language of the DRC, it is predominantly spoken and written in government, formal learning, and various official records and documents; French is not used as frequently in rural settlements as Swahili and local languages.

The Tanganyika case of the bilingual nature highlights the larger phenomenon of the DRC, which has over 200 languages. This linguistic diversity is not merely a practical necessity that requires an area like Tanganyika to have the variety, but also a cultural identity which a given language is associated with a certain history, traditions and view of the world.

Geography

Tanganyika is a geographically impressive province and was formed by the location that borders one of the great lakes in Africa and a location deep in the immense interior of Congo. The province is bordered by and occupies an area of about 134,940 square kilometres, which is one of the largest provinces of the DRC. Its eastern borders are Lake Tanganyika, which runs for many hundreds of kilometres and borders natural borders with Tanzania. The lake is the second-oldest and second-deepest freshwater lake in the world, known for the diversity it contains, among hundreds of fish species, which can be found nowhere else.

Tanganyika has a diverse topography characterised by low-lying trees along the lake banks and savanna wood more in the interiors. The climate is tropical, there is a rainy as well as dry season, but again, the conditions depend on the altitude and distance to the lake. The prominent soils and climatic activity make the province suitable for agricultural activities, which form the primary means of livelihood among the majority of its dwellers. It has large farmlands where crops like cassava, maize, beans and groundnuts are highly grown, and also fishing on Lake Tanganyika provides food and revenue to the local people.

Natural resources in Tanganyika are also abundant, and cassiterites, coltan and gold are some of its minerals; however, mining activities are not as advanced as compared to other areas in Katanga. The fact that the province is rather isolated and the infrastructure will be developed restricts the exploitation of these resources but which is a source of future economic development.

The provincial capital of Tanzania, Kalemie, lies on both sides of Lake Tanzania, that is, on the west. It is a commuter centre, as it has a port, which connects the DRC to Tanzania and other nations by the lake. The city can also be connected by rail to the interior of Congo, although the railway has been neglected over the years. Even with such challenges, Kalemie is still a crucial hub of trade and government that represents the future and the present challenges associated with the entire Tanganyika.

FAQs