{"id":79,"date":"2024-03-27T12:19:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T12:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/?p=79"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:06:48","slug":"tanganyika-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/tanganyika-province\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanganyika Province"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tanganyika is the north-eastern of the four provinces carved from old Katanga, taking its name and its eastern boundary from Lake Tanganyika, with Kalemie as its capital. One of the 26 provinces created by the 2015 repartitioning, it covers 134,940 km² and had a projected population of about 3,062,000 in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Capital<\/th>\nKalemie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Population<\/th>\n3,062,000 (projected, 2015)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Area<\/th>\n134,940 km²<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Territories<\/th>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cities (villes)<\/th>\nKalemie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Languages<\/th>\nFrench (official), Swahili (national), Kiluba, Kihemba, Kitabwa<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neighbours<\/th>\nManiema, South Kivu, Haut-Lomami, Haut-Katanga; Zambia, Tanzania<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Towns, Cities and Territories<\/h2>\n

Tanganyika has six territories, each named after its headquarters town, plus the city of Kalemie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Territory or city<\/th>\nHeadquarters<\/th>\nNote<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Kabalo<\/td>\nKabalo<\/td>\nLualaba River rail junction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kalemie<\/td>\nKalemie<\/td>\nLake port, provincial capital<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kongolo<\/td>\nKongolo<\/td>\nRail bridge over the Lualaba<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Manono<\/td>\nManono<\/td>\nLithium and tin deposits<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Moba<\/td>\nMoba<\/td>\nLakeshore, Zambian border<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nyunzu<\/td>\nNyunzu<\/td>\nInland, between rail and lake<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kalemie<\/td>\nCity (ville)<\/td>\nPort, airport, rail terminus<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Other towns that come up: Kirungu in Moba Territory, which holds a College of Rural Development; Mbulula and Kayuyu on the roads out of Kongolo; Moliro, the southernmost lake port near the Zambian line; and Kiambi on the Luvua in Manono Territory. Kalemie is organised into the Lac and Lukuga communes.<\/p>\n

Geography<\/h2>\n

Lake Tanganyika defines the province. Its western shore runs the full length of Tanganyika’s eastern side, from Moba in the south to the South Kivu<\/a> line in the north, and Tanzania lies across the water. Inland the ground climbs to the Marungu highlands behind Moba, then falls away west into the Lualaba basin.<\/p>\n

Maniema<\/a> lies to the north, Lomami<\/a> to the west, Haut-Lomami<\/a> to the south-west and Haut-Katanga<\/a> to the south. Zambia borders the south of Moba Territory. The Lualaba, the largest headstream of the Congo, runs north through Kabalo and Kongolo, where a railway bridge crosses it. The Lukuga drains the lake westward into the Lualaba, and the Luvua joins from Lake Mweru.<\/p>\n

Demographics<\/h2>\n

Density averages roughly 23 people per km², the thinnest of the four ex-Katanga provinces, with people clustered on the lakeshore, along the railway and on the rivers. Moba Territory alone held about 609,406 people over 24,500 km² in 2015. Nothing here is a census count; the DRC has not run one since 1984.<\/p>\n

Swahili is spoken almost universally, more so than anywhere else in the four provinces, because the lake has traded with Tanzania and Burundi for two centuries. The Luba, Hemba, Tabwa, Tumbwe and Bwile are the main peoples, and Kiluba, Kihemba and Kitabwa are the home languages. French is used for administration.<\/p>\n

Economy and Local Life<\/h2>\n

Fishing is the backbone. Lake Tanganyika supplies the whole province with protein and gives Kalemie, Moba and Moliro their markets; dried and smoked fish moves inland by road and rail. Farming is cassava, maize, rice, beans and palm oil, with cattle on the Marungu grass.<\/p>\n

Mining is concentrated at Manono, where roughly 100 million tonnes of ore hold spodumene (lithium), cassiterite (tin), columbite and tantalite. The Manono-Kitolo workings produced perhaps 180,000 tonnes of cassiterite up to the late 1970s, and since 2017 the Australian company AVZ has put more than $100 million into exploring the old site. Kalemie is a distribution point for copper, cobalt and zinc moving between the Copperbelt and the lake.<\/p>\n

History<\/h2>\n

Tanganyika, Haut-Katanga<\/a>, Lualaba<\/a> and Haut-Lomami<\/a> were all created in 2015 from the break-up of Katanga province. Tanganyika was the Tanganyika district of Katanga before that, and its outline matches the historic Nord-Katanga province that existed between 1962 and 1966. Kalemie was founded as Albertville and kept that name until the 1971 renaming campaign; it was built as the Congolese end of the lake crossing to the Tanzanian railhead at Kigoma.<\/p>\n

Getting There<\/h2>\n

Kalemie Airport has flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Goma, and Manono has its own airfield. The port at Kalemie has a 130 m wharf and three mobile cranes, with boat services to Tanzanian, Burundian and Zambian ports. The railway runs from Kalemie inland to Kabalo, where it meets the main north–south line; freight to Lubumbashi takes four to seven days. National Road 5 follows the lake and National Road 33 serves Manono. Most other roads are earth tracks, and the November–April rains cut several of them.<\/p>\n

FAQ<\/h2>\n

What is the capital of Tanganyika province?<\/h3>\n

Kalemie, a lake port on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, formerly called Albertville. It had 146,974 residents at the 2012 count.<\/p>\n

How many territories does Tanganyika have?<\/h3>\n

Six: Kabalo, Kalemie, Kongolo, Manono, Moba and Nyunzu.<\/p>\n

What language is spoken in Tanganyika?<\/h3>\n

Swahili is spoken by nearly everyone. French is official, and Kiluba, Kihemba and Kitabwa are common home languages.<\/p>\n

Which countries border Tanganyika?<\/h3>\n

Zambia, along the south of Moba Territory, and Tanzania across Lake Tanganyika.<\/p>\n

What is Manono known for?<\/h3>\n

One of the world’s larger hard-rock lithium prospects, on the site of an old cassiterite tin mine.<\/p>\n

Can you travel from Tanganyika to Tanzania?<\/h3>\n

Yes. Boats run from Kalemie across Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma, which is the railhead for Dar es Salaam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tanganyika is the north-eastern of the four provinces carved from old Katanga, taking its name and its eastern boundary from Lake Tanganyika, with Kalemie as its capital. One of the 26 provinces created by the 2015 repartitioning, it covers 134,940 km² and had a projected population of about 3,062,000 in 2015. Capital Kalemie Population 3,062,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Tanganyika: Towns & 6 Territories in DR Congo","_seopress_titles_desc":"Tanganyika province, DR Congo: capital Kalemie, all 6 territories with headquarters, plus population, Swahili, Lake Tanganyika fishing and Manono lithium.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-dr-congo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}