last week I read an article on BBC about this old ferry on lake Tanganyika. I used to see it quite often when I flew and stayed in Mahale nat’l park some years ago, sometimes for weeks in a row. And then during a bicycle trip between Arusha and Cape Town, we took this Liemba from Kigoma to Kapalagulu, the last Tanzanian port before Zambia. A lovely 2 or 3 day (Africa time) experience that I recommend. It was a great resting time after heavy sandy or dirt track biking around Kigoma and Burundi.
this is Africa so anything can be considered loading and overloading on board, as the recent Zanzibar accident just reminded us all. Even if it has never been meant to, like this jeep. And the owner couldn’t coplain for the new scratches and dents the car received in this operation. It is common knowledge that nearly all boat accidents happening in Africa have a safety issue like overcrowding to look at. In Kigoma, the boat was still reasonably empty but as we proceeded down south, more supplies kept on piling up. Colorful and fascinating spectacle. This ferry is a precious lifeline on the lake. We were a bit concerned for our safety but then this very ferry has been running on the lake since 1925 about without sinking…there might have been some close calls but nobody would say…
the boat was initially a German war boat during WWI. Built in Germany, brought here in bits, reassembled in Kigoma, but quickly sunk voluntarily but carefully by the Kaiser’s troops so it wouldn’t fall to the closing Belgian or British hands. Some years after the war, a salvage team brought the ship up, cleaned it a bit, put the engines back on with minimal work (aah German quality…) and the ferry business started a long life.
the Liemba will stop at every small village on the Tanzania shoreline. As I said it represents the unique lifeline for the residents. The Congolese, living just on the opposite shore, are not so lucky. People come at whatever time the boat shows up, with the usual delays. At night and without lights theses fisherman boats will literally assault the Liemba..
slowly the deck will be packed up and it’ll get increasingly difficult to walk on the bridge, and the line between 1st class and the 2 or 3 class will have disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, 1st class is just barely acceptable to western standards. I tried to visit 3rd class but it was so packed, so overcrowded, so dark, so hot and filthy…I thought I’d prefer to travel in a cattle wagon or stay on deck like many of the travelers.
we even had troubles in the morning to open our cabin door because of people sleeping across.
this man was our temporary enemy. Mr No fear No Shame here was spreading his awful loads of stinking sardine fish to dry out all across the 1st class deck. Nobody seemed to mind but the Wazungus (white people). We were chasing the wind to skip the rotten whiff.
people boarding the boat was always show time. No order, no consideration for the weak or the young. We saw one woman with her child on the back being pushed overboard. Luckily other people, not so obnoxious as the pushers, pulled them out.
either passengers embark or disembark, or supplies change hands.
the Liemba was used in the “African Queen” novel for inspiration. But the war boat Hepburn and Bogart sink in the eponymous movie cruised on lake Victoria.
Let me fish other pictures to show the Liemba in full. Wikipedia is of course more complete on the subject.
