Africa’s fourth longest river rises quietly in the northern border regions of Zambia and the Congo. The stream quickly grows into a mighty river, essential to vast animal and human populations. The Zambezi brings water to Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The water flows more than 2,200 miles from a basin that is over 500,000 square miles in size to the Indian Ocean.
The Zambezi has a long history with ancient African empires, explorers, hunters, and missionaries. The heat combined with the presents of a form of sleeping sickness that affects livestock prevented much human habitation along its banks and, as a result, some of Africa’s finest wildlife areas remain intact today as they have been for thousands of years. The few humans that have lived in the Zambezi valley are fascinating. They’ve changed very little and time spent with them is a humbling experience.
Canoeing the Zambezi River
The Valley’s history is, of course, a lot older than the animals and people. Millions of years ago most of the water from the present-day upper Zambezi flowed down through Botswana and into the Limpopo to the Ocean. Two to four million years ago seismic tilting raised the land from Southern Zimbabwe across Southern and Central Botswana, effectively damming these waters and creating a super lake. All this water backed up and while looking for a new way to the ocean, created a lake thought to have been over 50,000 square miles.
Eventually the water found a line of weakness in the fault lines in the basalt rocks that form the modern day Victoria Falls. And this water found its way down the modern day Zambezi Valley and back to the Indian Ocean–a process known as river capture. The remnants of this lake can still be seen today in the massive saltpans of the Makgadikgadi in Botswana.
The Zambezi Valley below Victoria Falls was formed as a fault valley as the Zambezi escarpment lifted up on either side with the valley floor lowering. The predominate rock of the middle and lower valley is a metamorphosed sandstone. Parts of Kariba have produced dinosaur fossils and even fossilized footprints in the lower valley.
Wild Dog near Jeki Airstrip, Lower Zambezi National Park
Today, the Zambezi is one of the most important water sources in the region, as well as a largely untapped resource for tourism. Governments and NGOs are working on plans to create massive Tran frontier parks that span countries to better manage the wildlife and encourage tourism.
All very exciting, but if you are like me and simply want to canoe in the path of old explorers, track elephant on foot, catch the mighty tiger fish and listen to the roar of a lion over the dying embers of your campfire, then the Zambezi will be home to you.
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The Zambezi river wildlife comprises of animals like hippos, crocodiles, baboons, elephants, hyenas and lions. The river is widely used by wildlife and humans. Humans use the river for transportation, irrigation, tourism and hydropower.