Kwenge River

4°50′25″S 18°43′19″E / 4.840404°S 18.721991°E / -4.840404; 18.721991

The Kwenge River in the Kasai catchment (center left)

The Kwenge River (French: Rivière Kwenge) is a stream in the Bandundu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The river begins in Angola and then for about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) it forms a short part of the Angola–DRC border.[1] It flows north from the Angola border through the Kwango and Kwilu districts, joining the Kwilu River below Kikwit.[2] Lusanga, formerly Leverville, is at the confluence of the Kwenge and Kwilu rivers.[3]

The land between the Kwilu and the Kwenge was first occupied be the Pende people.[4] The Suku people, who came to the region from the Kwango River valley in the 1800s, live in the savanna region between the upper Bakali and Kwenge rivers.[5] The lowest part of the river valley contains strips of periodically or permanently flooded land.[6]

  1. ^ "Kwenge". GoogleMaps. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  2. ^ Blaes, X. (October 2008). "Découpage administratif de la République Démocratique du Congo" (PDF). UNOCHA and PNUD. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-18.
  3. ^ C.J. Warrington (May 1972). "M'Bwa na Basenji" (PDF). The Basenji. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  4. ^ "Tribal Treasures". Zemanek-Münster. August 25, 2011. Archived from the original on August 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  5. ^ Robert F. Gray, P. H. Gulliver (2004). The family estate in Africa: studies in the role of property in family structure and lineage continuity. Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 0-415-32985-X.
  6. ^ R. H. Hughes; J. S. Hughes (1992). A directory of African wetlands. IUCN. p. 531. ISBN 2-88032-949-3.