Editing Lake Tanganyika (section)

==History==
[[File:Stanley's Lake Tanganyika.jpg|thumb|300px|Lake Tanganyika. The black line indicates [[Henry Morton Stanley]]'s route.]]
It is thought that early ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' were making an impact on the region during the [[Stone Age]]. The time period of the Middle Stone Age to Late Stone Age is described as an age of advanced hunter-gatherers.<ref>{{Cite book |title=East African Ecosystems and Their Conservation |publisher=New York: Oxford University Press}}</ref>

There are many methods which the native people of the area used for fishing. Most of them included using a lantern as a lure for fish that are attracted to light. There were three basic forms. One called Lusenga which is a wide net used by one person from a canoe. The second one is using a lift net. This was done by dropping a net deep below the boat using two parallel canoes and then simultaneously pulling it up. The third is called Chiromila which consisted of three canoes. One canoe was stationary with a lantern while another canoe holds one end of the net and the other circles the stationary one to meet up with the net.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Lake Tanganyika and Its Life |publisher=Oxford Press |year=1991}}</ref>

The first known Westerners to find the lake were the British explorers [[Richard Francis Burton|Richard Burton]] and [[John Speke]], in 1858. They located it while searching for the source of the [[Nile River]]. Speke continued and found the actual source, [[Lake Victoria]]. Later [[David Livingstone]] passed by the lake. He noted the name "Liemba" for its southern part, a word probably from the [[Fipa language]].<ref>{{cite book |author=David Livingstone |title=The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to His Death |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJRKJnFkJeIC&pg=PA212 |volume=1 |date=2008 |publisher=BiblioBazaar |isbn=978-0-554-26021-1 |page=338}}</ref> ''Tanganyika'' means "stars" in the [[Luvale language]].<ref>{{ cite journal |title=An African Aesthetic |author=Daniel J. Crowley |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=24 |issue=4 |date=Summer 1966 |pages=519–524 |publisher=Wiley |doi=10.2307/428776 |jstor=428776}}</ref>{{rp|523}}

The lake was the scene of [[Battle for Lake Tanganyika]] during [[World War I]]. With the aid of the ''[[MV Liemba|Graf Goetzen]]'', the Germans had complete control of the lake in the early stages of the war. The ship was used both to ferry cargo and personnel across the lake, and as a base from which to launch surprise attacks on Allied troops.<ref name=Foden>Giles Foden: ''Mimi and Toutou Go Forth — The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika'', Penguin, 2004.</ref> It therefore became essential for the Allied forces to gain control of the lake themselves. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander [[Geoffrey Spicer-Simson]] the [[British Royal Navy]] achieved the monumental task of bringing two armed motor boats [[HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou|HMS ''Mimi'' and HMS ''Toutou'']] from England to the lake by rail, road and river to Albertville (since renamed [[Kalemie]] in 1971) on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. The two boats waited until December 1915, and mounted a surprise attack on the Germans, with the capture of the gunboat ''[[Kingani]]''. Another German vessel, the ''[[Hedwig von Wissmann (steamship)|Hedwig]]'', was sunk in February 1916, leaving the ''Götzen'' as the only German vessel remaining to control the lake.<ref name=Foden/> In order to avoid his prize ship falling into Allied hands, Zimmer scuttled the vessel on July 26, 1916. The vessel was later raised in 1924 and renamed [[MV Liemba|MV ''Liemba'']].<ref name=Foden/>