Editing Zambezi (section)

== History ==

=== Etymology ===
The first European to come across the Zambezi River was [[Vasco da Gama]] in January 1498, who anchored at what he called ''Rio dos Bons Sinais'' (River of Good Omens), now the [[Quelimane]] or Quá-Qua, a small river on the northern end of the delta, which at that time was connected by navigable channels to the Zambezi River proper (the connection silted up by the 1830s). In a few of the oldest maps, the entire river is denoted as such. By the 16th century, a new name emerged, the ''Cuama'' River (sometimes "Quama" or "Zuama"). Cuama was the local name given by the dwellers of the [[Swahili coast]] for an outpost located on one of the southerly islands of the delta (near the Luabo channel). Most old nautical maps denote the Luabo entry as Cuama, the entire delta as the "rivers of Cuama", and the Zambezi proper as the "Cuama River".{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

In 1552, Portuguese chronicler [[João de Barros]] noted that the same Cuama River was called ''Zembere'' by the inland people of [[Kingdom of Mutapa|Monomatapa]].<ref>Barros, ''Da Asia'', Dec. I, Lib. X, vol. 2, [https://books.google.com/books?id=BJ42AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA374 p.374])</ref> The Portuguese Dominican friar [[João dos Santos]], visiting Monomatapa in 1597 reported it as ''Zambeze'' (Bantu languages frequently shifts between z and r) and inquired into the origins of the name; he was told it was named after a people.

[[File:Monomotapa Map.jpg|thumb|This map by [[Willem Janszoon Blaeu]], dated 1635, shows the course of the Zambezi, and its source in a great lake.]]
{{blockquote|"The River Cuama is by them called Zambeze; the head whereof is so farre within Land that none of them know it, but by tradition of their Progenitors say it comes from a Lake in the midst of the continent which yeelds also other great Rivers, divers ways visiting the Sea. They call it Zambeze, of a Nation of Cafres dwelling neere that Lake which are so called." —J. Santos ''Ethiopia Oriental'', 1609<ref>Fr. J. dos Santos (1609), ''Ethiopia Oriental e varia historia de cousas Notaveis do Oriente'', Pt. III. English translation is from [[Samuel Purchas]]'s 1625 ''Haklyutus Posthumus'', (1905) ed., Glasgow, vol. 10: [https://books.google.com/books?id=ekIMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA220 p.220-21]</ref>}}

Thus, the term "Zambezi" is after a people who live by a great lake to the north. The most likely candidates are the "M'biza", or Bisa people (in older texts given as Muisa, Movisa, Abisa, Ambios, and other variations), a Bantu people who live in what is now central-eastern Zambia, between the Zambezi River and [[Lake Bangweulu|Lake Bangweolo]] (at the time, before the [[Kingdom of Lunda|Lunda]] invasion, the Bisa would have likely stretched further north, possibly to [[Lake Tanganyika]]). The Bisa had a reputation as great cloth traders throughout the region.<ref>The connection between Santos/Monomatapa "Zambezi" and the "M'biza" is suggested in Cooley (1845).</ref>

In a curious note, Goese-born Portuguese trader Manuel Caetano Pereira, who traveled to the Bisa homelands in 1796, was surprised to be shown a second, separate river referred to as the "Zambezi".<ref>"Notícias dadas por Manoel Caetano Pereira, comerciante, que se entranhou pelo interior da África", as published in José Acúrsio das Neves (1830) ''Considerações Políticas e Comerciais sobre os Descobrimentos e Possessões na África e na Ásia''. Lisbon: Imprensa Regia. [https://books.google.com/books?id=01Tpl2WqoqgC&pg=PA373 p.373]</ref> This "other Zambezi" that puzzled Pereira is most likely what modern sources spell the [[Chambeshi River]] in northern Zambia.

The Monomatapa notion (reported by Santos) that the Zambezi was sourced from a great internal lake might be a reference to one of the [[African Great Lakes]]. One of the names reported by early explorers for [[Lake Malawi]] was "Lake Zambre" (probably a corruption of "Zambezi"), possibly because Lake Malawi is connected to the lower Zambezi via the Shire River. The Monomatapa story resonated with the old European notion, drawn from classical antiquity, that all the great African rivers—the Nile, the [[Senegal River|Senegal]], the Congo, and the Zambezi—were all sourced from the same great internal lake. The Portuguese were also told that the Mozambican Espirito Santo "river" (actually an estuary formed by the [[Umbeluzi]], [[Matola River|Matola]], and [[Tembe River|Tembe]] Rivers) was sourced from a lake (hence its outlet became known as [[Maputo Bay|Delagoa Bay]]). As a result, several old maps depict the Zambezi and the "Espirito Santo" Rivers converging deep in the interior, at the same lake.

However, the Bisa-derived etymology is not without dispute. In 1845, W.D. Cooley, examining Pereira's notes, concluded the term "Zambezi" derives not from the Bisa people, but rather from the Bantu term "mbege"/"mbeze" ("fish"), and consequently it probably means merely "river of fish".<ref>W.D. Cooley (1845) "The Geography of N'yassi, or the Great Lake of Southern Africa, investigated, with an account of the overland route from the Quanza in Angola to the Zambezi in the government of Mozambique", ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society'', p.185-235.</ref> [[David Livingstone]], who reached the upper Zambezi in 1853, refers to it as "Zambesi", but also makes note of the local name "Leeambye" used by the [[Lozi people]], which he says means "large river or river par excellence". Livingstone records other names for the Zambezi—Luambeji, Luambesi, Ambezi, Ojimbesi, and Zambesi—applied by different peoples along its course, and asserts they "all possess a similar signification and express the native idea of this magnificent stream being the main drain of the country".<ref>David Livingstone (1857) ''Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa'' ([https://archive.org/details/missionarytrave00unkngoog/page/n250 p.208])</ref>

Other historical records show that the river was called Kasambabezi by the Tonga people, which means "only those who know the river can bath in it."  a name which is still in use to this day.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVEqCgAAQBAJ&dq=Kasambabezi&pg=PA243 | title=Harnessing Cultural Capital for Sustainability: A Pan Africanist Perspective | isbn=978-9956-762-50-7 | last1=Mawere | first1=Munyaradzi | last2=Awuah-Nyamekye | first2=Samuel | date=20 June 2015 | publisher=Langaa RPCIG }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://davinajogi.com/kasambabezi/ | title=Kasambabezi | date=25 November 2017 }}</ref>

In Portuguese records, the "Cuama River" term disappeared and gave way to the term "Sena River" (''Rio de Sena''), a reference to the Swahili (and later Portuguese) upriver trade station at [[Vila de Sena|Sena]]. In 1752, the Zambezi Delta, under the name "Rivers of Sena" (''Rios de Sena'') formed a colonial administrative district of [[Portuguese Mozambique]], but common usage of "Zambezi" led eventually to a royal decree in 1858 officially renaming the district "[[Zambezia Province|Zambézia]]".

===Exploration===
[[File:Satellite view of Victoria Falls.jpg|thumb|Satellite image showing [[Victoria Falls]] and subsequent series of zigzagging gorges]]
The Zambezi region was known to medieval geographers as the [[Kingdom of Mutapa|Empire of Monomotapa]], and the course of the river, as well as the position of lakes [[Lake Ngami|Ngami]] and [[Lake Malawi|Nyasa]], were generally accurate in early maps. These were probably constructed from Arab information.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Zambezi|volume=28|pages=951–953|first=Frank|last=Cana}}</ref>

The first European to visit the inland Zambezi River was the Portuguese ''[[degredado]]'' [[Álvaro Fernandes|António Fernandes]] in 1511 and again in 1513, with the objective of reporting on commercial conditions and activities of the interior of Central Africa. The final report of these explorations revealed the importance of the ports of the upper Zambezi to the local trade system, in particular to East African gold trade.<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400-1668 |page=81 |first=Malyn |last=Newitt |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=0-203-32404-8}}</ref>

The first recorded exploration of the upper Zambezi was made by David Livingstone in his exploration from [[Bechuanaland Protectorate|Bechuanaland]] between 1851 and 1853. Two or three years later, he descended the Zambezi to its mouth and in the course of this journey found the Victoria Falls. During 1858–60, accompanied by [[John Kirk (explorer)|John Kirk]], Livingstone ascended the river by the Kongone mouth as far as the falls, and also traced the course of its tributary the Shire and reached Lake Malawi.<ref name="EB1911"/>

For the next 35 years, very little exploration of the river took place. Portuguese explorer [[Alexandre de Serpa Pinto|Serpa Pinto]] examined some of the western tributaries of the river and made measurements of the Victoria Falls in 1878.<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1884, Scottish-born [[Plymouth Brethren]] missionary [[Frederick Stanley Arnot]] traveled over the height of land between the watersheds of the Zambezi and the Congo and identified the source of the Zambezi.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dacb.org/stories/demrepcongo/arnot_stanley.html |work=Dictionary of African Christian Biography |title=Arnot, Frederick Stanley |year=2005 |first=Dr. J. Keir |last=Howard |access-date=14 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927002516/http://www.dacb.org/stories/demrepcongo/arnot_stanley.html |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He considered that the nearby high and cool [[Kalene Hill]] was a particularly suitable place for a mission.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0Avs0RFRtMC&pg=PA29 |pages=29–31 |title=Friends for life, friends for death: cohorts and consciousness among the Lunda-Ndembu |first=James Anthony |last=Pritchett |publisher=University of Virginia Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8139-2624-7}}</ref> Arnot was accompanied by Portuguese trader and army officer [[António da Silva Porto]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lMZovHqD4kC&pg=PA30 |page=30 |title=Angola, 1880 to the present: slavery, exploitation, and revolt |first1=Bruce |last1=Fish |first2=Becky Durost |last2=Fish |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=0-7910-6197-3}}</ref>

In 1889, the Chinde channel north of the main mouths of the river was seen. Two expeditions led by Major A. St Hill Gibbons in 1895 to 1896 and 1898 to 1900 continued the work of exploration begun by Livingstone in the upper basin and central course of the river.<ref name="EB1911" />
[[File:2 locals in a canoe in the Zambezi river.jpg|thumb|Two locals are in the Zambezi River near Victoria Falls, Zambia.]]