Map of Katanga
Katanga is a first-level division of DR Congo. Its largest mapped city is Lubumbashi, with about 1.35 million people in the metropolitan area. The interactive map below is centred on Katanga, and the tables list its 17 mapped cities along with the mountains, lakes nearest to them.
- Cities Mapped
- 17
- Largest City
- Lubumbashi
- Country
- DR Congo
- Highest Point Mapped
- 2,725 m
Interactive Map of Katanga
About Katanga
Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914.
It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba, and Haut-Katanga provinces. Between 1971 and 1997 (during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko when Congo was known as Zaire), its official name was Shaba Province.
Katanga's area encompassed 497,000 square kilometres (192,000 sq mi). Farming and ranching are carried out on the Katanga Plateau. The eastern part of the province is a rich mining region which supplies cobalt, copper, tin, radium, uranium, and diamonds. Its capital, Lubumbashi, is the second-largest city in the Congo.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Katanga Province (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Katanga in Depth
History
Copper mining in Katanga dates back over 1,000 years, and mines in the region were producing standard-sized ingots of copper for international transport by the end of the 10th century CE.
In the 1890s, the province was beleaguered from the south by Cecil Rhodes' Northern Rhodesia, and from the north by the Belgian Congo, the personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium. Msiri, the King of the Yeke Kingdom, held out against both, but eventually Katanga was subsumed by the Belgian Congo.
After 1900, the Societe Generale de Belgique practically controlled all of the mining in the province through Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK). This included uranium, radium, copper, cobalt, zinc, cadmium, germanium, manganese, silver, gold, and tin.
Geography
The province bordered Angola and formed the entire Congolese border with Zambia. It also bordered Tanzania – although on Lake Tanganyika rather than on land. Katanga has a wet and dry season. Rainfall is about 1,200 mm (49 in).
Economy
Copper mining is an important part of the economy of Katanga province. Cobalt mining by individual contractors is also prevalent. A number of reasons have been advanced for the failure of the vast mineral wealth of the province to increase the overall standard of living. The local provincial budget was US$440 million in 2011.
Lubumbashi, the mining capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a hub for many of the country's biggest mining companies. The Democratic Republic of Congo produces "more than 3 percent of the world’s copper and half its cobalt, most of which comes from Katanga".
Gécamines, (La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, the former UMHK), the state-owned copper-cobalt mining company, had monopoly concessions in the province.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Katanga Province (CC BY-SA 4.0).
History of Katanga: Empires and States
The atlas records 3 polities whose mapped territory included part of Katanga, from Belgian Congo in 1895 CE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
| Polity | Period here |
|---|---|
| Belgian Congo | 1895–1959 CE |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 1960–2024 CE |
| Zaire | 1973–1995 CE |
Historical Maps of Katanga
Katanga on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Largest Cities in Katanga
17 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lubumbashi | 1.35 million | Katanga | Populated place |
| 2 | Likasi | 434,408 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 3 | Kolwezi | 418,000 | Katanga | Admin-1 capital |
| 4 | Kalemie | 206,257 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 5 | Kamina | 128,803 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 6 | Kipushi | 113,347 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 7 | Kongolo | 105,202 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 8 | Manono | 46,111 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 9 | Bukama | 38,770 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 10 | Kambove | 36,702 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 11 | Kaniama | 36,481 | Katanga | Admin-1 capital |
| 12 | Kabalo | 29,833 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 13 | Nyunzu | 15,397 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 14 | Kasaji | 11,969 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 15 | Moba | 10,006 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 16 | Dilolo | 7,854 | Katanga | Populated place |
| 17 | Luanza | 861 | Katanga | Populated place |
Highest Mountains in Katanga
1 mountain mapped. Ranked by summit elevation above sea level. A summit on a border is listed under both countries. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.
| # | Name | Elevation | Feet | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kabobo | 2,725 m | 8,940 ft | Africa |
Largest Lakes in Katanga
3 lakes mapped. Ranked by mapped surface area. A lake on a border is listed under each country it lies in, with the area of the whole lake. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.
| # | Name | Surface Area | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lac Moeru | 5,057 km² | Lake |
| 2 | Lac Upemba | 506 km² | Lake |
| 3 | Lake Rentenue | 288 km² | Lake |
Katanga: Quick Answers
- Where is Katanga?
- Katanga is a first-level division of DR Congo, in Africa. Its mapped cities centre on 8.7612° S, 26.5508° E.
- What is the largest city in Katanga?
- Lubumbashi is the largest city mapped in Katanga, with a metropolitan population of about 1.35 million.
- How many cities are in Katanga?
- YearMaps maps 17 cities and towns in Katanga, with a combined metropolitan population of about 2.99 million. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.
- What is the highest mountain in Katanga?
- The highest summit mapped in Katanga is Kabobo at 2,725 m.
- What is the largest lake in Katanga?
- The largest lake mapped in or beside Katanga is Lac Moeru, at about 5,057 km².