Zambezi River

Atlas’ Notebook: Edition LXVI

Welcome to

Cosmographia

. The following is part of our Atlas’ Notebook series, featuring art, poetry, literature, cartography, and photography, all centred on a particular place. For the full map of Cosmographia posts, see here.

The Zambezi is the fourth longest river in Africa, after the Nile, Congo, and Niger. After rising in black, marshy dambo, the river drains a vast plateau, some 1200m above sea level, passing through Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, before disgorging into the Indian Ocean.

I. In Art

A View of Victoria Falls — Edward Henry Holder (c. early 20th century)

Edward Henry Holder (1847-1922) was a British landscape artist, born in Scarborough, Yorkshire. During his career, he travelled all over Europe and Southern Africa, where he painted this scene of the Zambezi River as it tumbles down Victoria Falls.

David Livingstone was the first European to set eyes on the famous waterfall, which he named after Queen Victoria. But in my view the original local Lozi name is far superior: Mosi-oa-Tunya, “The Smoke That Thunders.”

II. In Verse