# Katavi > Miombo, floodplain and the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika — a region of 45,000 square kilometres with one of Tanzania's least visited great parks in the middle of it, and a fortified mission of 1893 standing on the lake. Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/katavi Last updated: 2026-10-13 Edited by: Kabeer Dalvi (https://seeyoutanzania.com/about) ## At a glance - **Region:** Katavi Region, far west - **Population:** 1,152,958 (2022 census) - **Area:** 45,843 km² - **Created:** 2012, from Rukwa Region - **Capital:** Mpanda ## Map of Katavi Region **Districts and councils:** Mlele · Mpanda Municipal · Mpimbwe · Nsimbo · Tanganyika Councils as counted in the 2022 census (National Bureau of Statistics). ## Fort Leopold, and the mission that replaced it The region takes its name from **Katavi**, a spirit associated with the lake and with the floodplain that became the national park. Its most unexpected history is at **Karema**, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. In **1879** an expedition working for **King Leopold II** of the Belgians occupied the site and called it **Fort Leopold** — an outpost of an ambition that reached this far east before the Berlin Conference assigned the eastern lake shore to Germany. Leopold then invited the **White Fathers** to take it over, and from **1885** the missionaries built a village there with five hundred people freed from slave caravans. Their church went up in **1890** and a **fortified mission house in 1893**, which is still standing. Lake traffic tied the shore together long before roads did. The **MV Liemba** — built in Germany in 1913 as the *Graf von Götzen*, launched at Kigoma in 1915, scuttled in 1916, raised and relaunched in 1927 — called at Karema and the other lake ports for decades. She was out of service from 2018 for a government-funded refit, and sailed again from Kigoma on 6 October 2026. **Katavi Region itself was created in 2012**, when Mpanda District was separated from Rukwa. ## Farming in the miombo Almost everyone here farms. Agriculture accounts for the overwhelming share of the regional economy, and the staple crops are **maize**, **rice**, **sunflower** and **cassava**, grown in clearings cut out of the woodland. That woodland is the defining feature of the region: **miombo** covers something close to seven-tenths of Katavi's land area. It supports beekeeping — honey is a real cash earner here, as it is in Tabora — and it is the reason so much of the region is protected as park, game reserve or forest reserve. Fishing works both edges of the region: **Lake Tanganyika** in the west, and the northern end of **Lake Rukwa** in the south-east. Small-scale gold mining adds cash in places, and Mpanda is the market town where all of it is traded. **What the region lives on** - **Maize & rice:** The main crops of the region - **Sunflower & cassava:** Grown widely alongside them - **Fishing:** Lake Tanganyika and Lake Rukwa - **Honey:** From the miombo woodland - **Gold:** Small-scale mining in the district ## A region with very few visitors The region's peoples include the **Pimbwe**, **Bende**, **Konongo**, **Tongwe**, **Vinza** and **Holoholo**, with Fipa and others alongside them. These are small communities in a very large space, farming and fishing, and the region has never had the roads or the towns to concentrate them. **Mpanda**, the capital, is a working town at the end of a branch of the Central Line railway — for years the main way in. Roads have improved a great deal in the last decade, and the drive north to Kigoma or south to Sumbawanga is now feasible in a day in the dry season. The reason to make the journey is **Katavi National Park**. At 4,471 km² it is one of the largest parks in the country, and in the late dry season the shrinking Katuma river and the floodplains hold concentrations of hippo, buffalo and crocodile that are hard to believe if you have only seen the northern circuit. It receives a tiny fraction of the Serengeti's visitors — which is its whole character. ## Towns, parks and places across Katavi Region ### Katavi National Park (National park) 4,471 km² of floodplain and miombo, gazetted in 1974 — one of the emptiest great parks in the country. [Park page](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/katavi) ### Karema (Lakeshore village) A fishing village on Lake Tanganyika with a fortified White Fathers mission house of 1893 still standing. ### Mpanda (Town) The regional capital and railhead, and the base for reaching the park and the lake. ### Lake Rukwa (Rift lake) The northern end of the shallow, shifting soda lake reaches into the region's south-east. ### Rukwa Game Reserve (Game reserve) Protected miombo adjoining the park — remote, and with almost no infrastructure. ## What to see ### Katavi National Park *National park.* Hippo and buffalo on the Katuma floodplain in the late dry season, and almost no other vehicles. ### The Karema mission *Heritage.* The 1893 fortified mission house above the lake, and the village founded with people freed from the slave caravans. ### Lake Tanganyika shore *Lakeshore.* Clear water, fishing villages and the old steamer ports on the world's second-deepest lake. ### Mpanda *Town.* Railhead, market and supply town — where to stock up before the park. ### The miombo *Woodland.* Dry woodland across most of the region, with beekeeping in the trees and elephants moving through it. ### Lake Rukwa's northern shore *Rift lake.* Birds, fishing camps and a lake whose size changes from decade to decade. ## Before you go - **Getting there:** Light aircraft serve the park's airstrips in season. By road, Mpanda is reached from Sumbawanga, Kigoma or Tabora; trains run on the Central Line branch to Mpanda. - **Getting around:** A 4x4 and a driver, and fuel planned in advance. Distances are long and services few. - **When to come:** August to October is the spectacle in Katavi, when the water has gone and the game concentrates. The rains, November to May by TANAPA's reckoning, make roads hard. - **Park fees:** Katavi is a TANAPA park; fees are paid at the gate, and driving inside is restricted to daylight hours. - **Self-sufficiency:** There is very little accommodation outside a handful of camps. Book ahead and carry water, cash and spares. - **Money:** Shillings, in cash. Do not rely on card payment anywhere in the region. ## Checked against - [113-year-old MV Liemba returns to Lake Tanganyika after Sh34 billion overhaul (12 October 2026)](https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/113-year-old-mv-liemba-returns-to-lake-tanganyika-after-sh34-billion-overhaul-5628894), The Citizen - [2022 Population and Housing Census — administrative units](https://www.nbs.go.tz/statistics/topic/census-2022), National Bureau of Statistics, Tanzania - [Katavi Region — creation, area, peoples, miombo, economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katavi_Region), Wikipedia - [Karema — Fort Leopold, the White Fathers, the 1893 mission house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karema,_Tanzania), Wikipedia - [Katavi National Park](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/nationalparks/katavi), Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) - [MV Liemba restoration and return to service](https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/mv-liemba-restoration-nears-completion-as-historic-lake-tanganyika-vessel-targets-august-return-to-service-5493786), The Citizen