Qualla: Central Africa https://qualla.com/central-africa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:02 GMT Qualla episodic false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Central Africa https://qualla.com/central-africa Mount Moco https://qualla.com/mount-moco/ Photo credit Benjamin Stauch (Wikischaaf (talk)), CC0. On Angola's highest peak, a few dozen hectares of cloud forest shelter birds found nowhere else on Earth, and a village at its foot has spent more than a decade trying to grow that forest back.

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Image: Benjamin Stauch (Wikischaaf (talk)) | CC0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/m/f/c/mount-moco-wp/kmfc-mount-moco-combined.mp3 4:42 full Chinyingi https://qualla.com/chinyingi/ A Capuchin mission on the west bank of the Zambezi where an untrained Italian friar built a suspension bridge so that no one else would drown trying to cross the river.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/8/7/chinyingi-wp/kt87-chinyingi-combined.mp3 4:35 full Kabompo https://qualla.com/kabompo/ A town of six languages and miles of teak forest in northwestern Zambia, where a future president once lived under colonial house arrest.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/9/4/kabompo-wp/kt94-kabompo-combined.mp3 5:04 full Zambezian evergreen dry forests https://qualla.com/zambezian-evergreen-dry-forests/ One of the largest tropical evergreen forests outside the equatorial zone, these hidden stands of mavunda trees on the sandy hills of western Zambia shelter nearly 400 bird species in country too infertile to farm.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/9/n/zambezian-evergreen-dry-forests-wp/kt9n-zambezian-evergreen-dry-forests-combined.mp3 5:37 full North-Western Province, Zambia https://qualla.com/north-western-province-zambia/ Photo credit Furfur, Peter in s, Location map:NordNordWest, CC BY-SA 4.0. The emptiest province in Zambia - 20 people per square kilometer across an area larger than Greece - where the continental watershed splits rivers between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, and where the Luvale still make fire each July at a UNESCO-recognized ceremony.

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Image: Furfur, Peter in s, Location map:NordNordWest | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/9/y/north-western-province-zambia-wp/kt9y-north-western-province-zambia-combined.mp3 5:49 full Lumwana https://qualla.com/lumwana/ A village that became a town in a decade, built around one of Zambia's newest copper mines in the remote North-Western Province.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/c/u/lumwana-wp/ktcu-lumwana-combined.mp3 4:50 full Zambia https://qualla.com/zambia/ Photo credit Someone35, CC BY-SA 3.0. A squashed-peanut-shaped country where the Zambezi plunges over Victoria Falls, safari camps outnumber cities, and 73 ethnic groups have somehow always managed to get along.

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Image: Someone35 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/e/b/zambia-wk/kteb-zambia-combined.mp3 6:38 full Zambia https://qualla.com/zambia/ A country whose borders were drawn by Cecil Rhodes's mining ambitions, whose rivers drain half a continent, and whose name was taken from the Zambezi on the day of independence in 1964.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/e/b/zambia-wp/kteb-zambia-combined.mp3 6:57 full Kalulushi https://qualla.com/kalulushi/ A planned company town named for a hare, built for copper, reshaped by mine closures, and remade by a university that took its place.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/e/y/kalulushi-wp/ktey-kalulushi-combined.mp3 5:44 full Chingola https://qualla.com/chingola/ Photo credit BlueSalo, CC BY-SA 3.0. A Zambian copper town built around one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, where the landscape itself has been carved into an industrial geography.

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Image: BlueSalo | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/g/b/chingola-wp/ktgb-chingola-combined.mp3 5:09 full Nchanga Copper Mine https://qualla.com/nchanga-copper-mine/ Photo credit BlueSalo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Africa's largest copper mine is a four-mile gash in the Zambian earth, and the story of the 1,800 villagers who sued their way into a British Supreme Court ruling that reached far beyond its fence line.

Read more: Nchanga Copper Mine on Qualla

Image: BlueSalo | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/g/b/nchanga-copper-mine-wp/ktgb-nchanga-copper-mine-combined.mp3 6:05 full Kafue River https://qualla.com/kafue-river/ Photo credit Paulmaz at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1,576-kilometer river that bends entirely within one country, carries half of Zambia's population along its basin, and once turned blue overnight.

Read more: Kafue River on Qualla

Image: Paulmaz at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/g/m/kafue-river-wp/ktgm-kafue-river-combined.mp3 5:48 full Lufilian Arc https://qualla.com/lufilian-arc/ Photo credit Kuunga2.jpg: Jmeert derivative work: Mikhail Ryazanov (talk), Public domain. An 800-kilometre crescent of folded rock across Zambia and the Congo that holds roughly a quarter of the world's copper and most of its cobalt.

Read more: Lufilian Arc on Qualla

Image: Kuunga2.jpg: Jmeert derivative work: Mikhail Ryazanov (talk) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/g/t/lufilian-arc-wp/ktgt-lufilian-arc-combined.mp3 4:49 full University of Lubumbashi https://qualla.com/university-of-lubumbashi/ Photo credit Mike Rosenberg, CC BY 2.0. One of the largest universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNILU was the site of a 1990 massacre of student protesters that helped end Western support for Mobutu's regime.

Read more: University of Lubumbashi on Qualla

Image: Mike Rosenberg | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/g/t/university-of-lubumbashi-wp/ktgt-university-of-lubumbashi-combined.mp3 5:25 full Kinsevere https://qualla.com/kinsevere/ A Congolese copper mine whose 61 million dollars bankrolled a governor's 2007 election and whose current owners are now investing 600 million more to extract cobalt for the world's batteries.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/g/x/kinsevere-wp/ktgx-kinsevere-combined.mp3 4:38 full Central Province, Zambia https://qualla.com/central-province-zambia/ Photo credit Kkibumba, Public domain. 94,394 square kilometers of farmland, national parks, and the Mulungushi Rock of Authority - the open-air site in Kabwe where the chant for Zambian independence first went up in the early 1960s.

Read more: Central Province, Zambia on Qualla

Image: Kkibumba | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/8/central-province-zambia-wp/kts8-central-province-zambia-combined.mp3 5:24 full Copperbelt University https://qualla.com/copperbelt-university/ Photo credit Per Arne Wilson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Zambia's largest public university, born from the need to train the engineers and managers who keep the country's copper-driven economy running.

Read more: Copperbelt University on Qualla

Image: Per Arne Wilson | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/p/copperbelt-university-wp/ktsp-copperbelt-university-combined.mp3 5:47 full Kitwe https://qualla.com/kitwe/ Zambia's second city, a Copperbelt mining town founded in 1936 that produced two presidents, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect, and the deepest cobalt mine in the country.

Read more: Kitwe on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/p/kitwe-wp/ktsp-kitwe-combined.mp3 4:48 full Bwana Mkubwa https://qualla.com/bwana-mkubwa/ Photo credit Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V., Public domain. The oldest mine on Zambia's Copperbelt, named in Swahili for the big boss - a place where copper has been dug since the fourteenth century and where one colonial company's accounting disaster became another century's footnote.

Read more: Bwana Mkubwa on Qualla

Image: Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V. | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/q/bwana-mkubwa-wp/ktsq-bwana-mkubwa-combined.mp3 5:00 full Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial https://qualla.com/dag-hammarskjold-crash-site-memorial/ Photo credit Jr the one, CC BY-SA 4.0. A quiet Zambian memorial garden marks the place where the serving Secretary-General of the United Nations died in 1961 - a crash whose cause remains contested more than sixty years later.

Read more: Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial on Qualla

Image: Jr the one | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/q/dag-hammarskjold-crash-site-memorial-wp/ktsq-dag-hammarskjold-crash-site-memorial-combined.mp3 5:53 full Ndola https://qualla.com/ndola/ Photo credit User:Vberger, Public domain. On September 18, 1961, a UN plane carrying Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold went down outside this Zambian mining city, and the peace talks he was flying to never happened. Ndola has been living with the weight of that missing conversation ever since.

Read more: Ndola on Qualla

Image: User:Vberger | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/q/ndola-wk/ktsq-ndola-combined.mp3 5:42 full Ndola https://qualla.com/ndola/ Zambia's third-largest city is a mosaic of limestone, copper, railways, and memory - founded in 1904 by a trader nicknamed Chiripula, anchored by a slave-market fig tree that has now fallen to termites, and shaped by the railhead that still runs through its center.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/q/ndola-wp/ktsq-ndola-combined.mp3 5:53 full Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport https://qualla.com/simon-mwansa-kapwepwe-international-airport/ Photo credit Sean MENDIS, CC BY-SA 4.0. Zambia's newest major airport opened in 2021 beside the site where UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold died in 1961 - and five months before it officially opened, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 accidentally landed on its unopened runway.

Read more: Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport on Qualla

Image: Sean MENDIS | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/s/q/simon-mwansa-kapwepwe-international-airport-wp/ktsq-simon-mwansa-kapwepwe-international-airport-combined.mp3 6:12 full 1935 Copperbelt strike https://qualla.com/1935-copperbelt-strike/ On 29 May 1935, six African miners were killed by colonial police at the Roan Antelope mine. The strike failed. What it started changed Africa.

Read more: 1935 Copperbelt strike on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/u/0/1935-copperbelt-strike-wp/ktu0-1935-copperbelt-strike-combined.mp3 5:46 full Congo Pedicle https://qualla.com/congo-pedicle/ A boot-shaped wedge of Congolese territory that juts into Zambia, splitting the country in two - a geographic oddity produced by the king of Italy drawing a line on a map in 1894.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/u/6/congo-pedicle-wp/ktu6-congo-pedicle-combined.mp3 5:38 full Kasanka National Park https://qualla.com/kasanka-national-park/ Photo credit Mehmet Karatay, CC BY-SA 4.0. A small Zambian park that hosts the largest mammal migration on Earth, when ten million fruit bats descend on a single patch of swamp forest each November.

Read more: Kasanka National Park on Qualla

Image: Mehmet Karatay | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/v/8/kasanka-national-park-wp/ktv8-kasanka-national-park-combined.mp3 5:03 full Lavushi Manda National Park https://qualla.com/lavushi-manda-national-park/ A 1,500 square-kilometer Zambian park where the last wild black rhino in the country was seen in the 1980s, now run on budgets measured in hundreds of dollars and rebuilt one wire-snare arrest at a time.

Read more: Lavushi Manda National Park on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/v/f/lavushi-manda-national-park-wp/ktvf-lavushi-manda-national-park-combined.mp3 5:00 full Bangweulu Wetlands https://qualla.com/bangweulu-wetlands/ Photo credit Mehmet Karatay, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nine thousand square kilometers of floodplain where the horizon disappears, shoebills stalk the shallows, and the only remaining significant population of black lechwe still runs.

Read more: Bangweulu Wetlands on Qualla

Image: Mehmet Karatay | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/v/q/bangweulu-wetlands-wp/ktvq-bangweulu-wetlands-combined.mp3 4:53 full North Luangwa National Park https://qualla.com/north-luangwa-national-park/ Photo credit MellonDor, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Zambian wilderness where black rhinos were reintroduced after being poached to local extinction, where safaris happen on foot through grass taller than a vehicle, and where you can go a full day without seeing another human being.

Read more: North Luangwa National Park on Qualla

Image: MellonDor | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/t/y/g/north-luangwa-national-park-wk/ktyg-north-luangwa-national-park-combined.mp3 5:34 full Kisenge https://qualla.com/kisenge/ Photo credit DiogoC300, CC BY-SA 4.0. A small village in the far south of Lualaba Province, once a manganese-mining town on the Benguela Railway, now a quieter place at the Congolese-Angolan frontier.

Read more: Kisenge on Qualla

Image: DiogoC300 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/0/7/kisenge-wp/kw07-kisenge-combined.mp3 5:05 full Kalene Hill https://qualla.com/kalene-hill/ A low sandstone ridge in northwest Zambia where the Zambezi rises, where an 1880s slave-trading crossroads became a mission hospital, and where a small hydroelectric plant now powers a hospital that still pulls patients from three countries.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/1/0/kalene-hill-wp/kw10-kalene-hill-combined.mp3 4:57 full Sakeji School https://qualla.com/sakeji-school/ A Christian boarding school founded in 1925 on a Zambezi tributary in northwestern Zambia, built for the children of Protestant missionaries and now educating pupils from across the region.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/1/2/sakeji-school-wp/kw12-sakeji-school-combined.mp3 5:14 full Kamoto Mine https://qualla.com/kamoto-mine/ Photo credit Gécamines (Zairian company), Public domain. An underground copper and cobalt mine near Kolwezi whose ore helps power the world's electric vehicles, and whose tailings have poisoned a river.

Read more: Kamoto Mine on Qualla

Image: Gécamines (Zairian company) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/5/kamoto-mine-wp/kw45-kamoto-mine-combined.mp3 5:03 full Kolwezi tailings project https://qualla.com/kolwezi-tailings-project/ A copper-and-cobalt reclamation effort on a Congolese valley filled with seventy years of mine waste, where a billion-dollar dispute reshaped a town's fortunes.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/5/kolwezi-tailings-project-wp/kw45-kolwezi-tailings-project-combined.mp3 4:53 full Lualaba District https://qualla.com/lualaba-district/ Photo credit Zoocat56, CC BY-SA 4.0. A century of shifting borders across southern Congo, traced through one administrative district that appeared, vanished, and reappeared on Belgian and Congolese maps.

Read more: Lualaba District on Qualla

Image: Zoocat56 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/5/lualaba-district-wp/kw45-lualaba-district-combined.mp3 5:16 full Mutoshi mine https://qualla.com/mutoshi-mine/ A cobalt and copper mine in the Congolese Copperbelt where thousands of artisanal miners worked by hand, and where global supply chains for electric-vehicle batteries pass through a dusty, disputed pit near Kolwezi.

Read more: Mutoshi mine on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/5/mutoshi-mine-wp/kw45-mutoshi-mine-combined.mp3 5:24 full Deziwa mine https://qualla.com/deziwa-mine/ East of Kolwezi in Lualaba Province, Deziwa is an open pit holding an estimated 4.6 million tonnes of copper and 420,000 tonnes of cobalt - and a dossier of deals that has drawn scrutiny from Global Witness and RAID.

Read more: Deziwa mine on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/6/deziwa-mine-wp/kw46-deziwa-mine-combined.mp3 4:24 full Kalukundi mine https://qualla.com/kalukundi-mine/ A copper-cobalt deposit 65 kilometres from Kolwezi whose development stalled for years behind an ownership dispute and an international bribery scandal that ended with a $412 million US settlement.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/7/kalukundi-mine-wp/kw47-kalukundi-mine-combined.mp3 4:55 full Haut-Lomami District https://qualla.com/haut-lomami-district/ Photo credit Zoocat56, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Belgian colonial administrative unit that bounced through six decades of redrawn maps before finally, in 2015, becoming a Congolese province in its own right with Kamina at its heart.

Read more: Haut-Lomami District on Qualla

Image: Zoocat56 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/m/haut-lomami-district-wp/kw4m-haut-lomami-district-combined.mp3 4:23 full Ciments du Katanga https://qualla.com/ciments-du-katanga/ A cement company founded by Belgian royal decree in 1922 to feed the copper boom in Katanga - because the ore was in the heart of the continent, and the railroads that would carry refined copper out demanded factories built of something heavier than ambition.

Read more: Ciments du Katanga on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/4/r/ciments-du-katanga-wp/kw4r-ciments-du-katanga-combined.mp3 6:22 full Luishia Mine https://qualla.com/luishia-mine/ An open pit copper and cobalt mine in southern Congo, its century-long history shaped as much by the workers who struck in 1941 as by the ore that made it famous.

Read more: Luishia Mine on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/5/0/luishia-mine-wp/kw50-luishia-mine-combined.mp3 6:22 full Kamatanda https://qualla.com/kamatanda/ Photo credit Unknown photographer, Public domain. A region north of Likasi where the Sanga people mined copper for centuries, where Belgian Union Miniere took over in 1906, and where in 2010 some 400 children were working among 2,000 artisanal diggers in open pits up to 25 metres deep.

Read more: Kamatanda on Qualla

Image: Unknown photographer | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/5/1/kamatanda-wp/kw51-kamatanda-combined.mp3 5:55 full Likasi https://qualla.com/likasi/ A Congolese copper city in the hills of Katanga, 120 kilometers north of Lubumbashi, built on ore and remembered for a siege.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/5/1/likasi-wk/kw51-likasi-combined.mp3 5:19 full Katanga https://qualla.com/katanga/ Photo credit MONUSCO Photos, CC BY-SA 2.0. A traveler's guide to the southeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - copperbelt, Lubumbashi, and the long horizon where the plateau meets Zambia.

Read more: Katanga on Qualla

Image: MONUSCO Photos | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/5/2/katanga-wk/kw52-katanga-combined.mp3 5:02 full Mwadingusha Hydroelectric Power Station https://qualla.com/mwadingusha-hydroelectric-power-station/ Photo credit Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0. Commissioned in 1930 to electrify the Katanga copper mines, Mwadingusha ran untouched for 86 years before Congolese and Canadian engineers began rebuilding it turbine by turbine.

Read more: Mwadingusha Hydroelectric Power Station on Qualla

Image: Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/5/6/mwadingusha-hydroelectric-power-station-wp/kw56-mwadingusha-hydroelectric-power-station-combined.mp3 5:06 full Central Zambezian miombo woodlands https://qualla.com/central-zambezian-miombo-woodlands/ Photo credit Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA, CC BY 2.0. A ragged arc of dry tropical woodland that drapes across six countries - home to Jane Goodall's chimpanzees, some of Africa's last black rhinos, and a canopy that burns and regrows every year.

Read more: Central Zambezian miombo woodlands on Qualla

Image: Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/5/d/central-zambezian-miombo-woodlands-wp/kw5d-central-zambezian-miombo-woodlands-combined.mp3 5:44 full Katanga Province https://qualla.com/katanga-province/ Photo credit sebastienlavoie, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Congolese province whose uranium built the first atomic bombs, whose secession nearly broke the country, and whose mineral wealth has never made its people rich.

Read more: Katanga Province on Qualla

Image: sebastienlavoie | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/6/k/katanga-province-wp/kw6k-katanga-province-combined.mp3 5:30 full Upemba National Park https://qualla.com/upemba-national-park/ Photo credit Blimeo, CC BY-SA 4.0. At its 1939 creation the largest national park in Africa, covering 17,730 square kilometers of Congolese wetlands, grasslands, and mountain forest, Upemba preserves the Upemba Depression's lakes where 1,800 species of plant and animal still live.

Read more: Upemba National Park on Qualla

Image: Blimeo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/6/u/upemba-national-park-wp/kw6u-upemba-national-park-combined.mp3 5:11 full 2003 Ukrainian Cargo Airways Ilyushin Il-76 accident https://qualla.com/2003-ukrainian-cargo-airways-ilyushin-il-76-accident/ A Soviet-built cargo plane, chartered to carry soldiers and their families across the Congo, lost its rear door at 10,000 feet on a May night in 2003 - and no one knows for certain how many people fell out.

Read more: 2003 Ukrainian Cargo Airways Ilyushin Il-76 accident on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/b/v/2003-ukrainian-cargo-airways-ilyushin-il-76-accident-wp/kwbv-2003-ukrainian-cargo-airways-ilyushin-il-76-accident-combined.mp3 5:52 full Kasai-Oriental https://qualla.com/kasai-oriental/ Photo credit Danny KABEYA, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Congolese province that holds the world's densest known concentration of industrial diamonds - and whose capital, Mbuji-Mayi, grew from a refuge into a city of millions.

Read more: Kasai-Oriental on Qualla

Image: Danny KABEYA | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/b/v/kasai-oriental-wp/kwbv-kasai-oriental-combined.mp3 5:01 full Mbuji Mayi Airport https://qualla.com/mbuji-mayi-airport/ Photo credit MONUSCO/Myriam Asmani, CC BY-SA 2.0. The international airport serving one of the world's great diamond cities - where in 2015, eight people on the ground died when a cargo plane could not stop on a wet, crumbling runway.

Read more: Mbuji Mayi Airport on Qualla

Image: MONUSCO/Myriam Asmani | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/b/v/mbuji-mayi-airport-wp/kwbv-mbuji-mayi-airport-combined.mp3 7:00 full Lomami Province https://qualla.com/lomami-province/ Photo credit Christina Bergey, CC BY-SA 3.0. One of the DRC's newest provinces, carved out of Kasaï-Oriental in 2015 - agro-pastoral, diamond-bearing, and wrestling with infrastructure left half-built.

Read more: Lomami Province on Qualla

Image: Christina Bergey | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/c/m/lomami-province-wp/kwcm-lomami-province-combined.mp3 5:05 full Luba Empire https://qualla.com/luba-empire/ Photo credit Library of Congress, Public domain. For a thousand years, a sophisticated Central African state flourished in what is now the DRC, governed by sacred kings and remembered by professional historians called 'men of memory.'

Read more: Luba Empire on Qualla

Image: Library of Congress | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/d/q/luba-empire-wp/kwdq-luba-empire-combined.mp3 6:41 full Piana-Mwanga Hydroelectric Power Station https://qualla.com/piana-mwanga-hydroelectric-power-station/ A 54-megawatt hydro plant built in 1933 to power colonial tin mines, mothballed in 1982, and now being revived to feed one of the world's largest lithium deposits.

Read more: Piana-Mwanga Hydroelectric Power Station on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/e/u/piana-mwanga-hydroelectric-power-station-wp/kweu-piana-mwanga-hydroelectric-power-station-combined.mp3 4:47 full Lulenge https://qualla.com/lulenge/ Photo credit Mikebrown7, CC BY-SA 4.0. A mountainous sector of eastern Congo where five communities share land, a history of displacement, and the ongoing wars of the Great Lakes region.

Read more: Lulenge on Qualla

Image: Mikebrown7 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/f/3/lulenge-wp/kwf3-lulenge-combined.mp3 7:05 full Luvua River https://qualla.com/luvua-river/ Photo credit Tom Skrinar, CC BY-SA 2.0. The river that breaks through the rim of the Congo basin - once part of the Zambezi system, now, depending on who you ask, part of the true source of the Congo.

Read more: Luvua River on Qualla

Image: Tom Skrinar | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/g/1/luvua-river-wp/kwg1-luvua-river-combined.mp3 6:23 full Tanganyika Province https://qualla.com/tanganyika-province/ Photo credit Tyron Amanpour, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Congolese province facing the world's longest lake, created in the 2015 repartitioning from the old Katanga region, whose capital Kalemie anchors a territory still recovering from decades of conflict.

Read more: Tanganyika Province on Qualla

Image: Tyron Amanpour | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/g/c/tanganyika-province-wp/kwgc-tanganyika-province-combined.mp3 5:29 full Lake Uniamési https://qualla.com/lake-uniamesi/ Photo credit n., Public domain. The enormous inland sea that nineteenth-century missionaries imagined at the heart of Africa - and the smaller truth that three real lakes eventually revealed.

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Image: n. | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/g/j/lake-uniamesi-wp/kwgj-lake-uniamesi-combined.mp3 5:28 full Lukuga River https://qualla.com/lukuga-river/ Photo credit Tom Skrinar, CC BY-SA 2.0. The only river that drains Lake Tanganyika - and it has been, at different times, a creek, a torrent, and everything in between.

Read more: Lukuga River on Qualla

Image: Tom Skrinar | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/g/p/lukuga-river-wp/kwgp-lukuga-river-combined.mp3 6:58 full Ntumbachushi Falls https://qualla.com/ntumbachushi-falls/ Photo credit Flacourtophile, CC BY-SA 4.0. Where the Ngona River splits into twin 30-meter cataracts on Zambia's Luapula escarpment, feeding pools clear enough to swim in and shrines old enough to predate any map.

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Image: Flacourtophile | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/h/x/ntumbachushi-falls-wp/kwhx-ntumbachushi-falls-combined.mp3 4:16 full Lake Bangweulu https://qualla.com/lake-bangweulu/ Photo credit Damyna, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Zambian freshwater system the size of Connecticut where sky and water blur at the horizon, fed by the source stream of the Congo.

Read more: Lake Bangweulu on Qualla

Image: Damyna | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/j/0/lake-bangweulu-wp/kwj0-lake-bangweulu-combined.mp3 4:45 full Dambo https://qualla.com/dambo/ Photo credit U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown, Public domain. Across the high plateaus of south-central Africa, grass-covered wetlands cover an eighth of Zambia and quietly govern whether streams run in the dry season.

Read more: Dambo on Qualla

Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/k/2/dambo-wp/kwk2-dambo-combined.mp3 4:38 full Luapula River https://qualla.com/luapula-river/ Along this border river, travelers greet each other with 'Mwapoleni' - and the valley took the greeting for its name.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/k/6/luapula-river-wp/kwk6-luapula-river-combined.mp3 5:21 full Dikulushi Mine https://qualla.com/dikulushi-mine/ A remote copper and silver mine west of Lake Mweru whose concentrate once crossed a lake by pontoon ferry, and whose nearby town of Kilwa became the site of a massacre that still shadows the operation.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/k/j/dikulushi-mine-wp/kwkj-dikulushi-mine-combined.mp3 4:29 full Chiengi District https://qualla.com/chiengi-district/ Photo credit Furfur, Peter in s, CC BY-SA 4.0. Zambia's northernmost finger of land, pressed between Lake Mweru and the Congolese border, where fishermen still outnumber farmers and the colonial district commissioner's veranda once had bars to keep the lions out.

Read more: Chiengi District on Qualla

Image: Furfur, Peter in s | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/k/x/chiengi-district-wp/kwkx-chiengi-district-combined.mp3 4:06 full Pweto https://qualla.com/pweto/ Photo credit Tom Skrinar, CC BY-SA 2.0. A Congolese border town on the northern tip of Lake Mweru where a December 2000 battle during the Second Congo War claimed thousands of lives and helped end one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II.

Read more: Pweto on Qualla

Image: Tom Skrinar | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/k/x/pweto-wp/kwkx-pweto-combined.mp3 5:37 full Lake Mweru Wantipa https://qualla.com/lake-mweru-wantipa/ Photo credit U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown, Public domain. A Zambian rift-valley lake that has vanished and reappeared across the last century, its muddy waters a puzzle to the geographers who have tried to pin it down.

Read more: Lake Mweru Wantipa on Qualla

Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/m/n/lake-mweru-wantipa-wp/kwmn-lake-mweru-wantipa-combined.mp3 4:37 full Nsumbu National Park https://qualla.com/nsumbu-national-park/ On the Zambian shore of Lake Tanganyika, 2,000 square kilometers of miombo woodland, rare Itigi-Sumbu thicket, and 80 kilometers of lakeshore where swimmers share the water with crocodiles and hippos.

Read more: Nsumbu National Park on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/m/w/nsumbu-national-park-wp/kwmw-nsumbu-national-park-combined.mp3 4:36 full Chambeshi Monument https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. A stone pillar on the banks of a Zambian river marks where the First World War actually ended - three days after the Armistice in Europe, when news finally reached the last German general still fighting in Africa.

Read more: Chambeshi Monument on Qualla

Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-combined.mp3 5:28 full Shiwa Ngandu https://qualla.com/shiwa-ngandu/ Photo credit Marcus Rozbitsky, CC BY 2.0. An English country house built on a Zambian lake by thousands of Bemba workers for one colonial aristocrat's dream - a 12,500-hectare estate whose name means 'lake of the royal crocodile' in Bemba.

Read more: Shiwa Ngandu on Qualla

Image: Marcus Rozbitsky | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/8/shiwa-ngandu-wp/kwn8-shiwa-ngandu-combined.mp3 5:53 full Mwela Rock Paintings https://qualla.com/mwela-rock-paintings/ More than 1,000 ancestral paintings on granite outcrops near Kasama, made by hunter-gatherer ancestors of modern Africans two millennia ago, form one of the densest rock art concentrations in Africa.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/j/mwela-rock-paintings-wp/kwnj-mwela-rock-paintings-combined.mp3 5:09 full Muchinga Province https://qualla.com/muchinga-province/ Photo credit Furfur, Peter in s, Location map:NordNordWest, CC BY-SA 4.0. Zambia's newest province straddles the Great North Road and the TAZARA Railway, connecting the copperbelt to the Tanzanian coast across 88,000 square kilometers of rural uplands.

Read more: Muchinga Province on Qualla

Image: Furfur, Peter in s, Location map:NordNordWest | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/z/muchinga-province-wp/kwnz-muchinga-province-combined.mp3 5:51 full Mbala District https://qualla.com/mbala-district/ Photo credit Furfur, Peter in s, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Zambian district named for a spotted bushbuck, where the Great Rift Valley drops from 2,067-meter peaks to 400 meters above the sea.

Read more: Mbala District on Qualla

Image: Furfur, Peter in s | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/h/mbala-district-wp/kwqh-mbala-district-combined.mp3 5:39 full Chambeshi River https://qualla.com/chambeshi-river/ A small river in northeastern Zambia is, measured in kilometers, the most distant source of the Congo - and the starting point of a 4,700-kilometer journey that ends in the Atlantic.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/k/chambeshi-river-wp/kwqk-chambeshi-river-combined.mp3 4:30 full Kalambo structure https://qualla.com/kalambo-structure/ At Kalambo Falls on the Zambia-Tanzania border, two interlocking logs dated to at least 476,000 years ago may be the oldest known wooden structure on Earth - built by hominins who predate Homo sapiens by more than 100,000 years.

Read more: Kalambo structure on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kalambo-structure-wp/kwqp-kalambo-structure-combined.mp3 4:28 full Kasanga https://qualla.com/kasanga/ A Tanzanian lakeside town once called Bismarckburg, where a German fort's wooden guns fooled a British flotilla and changed the course of an African campaign.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/q/p/kasanga-wp/kwqp-kasanga-combined.mp3 5:13 full Marungu highlands https://qualla.com/marungu-highlands/ Above the western shore of Lake Tanganyika rises a mountain country where a single small tree frog lives - and nowhere else on Earth.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/t/p/marungu-highlands-wp/kwtp-marungu-highlands-combined.mp3 7:24 full Moba, Democratic Republic of the Congo https://qualla.com/moba-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/ On a narrow shelf between Lake Tanganyika and the Marungu highlands, the Tabwa town of Moba endures in a region soldiers once called the Triangle of Death.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/t/p/moba-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-wp/kwtp-moba-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-combined.mp3 4:07 full Lake Tanganyika https://qualla.com/lake-tanganyika/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Tequendamia assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. A narrow freshwater sea over 400 miles long, shared by four countries and crossed by a century-old ferry travellers come from afar to ride.

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Tequendamia assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/u/v/lake-tanganyika-wk/kwuv-lake-tanganyika-combined.mp3 4:39 full Lake Tanganyika https://qualla.com/lake-tanganyika/ The world's longest freshwater lake and one of its oldest, home to 250 endemic cichlid species and the stage for a strange World War I naval campaign.

Read more: Lake Tanganyika on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/u/v/lake-tanganyika-wp/kwuv-lake-tanganyika-combined.mp3 5:15 full Kalemie https://qualla.com/kalemie/ Photo credit MONUSCO Photos, CC BY-SA 2.0. A lakeside port on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika where flights from Kinshasa arrive twice a week, trains creep in from Lubumbashi, and the N5 is mostly a rumour - a traveller's view of a town that rewards persistence.

Read more: Kalemie on Qualla

Image: MONUSCO Photos | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/u/y/kalemie-wk/kwuy-kalemie-combined.mp3 4:31 full Kalemie https://qualla.com/kalemie/ Capital of Tanganyika Province, founded in 1891 as an anti-slavery outpost under Captain Alphonse Jacques, renamed from Albertville in 1971, and still the junction where rail, road and 673 kilometres of lake meet.

Read more: Kalemie on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/u/y/kalemie-wp/kwuy-kalemie-combined.mp3 5:03 full Tanganika-Moero District https://qualla.com/tanganika-moero-district/ A Belgian Congo administrative district that existed from 1912 to 1933, named for two lakes, and dissolved into successor units whose boundaries still shape today's DR Congo provinces.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/u/y/tanganika-moero-district-wp/kwuy-tanganika-moero-district-combined.mp3 5:27 full Karema, Tanzania https://qualla.com/karema-tanzania/ A fishing village on Lake Tanganyika where a Belgian fort, a mission founded by freed captives, and a 1913 steamship converged into one unlikely history.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/v/9/karema-tanzania-wp/kwv9-karema-tanzania-combined.mp3 5:30 full Lagosa https://qualla.com/lagosa/ Photo credit User4353, CC BY-SA 4.0. A tiny Tanzanian village on Lake Tanganyika's eastern shore, where a century-old German ferry is the main reason the outside world shows up.

Read more: Lagosa on Qualla

Image: User4353 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/v/n/lagosa-wk/kwvn-lagosa-combined.mp3 3:52 full Rukwa Region https://qualla.com/rukwa-region/ Photo credit Lichinga, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Tanzanian region the size of Haiti, bordered by Lake Tanganyika to the west and named for an ancient alkaline lake to the south, where the Fipa people farm a fertile plateau rising 1,700 meters above the lakes below.

Read more: Rukwa Region on Qualla

Image: Lichinga | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/w/6/rukwa-region-wp/kww6-rukwa-region-combined.mp3 5:50 full Mpimbwe District https://qualla.com/mpimbwe-district/ Photo credit Calle v H, CC BY 2.0. A Tanzanian district where elephants and lions still walk near farms, where livestock losses to predators are falling, and where a small college teaches Bee Resources Management.

Read more: Mpimbwe District on Qualla

Image: Calle v H | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/w/x/mpimbwe-district-wp/kwwx-mpimbwe-district-combined.mp3 5:36 full Katavi National Park https://qualla.com/katavi-national-park/ Photo credit Nils Rinaldi from Lausanne, Switzerland, CC BY 2.0. Tanzania's third-largest national park, reachable only by small aircraft, where hundreds of hippos crowd the last pools of the Katuma River each dry season.

Read more: Katavi National Park on Qualla

Image: Nils Rinaldi from Lausanne, Switzerland | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/y/2/katavi-national-park-wp/kwy2-katavi-national-park-combined.mp3 5:34 full Mpanda https://qualla.com/mpanda/ Photo credit Calle v H, CC BY 2.0. A Tanzanian frontier town where sleeper trains arrive twice a week, gold prospectors pass through, and the rice harvest meets its buyers.

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Image: Calle v H | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/y/5/mpanda-wk/kwy5-mpanda-combined.mp3 3:35 full Mpanda https://qualla.com/mpanda/ Capital of Tanzania's newest region, Mpanda juggles four ethnic groups, five denominations, rice exports, and a railhead at the end of the line from Tabora.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/y/5/mpanda-wp/kwy5-mpanda-combined.mp3 4:23 full Nsimbo District https://qualla.com/nsimbo-district/ Photo credit Calle v H, CC BY 2.0. A young Tanzanian district born in 2012 where protected forests cover more land than farms, and seven ethnic peoples share 272 hamlets on the edge of Katavi National Park.

Read more: Nsimbo District on Qualla

Image: Calle v H | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/y/5/nsimbo-district-wp/kwy5-nsimbo-district-combined.mp3 4:41 full Katavi Region https://qualla.com/katavi-region/ Photo credit Calle v H, CC BY 2.0. One of Tanzania's newest and most forested administrative regions, nearly the size of Estonia, where miombo woodland covers more than two-thirds of the land.

Read more: Katavi Region on Qualla

Image: Calle v H | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/y/7/katavi-region-wp/kwy7-katavi-region-combined.mp3 5:31 full Bakouma https://qualla.com/bakouma/ Photo credit Public domain. Beneath a small Central African town sits the largest uranium deposit in sub-Saharan Africa. Four nations have tried to mine it. None has succeeded.

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Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/0/0/bakouma-wp/s900-bakouma-combined.mp3 5:30 full Lengo Petroglyphs https://qualla.com/lengo-petroglyphs/ A 200-meter laterite slab in the Central African Republic bush, engraved with more than 500 figures: antelope, leopards, spears, throwing knives, and a single human with a bird's head.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/0/0/lengo-petroglyphs-wp/s900-lengo-petroglyphs-combined.mp3 4:53 full Chinko https://qualla.com/chinko/ Photo credit Aebischer Thierry and Hickisch Raffael, CC BY 2.5. On a volcanic plateau in eastern Central African Republic, a 5.9-million-hectare protected area has become the country's largest employer outside Bangui - and a rare experiment in keeping African wildlife alive in a region where almost nothing else holds.

Read more: Chinko on Qualla

Image: Aebischer Thierry and Hickisch Raffael | CC BY 2.5

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/0/f/chinko-wp/s90f-chinko-combined.mp3 5:48 full Georges Le Marinel https://qualla.com/georges-le-marinel/ Born on an Iowa farm, educated at a Belgian military academy, Georges Le Marinel spent his career in service of King Leopold's Congo Free State - drawing the borders that still divide Central Africa today.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/0/r/georges-le-marinel-wp/s90r-georges-le-marinel-combined.mp3 6:14 full Léon Hanolet https://qualla.com/leon-hanolet/ Photo credit File:Léon Hanolet (1859–1908).jpg: Unknown authorUnknown author derivative work: Pbrks, Public domain. A Belgian colonial officer whose expeditions across the upper Ubangi helped set the borders of what would become the Central African Republic and the Congo Free State.

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Image: File:Léon Hanolet (1859–1908).jpg: Unknown authorUnknown author derivative work: Pbrks | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/0/r/leon-hanolet-wp/s90r-leon-hanolet-combined.mp3 5:34 full Ironstone Plateau https://qualla.com/ironstone-plateau/ A red, iron-rich upland in southern South Sudan that divides the Nile and Congo drainages - home to Zande and Bari speakers, teak plantations, and the only reliable route out of the Sudd during the rains.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/5/3/ironstone-plateau-wp/s953-ironstone-plateau-combined.mp3 5:23 full Western Bahr el Ghazal https://qualla.com/western-bahr-el-ghazal/ Photo credit Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0. A state at South Sudan's northwestern edge where the Sahel meets the equatorial rivers, and where the 19th-century slave trade cut a demographic wound that the land still shows.

Read more: Western Bahr el Ghazal on Qualla

Image: Bertramz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/6/k/western-bahr-el-ghazal-wp/s96k-western-bahr-el-ghazal-combined.mp3 5:17 full Dār Fertit https://qualla.com/dar-fertit/ The lowlands south of Darfur, whose name came to mean 'people legally enslavable' to the sultanates that raided them, remain home to dozens of peoples who share only the experience of being called 'Fertit' by outsiders.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/6/r/dar-fertit-wp/s96r-dar-fertit-combined.mp3 5:28 full Wau https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0. A trading hub on the Jur River where French colonials, slave-traders, British administrators, and multiple civil wars have layered themselves onto the same riverbank in northwestern South Sudan.

Read more: Wau on Qualla

Image: Bertramz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:06 full Bahr el Ghazal (region of South Sudan) https://qualla.com/bahr-el-ghazal-region-of-south-sudan/ The Sea of Gazelles - a vast floodplain of swamps and ironstone plateaus that British colonial officers called The Bog, and that the Dinka call home.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/v/bahr-el-ghazal-region-of-south-sudan-wp/s97v-bahr-el-ghazal-region-of-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:31 full Ouanda Djallé https://qualla.com/ouanda-djalle/ Photo credit Public domain. A tiny sub-prefecture in the remote northeast of the Central African Republic, Ouanda Djallé sits below Mont Toussoro in a region repeatedly shaken by rebels, the LRA, and the advancing Sahel.

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Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/8/4/ouanda-djalle-wp/s984-ouanda-djalle-combined.mp3 5:07 full Birao https://qualla.com/birao/ Photo credit © UNICEF, Pierre Holtz/hdptcar, Bangui, Central African Republic, CC BY-SA 2.0. The northernmost outpost of French colonial Ubangi-Shari, Birao has been burned, exiled to, contested between militias, and occupied by Russian mercenaries - a town whose history reads like a warning about what remoteness can mean.

Read more: Birao on Qualla

Image: © UNICEF | Pierre Holtz/hdptcar, Bangui, Central African Republic | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/b/4/birao-wp/s9b4-birao-combined.mp3 5:25 full Central African Republic–Chad border https://qualla.com/central-african-republic-chad-border/ A 1,556-kilometer border stitched together from a dozen rivers and three short straight lines, drawn by French colonial cartographers through country people had been crossing for centuries.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/b/q/central-african-republic-chad-border-wp/s9bq-central-african-republic-chad-border-combined.mp3 5:46 full Central African Republic–Sudan border https://qualla.com/central-african-republic-sudan-border/ Just 174 kilometers long, this short border roughly follows the watershed between the Nile and Congo basins - a continental divide that British and French commissioners demarcated on foot in the 1920s.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/b/q/central-african-republic-sudan-border-wp/s9bq-central-african-republic-sudan-border-combined.mp3 5:27 full Chad–Sudan border https://qualla.com/chad-sudan-border/ Photo credit Vallee, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the Libyan tripoint 423 kilometers down the 24th meridian, then a wandering 980 kilometers to the CAR corner - a 1,403-kilometer line that has been war zone, refugee corridor, and caravan route in turn.

Read more: Chad–Sudan border on Qualla

Image: Vallee | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/b/q/chad-sudan-border-wp/s9bq-chad-sudan-border-combined.mp3 5:17 full Liffi https://qualla.com/liffi/ A 150-foot metamorphic rock cone in South Sudan where the Togoyo people sacrificed goats for rain, where the first Mahdist revolt broke out in 1882, and where three empires briefly tried to plant their flags.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/d/0/liffi-wp/s9d0-liffi-combined.mp3 5:22 full Aroyo, South Sudan https://qualla.com/aroyo-south-sudan/ A small Dinka town on the Chel River became a county headquarters overnight, inherited a commissioner with no vehicle, and waited for medicine that arrived once a quarter.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/e/1/aroyo-south-sudan-wp/s9e1-aroyo-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:07 full Northern Bahr el Ghazal https://qualla.com/northern-bahr-el-ghazal/ A Dinka heartland of floodplains and tropical savanna, Northern Bahr el Ghazal carries the scars of the Sudanese railway raids and annual floods, yet remains fiercely defined by the resilience of Aweil's people.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/e/1/northern-bahr-el-ghazal-wp/s9e1-northern-bahr-el-ghazal-combined.mp3 5:04 full Aweil, South Sudan https://qualla.com/aweil-south-sudan/ Photo credit Kai Breker, CC BY-SA 3.0. The capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal sits where two rivers meet in Dinka country - a town shaped by slave raiders, civil war, famine, and the Lost Boys who came from here.

Read more: Aweil, South Sudan on Qualla

Image: Kai Breker | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/e/3/aweil-south-sudan-wp/s9e3-aweil-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:38 full Aweil West County https://qualla.com/aweil-west-county/ On the agricultural lands of the Lol River, a Dinka county has produced generals, sultans, and the quiet farmers who kept feeding everyone between the wars.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/e/5/aweil-west-county-wp/s9e5-aweil-west-county-combined.mp3 5:36 full Lakes State https://qualla.com/lakes-state/ Photo credit JennaCB123, CC BY-SA 3.0. A state named for its inland waters, home to cattle camps that define Dinka life, and possibly the site of South Sudan's future capital.

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Image: JennaCB123 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/h/w/lakes-state-wp/s9hw-lakes-state-combined.mp3 4:58 full Diocese of Rumbek https://qualla.com/diocese-of-rumbek/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. A Catholic diocese larger than Switzerland, held together for decades by a handful of priests through two civil wars, two ethnic cleansings, and the razing of its cathedral town.

Read more: Diocese of Rumbek on Qualla

Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/j/n/diocese-of-rumbek-wp/s9jn-diocese-of-rumbek-combined.mp3 6:13 full Rumbek University https://qualla.com/rumbek-university/ Founded in 2010 on the grounds of Rumbek Secondary School, Rumbek University opened its doors with 500 students in a region where civil war had kept classrooms shuttered for a generation.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/j/n/rumbek-university-wp/s9jn-rumbek-university-combined.mp3 4:41 full South Sudan https://qualla.com/south-sudan/ The world's newest widely-recognized country is a land of Nilotic peoples, the enormous Sudd swamp, and a population that voted 98.83 percent for independence in 2011 - only to plunge into civil war two years later, and to keep rebuilding through floods, famine, and fragile peace.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/j/r/south-sudan-wp/s9jr-south-sudan-combined.mp3 7:10 full 2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash https://qualla.com/2018-south-west-aviation-let-l-410-crash/ Photo credit Aleksandr Markin, CC BY-SA 2.0. A small turboprop took off from Juba into worsening weather and came to rest in the waters of Lake Yirol - a crash whose black boxes told no story, because the tapes had never been replaced.

Read more: 2018 South West Aviation Let L-410 crash on Qualla

Image: Aleksandr Markin | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/j/t/2018-south-west-aviation-let-l-410-crash-wp/s9jt-2018-south-west-aviation-let-l-410-crash-combined.mp3 4:39 full Ramciel https://qualla.com/ramciel/ An Aliab Dinka grazing ground in the geographic heart of South Sudan, Ramciel was chosen in 2011 to become the country's new national capital - but fifteen years later, satellite imagery shows almost nothing built.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/j/u/ramciel-wp/s9ju-ramciel-combined.mp3 5:03 full Tonj https://qualla.com/tonj/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. An old Dinka town in Warrap State that sent cattle to the British war effort and produced John Garang and Emmanuel Jal, Tonj carries one of the deepest claims to historical identity in South Sudan - and a reputation for student excellence that has surprised East Africa.

Read more: Tonj on Qualla

Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/s9k3-tonj-combined.mp3 5:17 full Warrap https://qualla.com/warrap-state/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. A South Sudanese state in the Bahr el Ghazal region that has sent a president, a basketball giant, and a supermodel to the world while rebuilding itself from decades of war.

Read more: Warrap on Qualla

Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/p/warrap-state-wp/s9kp-warrap-state-combined.mp3 5:03 full Leer, South Sudan https://qualla.com/leer-south-sudan/ Birthplace of hip-hop artist Emmanuel Jal and home village of politician Riek Machar, this Unity State town has been burned and rebuilt across three decades of war.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/m/r/leer-south-sudan-wp/s9mr-leer-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:25 full Nyal, South Sudan https://qualla.com/nyal-south-sudan/ A swamp-edge town in Panyijar County that has sheltered tens of thousands fleeing South Sudan's civil wars, Nyal survives on mango trees, relief flights, and a stubbornness that goes back to the Nuer-British War.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/m/s/nyal-south-sudan-wp/s9ms-nyal-south-sudan-combined.mp3 4:38 full Juba–Terekeka–Rumbek Road https://qualla.com/juba-terekeka-rumbek-road/ A 392-kilometer highway being paved with money borrowed against 30,000 barrels of South Sudanese crude oil a day.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/n/0/juba-terekeka-rumbek-road-wp/s9n0-juba-terekeka-rumbek-road-combined.mp3 4:38 full Battle of Bor https://qualla.com/battle-of-bor/ Over one brutal month in late 2013 and early 2014, the riverside capital of Jonglei State changed hands four times as South Sudan's new civil war consumed its oldest fault lines.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/n/7/battle-of-bor-wp/s9n7-battle-of-bor-combined.mp3 5:31 full Bor, South Sudan https://qualla.com/bor-south-sudan/ Photo credit Mr leroy playpus (Tuttle), CC BY-SA 4.0. A river town at the southern edge of the Sudd, Bor has been an ivory depot, a mission cradle, a battlefield, and - throughout - the cultural heart of Dinka country.

Read more: Bor, South Sudan on Qualla

Image: Mr leroy playpus (Tuttle) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/n/7/bor-south-sudan-wp/s9n7-bor-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:43 full Jonglei Canal https://qualla.com/jonglei-canal/ Photo credit Soleincitta, CC BY-SA 3.0. A 360-kilometer ditch meant to drain the Sudd wetlands for Egypt's cotton fields, halted two-thirds of the way in by civil war and a rusting German machine named Sarah.

Read more: Jonglei Canal on Qualla

Image: Soleincitta | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/n/r/jonglei-canal-wp/s9nr-jonglei-canal-combined.mp3 4:42 full Twic East County https://qualla.com/twic-east-county/ Photo credit Oxfam East Africa, CC BY 2.0. Home to the Twi Dinka, whose origin myth involves an eight-year drought and a chieftainship earned by returning home, Twic East County is the cradle of John Garang and a surprising list of global South Sudanese celebrities.

Read more: Twic East County on Qualla

Image: Oxfam East Africa | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/q/2/twic-east-county-wp/s9q2-twic-east-county-combined.mp3 4:49 full Ayod County https://qualla.com/ayod-county/ In a Gawaar Nuer county of Jonglei State, a 1994 health study found that twenty percent of the people examined had Guinea worm lesions - and the story only gets more complicated from there.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/q/q/ayod-county-wp/s9qq-ayod-county-combined.mp3 5:34 full Yuai https://qualla.com/yuai/ A small Nuer town in Jonglei State whose name runs through South Sudan's wars like a marker stone - and whose residents have absorbed more displacement than most places absorb history.

Read more: Yuai on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/q/s/yuai-wp/s9qs-yuai-combined.mp3 5:09 full Mechra el Rek https://qualla.com/mechra-el-rek/ Photo credit Frank Lupton, Public domain. The only mechra, or landing place, on the northwestern edge of the Sudd, where ivory merchants disembarked and Dinka porters were hired for journeys into the interior.

Read more: Mechra el Rek on Qualla

Image: Frank Lupton | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/s/b/mechra-el-rek-wp/s9sb-mechra-el-rek-combined.mp3 5:10 full Jur River https://qualla.com/jur-river/ Photo credit NASA, Public domain. A 485-kilometer river that rises on the Congo-Nile divide, swells each September, and then dissolves into the Sudd before anyone can say exactly where it ends.

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Image: NASA | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/s/c/jur-river-wp/s9sc-jur-river-combined.mp3 4:55 full Mankien https://qualla.com/mankien/ A Bul Nuer town in Unity State's oil belt that was bombed by Antonov aircraft, overrun by cavalry, recaptured by mutineers, and burned again in 2011.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/s/e/mankien-wp/s9se-mankien-combined.mp3 5:24 full Bahr al-Arab https://qualla.com/bahr-al-arab/ An 800-kilometre river the Arabs call the Sea of the Arabs and the Dinka call the Kiir - a boundary, a tributary, and a line along which two peoples have fought and bargained for centuries.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/s/g/bahr-al-arab-wp/s9sg-bahr-al-arab-combined.mp3 5:15 full Mayom County https://qualla.com/mayom-county/ An administrative division in the heart of Unity State's oil belt, where a 2011 declaration by a dissident general briefly tried to declare a new transitional government.

Read more: Mayom County on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/s/s/mayom-county-wp/s9ss-mayom-county-combined.mp3 5:29 full Mayom, South Sudan https://qualla.com/mayom-south-sudan/ A Bul Nuer cattle-trading town turned garrison turned battleground, captured by Riek Machar in 1988, retaken by Paulino Matiep in 1989, and fought over continuously since.

Read more: Mayom, South Sudan on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/s/s/mayom-south-sudan-wp/s9ss-mayom-south-sudan-combined.mp3 5:38 full Block 5A, South Sudan https://qualla.com/block-5a-south-sudan/ Photo credit Public domain. Of 240,000 people who lived in this South Sudanese oil concession, an estimated 12,000 were killed or died of starvation and 160,000 were forcibly displaced - a war for oil whose criminal charges reached a Swedish courtroom two decades later.

Read more: Block 5A, South Sudan on Qualla

Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/t/3/block-5a-south-sudan-wp/s9t3-block-5a-south-sudan-combined.mp3 6:25 full Nhialdiu https://qualla.com/nhialdiu/ A Leek Nuer village at a strategic crossroads in Unity State, Nhialdiu has absorbed wave after wave of displaced neighbors while its own farmlands went quiet under the shadow of oil-road warfare.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/t/5/nhialdiu-wp/s9t5-nhialdiu-combined.mp3 4:22 full Unity State https://qualla.com/unity-state/ A South Sudanese state named for unity that has known mostly division - where Nuer cattle camps, Dinka villages, and oil rigs share contested ground along the White Nile's western reaches.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/t/5/unity-state-wp/s9t5-unity-state-combined.mp3 4:43 full 2025 Light Air Services Beechcraft 1900 crash https://qualla.com/2025-light-air-services-beechcraft-1900-crash/ A charter flight from a South Sudanese oilfield to Juba lost a wing shortly after takeoff on January 29, 2025. Twenty people died. One South Sudanese engineer survived.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/t/j/2025-light-air-services-beechcraft-1900-crash-wp/s9tj-2025-light-air-services-beechcraft-1900-crash-combined.mp3 5:12 full Ruweng Administrative Area https://qualla.com/ruweng-administrative-area/ An oil-rich Dinka homeland in northern South Sudan that produces roughly 80 percent of the nation's petroleum, Ruweng is also the land of the Panaruu and Biemnom Dinka and two lakes where the Bahr el Ghazal meets the White Nile.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/t/r/ruweng-administrative-area-wp/s9tr-ruweng-administrative-area-combined.mp3 5:03 full Heglig https://qualla.com/heglig/ The town the Dinka call Panthou - 'land of the desert date' - and Sudan calls Heglig after the same tree, sitting astride an oil field that has produced four invasions, two battles, and a tripartite security agreement.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/u/b/heglig-wp/s9ub-heglig-combined.mp3 5:58 full Second Battle of Heglig https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-heglig/ In April 2012, South Sudan's army briefly seized the contested Heglig oilfield on its northern border, triggering ten days of fighting, aerial bombardment, and a death toll so high that bodies were simply left under the trees.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/u/b/second-battle-of-heglig-wp/s9ub-second-battle-of-heglig-combined.mp3 5:18 full South Kordofan https://qualla.com/south-kordofan/ A Sudanese state centered on the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan holds pro-South Sudan communities who fought alongside southern rebels and have been bombed, displaced, and targeted by the Khartoum government in the years since independence split the country in two.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/v/r/south-kordofan-wp/s9vr-south-kordofan-combined.mp3 5:34 full 2012 Talodi Antonov An-26 crash https://qualla.com/2012-talodi-antonov-an-26-crash/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. On a cloudy morning in the Nuba Mountains, an Antonov An-26 carrying a Sudanese government delegation to an Eid celebration descended too low and struck a mountain, killing all thirty-two aboard.

Read more: 2012 Talodi Antonov An-26 crash on Qualla

Image: Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk) | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/v/s/2012-talodi-antonov-an-26-crash-wp/s9vs-2012-talodi-antonov-an-26-crash-combined.mp3 4:35 full Doleib Hill https://qualla.com/doleib-hill/ A Presbyterian mission on the Sobat River that became one of the most important schools for the Shilluk people, twice shuttered by civil war, and a site where the headmaster of the girls' school was killed in 1965 for the crime of teaching.

Read more: Doleib Hill on Qualla

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/w/m/doleib-hill-wp/s9wm-doleib-hill-combined.mp3 5:20 full Malakal Airport https://qualla.com/malakal-airport/ A single 2,000-meter asphalt runway that has been humanitarian lifeline, UN staging base, and the site of three consecutive aviation incidents in early 2024.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/w/w/malakal-airport-wp/s9ww-malakal-airport-combined.mp3 5:24 full Malakal https://qualla.com/malakal/ Photo credit Leovdvxxx, CC BY-SA 4.0. The capital of Upper Nile State, changed hands twelve times in two years of civil war, and rebuilt again by the families who never left the White Nile.

Read more: Malakal on Qualla

Image: Leovdvxxx | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/w/w/malakal-wp/s9ww-malakal-combined.mp3 5:18 full Upper Nile University https://qualla.com/upper-nile-university/ Founded in 1991, then scattered by war and reassembled in peace - a university on the banks of the White Nile that embodies South Sudan's struggle to build institutions amid conflict.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/w/w/upper-nile-university-wp/s9ww-upper-nile-university-combined.mp3 4:58 full West Darfur https://qualla.com/west-darfur/ Photo credit Sudan Envoy, CC BY 2.0. Historically known as Dar Masalit - the Masalit homeland - West Darfur state sits on the Chadian border, and its capital Geneina has been the site of some of the worst ethnic violence of the 2023-present Sudanese civil war.

Read more: West Darfur on Qualla

Image: Sudan Envoy | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/d/2/3/west-darfur-wp/sd23-west-darfur-combined.mp3 7:13 full Marrah Mountains https://qualla.com/marrah-mountains/ Photo credit Mohamed Siddig Abdelaziz, CC BY-SA 4.0. A temperate island of rain, lakes, and pine rising three kilometers above the Sahel, the highest ground in Sudan and a refuge for the Fur people.

Read more: Marrah Mountains on Qualla

Image: Mohamed Siddig Abdelaziz | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/d/3/3/marrah-mountains-wp/sd33-marrah-mountains-combined.mp3 5:42 full