KATANGA, the southernmost province of Belgian Congo, being bounded south and south-east by Northern Rhodesia. Area approximately 180,000 sq. miles. Pop. (1927), native, estimated at 9oo,000; whites, over 5,000, of whom 3,00o were Belgian and 700 British. The Katanga plateau, from which the province takes its name, has a climate resembling in many ways that of South Africa ; it is hilly and highly diversified ; in it rise the main head streams of the Congo, and also in it, at Bukama, the Lualaba (Upper Congo) becomes navigable. Much of the plateau, which is geographically a continuation of the high veld of Rhodesia, is suitable for agriculture, and stock is bred by a number of white settlers. The province is, however, best known for its mineral wealth, especially its immense deposits of copper. Since Kambove, where is one of the largest mines, was in 1913 linked to the South African railway system, the output of copper has increased vastly. Other minerals worked are tin, cobalt, uranium (whence radium is extracted) and coal (at Luena, south of Bukama). Iron, gold, platinum and diamonds are all found; the Ruwi gold reef still awaited development in 1928. (For copper output and com
munications see BELGIAN CONGO.) Katanga was secured for the Congo Free State by the expedi tion of 1891-92, led by Captain W. G. Stairs, which forestalled Cecil Rhodes' plans to add the country to the South African company's territories. It was not, however, until the coming of the railway that any considerable development occurred. Elisabeth ville (named after the Queen of the Belgians) was founded in 1910 and became the capital. It has fine buildings and the amenities of a European city, and resembles the towns of South Africa. The white population in 1926 was 2,648 (including 300 children). Much of the money invested in Katanga is British; its outlook is to South Africa, and the administration at one time had some anxiety as to the preservation of its character as part of a Belgian colony.
See authorities cited under BELGIAN CONGO, and A. de Bauw, La Katanga (Brussels, 192o). For the Stairs expedition, J. A. Molony, With Captain Stairs to Katanga (London, 1893). (F. R. C.)