--Itungi (talk) 12:55, 8 October 2012 (UTC)ItungiItungi Calvin 212068083
The regional capital of the Caprivi Strip is the town of Katima Mulilo, which is located on the banks of the Zambezi River.
History of the Caprivi The Caprivi Strip is rich with a unique history. Until the end of the 19th Century, the Caprivi strip was known as Itenge and was under the rule of the Lozi Kings of the Balozi Kingdom of Zambia. In the late 1800's the strip of land was administered as part of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana) until 1890 when Germany laid claim to the British administered island of Zanzibar, to which British objected. The dispute was settled by the Berlin Conference in 1890, when Queen Victoria waved her magic wand and acquired Zanzibar, and Germany settled for the territory which became known as the Caprivi Strip; named after German Chancellor, General Count Georg Leo von Caprivi. The German motivation behind the swapping was to acquire a strip of land linking German South-West Africa with the Zambezi River, thus providing easy access to Tanganyika (Tanzania) and ultimately the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately for the Germans, the British colonization of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia) stopped them well upstream of Victoria Falls, which proved a considerable barrier to navigation on the Zambezi. During World War I, the Caprivi Strip again came under British rule and was governed as part of Bechuanaland (Botswana), but it received little attention and became known as a lawless frontier. Nowadays most people who live in the Caprivi, survive as subsistence farmers, who make their living on the banks of the Zambezi, Kwando, Linyati and Chobe Rivers.
The Inhabitants Inhabitants of the Caprivi Strip speak a number of African languages: most of them are members of the Bantu language family. Although there is also at least one language in the northwest of the strip (on the Namibia/Angola border) which is a Khoisan language: Hukwe. The Bantu languages include Yeyi (or 'Yei' or 'Yeeyi'),[3] Mbukushu, Gciriku (or 'Dciriku'), Fwe, Totela, and Subiya. The majority in the Caprivi Strip, especially in the capital town of Katima Mulilo, speak Lozi[4] as a lingua franca and also speak some English as an official language.
Natural Resources and features The strip is rich in wildlife and other natural resources from rivers especially fish. The government of Namibia has interest that the strip provides an economic gateway link to the other four countries which are surrounding the strip. However, the vagaries of the river level, various rapids, the presence of Victoria Falls downstream hampers the usage of the Zambezi river for economic transportations. Within Namibia the Caprivi Strip provides significant habitat for the Wild animals including the big five and some critically endangered Wild African Dog, Lycaon pictus.
References 1. http://www.namibian.org/travel/namibia/caprivi.htm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Itungi/sandbox&action=edit&preload=Template%3AUser_sandbox%2Fpreload&editintro=Template%3AUser_sandbox&redlink=1 3. Derek F. Gowlett. 1989. The parentage and development of Lozi. Journal of African Languages and Literature, 11, 127–149. 4. C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Painted Hunting Dog: Lycaon pictus, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg