How African Rivers End: Joining Another River, Fading Inland or Reaching the Sea

The Blue Nile rises at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and runs about 1,450 kilometers through Ethiopia and Sudan to join the White Nile at Khartoum. In the rainy season it supplies most of the Nile's water, which is why it is the first example of a river whose ending is a merger.

The White Nile is the longer but less voluminous of the Nile's two great headwaters, and it takes its name from the pale clay sediment in its water. It flows north through South Sudan to meet the Blue Nile at Khartoum, so both stops here end by giving their water to the same larger river.

The Benue is the major tributary of the Niger and the second longest river in Nigeria, about 1,400 kilometers long. Almost all of it is navigable in the summer months, which made it an important transport route before it joins the Niger at Lokoja.

The Kasai begins in central Angola, follows part of the Angola and Democratic Republic of the Congo border, and is a left bank tributary of the Congo River. Its lower stretch is known as the Kwa, and its basin is known for diamond-bearing gravels.

The Chari is about 1,400 kilometers long and is the main source of water for Lake Chad, so it ends by pouring into a lake rather than the ocean. Its seasonal floods have long shaped farming and settlement across the southern Sahel.

The Okavango has no outlet to the sea. After rising in the Angolan highlands and crossing Namibia it spreads into the Okavango Delta, an alluvial fan in the Kalahari Desert, and the river is known as the Cubango in Angola and the Kavango in Namibia.

The Shebelle starts in the Ethiopian highlands and flows toward Mogadishu in Somalia, where it turns southwest and follows the coast. Below Mogadishu it becomes seasonal and in most years dries up near the mouth of the Jubba, so it is an example of a river that may never reach the ocean.

The Juba begins at the Ethiopian border where the Dawa and Ganale Dorya rivers meet and flows south to empty into the Indian Ocean. It is one of the few Somali rivers with a permanent flow, and the region of Jubaland is named after it.

The Cunene flows south from the Angolan highlands to the border with Namibia, then turns west along that border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It is the first stop in this path that runs into the sea on the Atlantic side of southern Africa.

The Orange River is the longest river in South Africa, rising in the Drakensberg mountains of Lesotho and flowing west to the Atlantic. Along its lower course it forms part of the border between South Africa and Namibia, and it supplies water for irrigation and power in a dry region.

The Limpopo rises in South Africa and flows in a broad arc, roughly 1,750 kilometers, to the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. It is the second largest African river draining to the Indian Ocean after the Zambezi, and Vasco da Gama anchored off its mouth in 1498.

The Rufiji lies entirely within Tanzania, about 600 kilometers long, formed where the Kilombero and Luwegu rivers meet. It ends at the Indian Ocean opposite Mafia Island, and its delta holds the largest mangrove forest in eastern Africa.

The Tana is the longest river in Kenya. It rises on Mount Kenya, runs about 1,000 kilometers and reaches the Indian Ocean, and for part of its upper course it is known as the Sagana River.

The Senegal is about 1,086 kilometers long and much of its length marks the border between Senegal and Mauritania. It flows from the Guinea highlands to the Atlantic Ocean, with the Falémé among its important tributaries.

The Volta is the main river system of Ghana, formed from the Black Volta, White Volta and Red Volta. It empties into the Atlantic at the Gulf of Guinea, and the dam at Akosombo created Lake Volta, which closes the path with a river whose ending was reshaped by people.