Why are Africa’s rivers difficult to navigate?
Many of the larger rivers have cataracts and waterfalls, impassable by shipping. The Zambezi, Congo and Nile are all restricted by this. Of course, many inland stretches of the river can be used for transportation, but it does mean they cannot be used for shipping between the oceans and inland river ports. Smaller rivers are also used by local transport, but aren’t deep enough to allow larger riverboats to travel. As such, the economy sometimes must rely on roads and railways as well as rivers to get produce back and forth, with delays whenever one form of transport must change to another.
