One Ridge, Two Rivers: Reading Rwanda's Landscapes and Provinces

Stand on the crest of the Congo–Nile ridge in the rain and imagine two drops landing a metre apart. One runs west into Lake Kivu and, after a long journey, reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Congo River. The other runs east into the Nyabarongo and ends its journey in the Mediterranean Sea, carried there by the Nile. That single ridge explains a great deal about Rwanda's land, its rivers and even where its people farm. The article in this lesson walks you across the country from its western lake to its eastern river. As you read, you will practise three skills that every comprehension paper tests: skimming for the main idea, scanning for a figure, and explaining what a writer means in your own words.

1Before you read

1. Which province and district do you live in? Name one hill, river or lake near your home.
2. The article is called "One Ridge, Two Rivers". From the title alone, predict what the ridge does.
3. Rwanda is often called "the land of a thousand hills". Do you think the name fits every part of the country? Write one sentence now, and check it after reading.

2Reading: One Ridge, Two Rivers

A feature article written by Ganzaa. The figures come from the sources listed at the end of the lesson.

1 Rwanda is small. Its 26,338 square kilometres would fit into Tanzania, its eastern neighbour, more than thirty times. Yet a traveller who crosses it from west to east passes through landscapes so different that they could belong to separate countries. Rwanda lies a little south of the Equator, in the heart of East Africa, and it is landlocked: Uganda lies to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.

2 Begin in the west, on the shore of Lake Kivu. The surface of the lake lies about 1,460 metres above sea level, and Rwanda shares the lake with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its deep water holds a hidden resource: methane gas dissolved in the bottom layers, which a floating power station near Kibuye, in Karongi District, burns to make electricity. From the lake the land climbs steeply eastward to a chain of mountains known as the Congo–Nile ridge. The mountain slopes are among the wettest parts of the country, and in the south-west they are covered by Nyungwe, a large montane rainforest protected as a national park.

3 The ridge is more than a line of high ground. It is a watershed, or divide: the line that separates two river basins. Rain that falls on its western side drains into Lake Kivu, then south along the Rusizi River to Lake Tanganyika, and finally into the Congo River, which carries it to the Atlantic Ocean. Rain that falls on the eastern side, which covers about four-fifths of Rwanda, feeds streams that join the Nyabarongo. At 351 kilometres, the Nyabarongo is the country's longest river. After it meets the Akanyaru it becomes the Akagera, which flows into Lake Victoria; from there the water leaves by the Nile. The lowest point in the country, about 950 metres above sea level, is in the far south-west, on the Rusizi River.

4 In the north-west the landscape changes again. Here five volcanoes of the Virunga range, Karisimbi, Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura, rise along the borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Karisimbi, at 4,507 metres, is the highest point in Rwanda. The upper slopes of the volcanoes are protected as Volcanoes National Park, home to mountain gorillas, while the farms below them are worked right up to the edge of the forest.

5 Between the western mountains and the eastern lowlands lies the central plateau, the Rwanda of postcards: hill after rounded hill, separated by valleys where streams wind through marshes. Almost every slope is farmed, and many are cut into terraces, flat steps that slow the rain so that it soaks in instead of washing the soil away. This is the landscape that earned the country its name, "the land of a thousand hills". Kigali, the capital, is built across several such hills and the valleys between them. Because the land is high, the climate is milder than a place so close to the Equator might suggest: in Kigali the temperature usually ranges from about 12 °C at night to 27 °C in the afternoon, and the year has two rainy seasons, a long one from March to May and a short one from October to December.

6 Travel further east and the hills soften and the land falls. The eastern lowlands are the lowest and driest part of Rwanda. Grassland and scattered trees replace forest, and lakes such as Muhazi, Ihema and Rweru lie in the wide valleys. Much of the far east is savanna protected as Akagera National Park, where giraffes, zebras and buffaloes graze. The Akagera River marks the border with Tanzania.

7 For government, this varied land is divided into four provinces and the City of Kigali, a system in place since 1 January 2006. The Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Provinces and the City of Kigali are divided in turn into thirty districts. Every province contains more than one kind of landscape, but each has its signature: the volcanoes of the North, the lake and the ridge of the West, the savanna of the East, the hills of the South and the forest of Nyungwe, which the South shares with the West, and in the middle a city spread across its hills. A map shows the boundaries; only a journey shows how much the land changes within them.

3The article in one picture

Paragraphs 2, 3, 5 and 6 describe a journey across the country. The cross-section below draws that journey as if the land had been sliced from west to east. Use it to check your answers to the comprehension questions.

4Comprehension

Answer in full sentences. Questions 1 to 6 ask what the text says; 7 and 8 ask what it means; 9 asks what you think.

1. Name Rwanda's four neighbours and say in which direction each one lies. (paragraph 1)
2. Where is the lowest point in Rwanda, and how high is it?
3. In your own words, explain what a watershed is.
4. A raindrop falls on the eastern slope of the Congo–Nile ridge. Name, in order, the rivers and the lake it passes through before it leaves East Africa by the Nile.
5. Why are many slopes of the central plateau cut into terraces?
6. Which part of Rwanda is the lowest and driest, and what vegetation grows there?
7. In paragraph 5 the writer calls the central plateau "the Rwanda of postcards". What does this suggest about the way the country is usually shown to visitors?
8. Explain the contrast in the last sentence of the article: "A map shows the boundaries; only a journey shows how much the land changes within them."
9. Is "the land of a thousand hills" a fair name for the whole of Rwanda? Use two details from the article to support your view.

Show answersHide answers

1. Uganda lies to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.
2. It is in the far south-west, on the Rusizi River, about 950 metres above sea level.
3. A watershed is a line of high ground that separates two river basins, so that rain falling on one side drains to one river system and rain falling on the other side drains to another.
4. It passes through streams into the Nyabarongo, which joins the Akanyaru and becomes the Akagera; the Akagera flows into Lake Victoria, which the water leaves by the Nile.
5. Terraces are flat steps that slow the rain, so that it soaks into the ground instead of washing the soil away.
6. The eastern lowlands are the lowest and driest part. Grassland with scattered trees (savanna) grows there.
7. It suggests that most pictures of Rwanda show the green, rounded, farmed hills of the centre, and that this is the image outsiders know best, although it is only one of several landscapes.
8. A map shows only where the borders of the provinces lie, while travelling through them shows the real variety of land inside each one: volcanoes, lakes, hills and savanna.
9. Model answer: Only partly. The name suits the central plateau, where "hill after rounded hill" are separated by valleys. But the far east is low, flat and dry savanna with wide valleys and lakes, and the north-west is dominated by volcanoes over 4,000 metres high, which are mountains rather than hills. Accept either view if it is supported by two details from the text.

5Provinces at a glance

Paragraph 7 names the provinces but not their districts. The table adds them, with the landscapes from the article that belong to each.

6Vocabulary in context

Several words in the article have an everyday meaning and a geographical one. The sentence tells you which is meant.