Lake Kashiba is situated south-west of Luanshya in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, close to Mpongwe and St Anthony's Mission.

Hydrography

Lake Kashiba is the best known of the several small, very deep pools in the Ndola district called "the sunken lakes." They are found in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

and were caused by the action of water on the rock, dissolving it and forming caves which eventually collapsed, leaving deep holes filled with water. Kashiba is the most impressive and means "small lake." It is about in area and no one has yet found the bottom of the lake, making its depth unknown. The water level is about below the surrounding forest, and through the clear blue water, fish are easy to see, mostly bream, with some

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

Local legends

Local legends warn that you not eat fish from Kashiba because even if you leave the fish on the fire all day and all night, it will not be cooked. Kashiba is also said to contain a

monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

called “Ichitapa” or “lsoka lkulu.” When a man stands on the rocks at the lake’s edge, with his shadow over the water, the monster comes up from the depths and catches the shadow, so that the victim becomes paralysed and falls in the water. But the best known of the legends of Kashiba goes back to the earliest history of the Lamba people, to Kabunda, son of Chipimpi, the chief who came from the west with seeds to plant the first gardens for the people. One day, when Chipimpi's people had finished plastering a grain store, he gave them all porridge to eat, but to Kabunda and his nephew he gave a goat so that they might wash off the mud with the goat's blood. But Kabunda demanded the blood of a man, and Kapimpi gave him a slave to kill. Kabunda killed the slave with his hoe, saying: "Now we are the people of the Hair Clan, for we have killed a man with hair on his head. But you, my father and my cousin, are people of the Goat Clan:' And Kabunda slew Chipimpi and became chief. In time, Kabunda began to ill-treat the younger relatives of Chipimpi, members of the Goat Clan, and they became angry, saying they were of the chief's clan and should not be treated thus. "Let us now kill ourselves! Let us see what will remain! Kabunda can remain, and the kingdom can be his!" So they all went to Kashiba, where they took all their goods and chattels, goats and chickens and dogs, and tied themselves together with a long rope and threw themselves into the lake. But a member of the Leopard Clan was at the end of the rope, and at the last moment, he cut it in front of his wife and carried her back to the village, where she became the mother of all the Goat Clan.

General references

{{no footnotes, date=October 2008 * ''Tales of Zambia'' by Dick Hobson. 1996. Zambia Society Trust, London.
A visit to Lake Kashiba and the local legend story

References

Lake Kashiba Lake Kashiba Kashiba Geography of Copperbelt Province Tourist attractions in Copperbelt Province Sinkholes of Africa