KAGERA  , a

river of east equatorial Africa, the most remote headstream of the Nile . The sources of its principal upper branch, the Nyavarongo, rise in the hill country immediately east of Lake Kivu . After a course of over 400 M. the Kagera enters Victoria Nyanza on its western shore in o° 58' S . It is navigable by steamers for 70 M. from its mouth, being obstructed by rapids above that point . The river was first heard of by J . H . Speke in 1858, and was first seen (by white men) by the same traveller (Jan . 16, 1862) on his journey to discover the Nile source . Speke was well aware that the Kagera was the chief river emptying into the Victoria Nyanza and in that sense the headstream of the Nile . By him the stream was called " Kitangule," kagera being given as equivalent to " river." The exploration of the Kagera has been largely the work of German travellers . See NILE; also Speke's Discovery of the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1863) ; R . Kandt's Caput Nili (Berlin, 1904) ; and map by P .

Sprigade and M . Moisel in Grosser deutscher Kolonialallas, No. i6 (Berlin, 1906) .