Unearthing Lake Victoria’s forgotten stories and ancient secrets
By Mariam Gichan
At dawn on the shores of Lake Victoria, fishermen cast their nets in the calm water, hoping for a good catch. Nearby, schoolchildren walk past rocky hills whose walls bear faded geometric markings, ancient art left behind thousands of years ago.
Few pause to wonder what those red ochre lines mean, or who drew them.
In the Mara Region, a team of Tanzanian archaeologists and students from the University of Dar es Salaam is working under the Lake Victoria Archaeology and Heritage Project (LAHP) to uncover the human past hidden in the lake’s surrounding landscapes.
Across rock art shelters in Musoma, Bunda, and Butima, the researchers are piecing together a story that stretches from the Late Stone Age to the Iron Age.
Their findings are remarkable: rock art with geometric patterns left by hunter-gatherers, pottery fragments linked to Kansyore and Urewe traditions, stone tools, and ornaments made from ostrich eggshells and snail shells.
They have even discovered human remains. Perhaps most surprising are obsidian tools traced to Lake Naivasha in Kenya over 480 kilometers away evidence of ancient trade routes and cross-basin mobility.
For many, archaeology might seem like a pursuit of dust and bones, but these discoveries hold urgent lessons. Lake Victoria once dried up completely during the Late Pleistocene, forcing communities to adapt or migrate.
Understanding how ancient societies survived extreme climate events offers insights into how we might respond to modern climate change. The evidence of long-distance exchange also challenges us to view migration not as a crisis, but as an enduring human practice.
And research into ancient diets and diseases could even inform modern health solutions.
Yet this is not just about science it is about identity. Tanzania is world-renowned for Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli, which tell the story of human origins.
But Lake Victoria, the world’s largest tropical lake and a lifeline for millions, has remained largely overlooked in archaeological research, especially on the Tanzanian side. While Kenya and Uganda have long studied their portions of the lake, Tanzania’s heritage has remained in the shadows.
The LAHP is changing that, and doing so hand in hand with local communities. Villagers have guided researchers to hidden sites such as Balima, Kusengo, and Nyakakumu, sharing oral histories passed down through generations.
Students participate through field schools, gaining practical experience that takes them beyond classroom theory.
The collaboration benefits everyone. Communities earn income by supporting fieldwork, while young Tanzanians gain professional experience in archaeology without depending solely on foreign projects.
A 2024 roundtable funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung highlighted how partnership between researchers and communities can foster trust, pride, and sustainable knowledge-sharing.
Still, the threats are serious. Quarrying for stones and gravel destroys archaeological sites. Graffiti defaces ancient rock art. Unauthorized excavations risk damaging fragile evidence, while erosion and animal waste continue to erode paintings that have survived for millennia.
Equally troubling is Tanzania’s lack of laboratory facilities for analyzing discoveries. Many samples must be sent abroad for testing, creating dependency on foreign institutions and delaying results.
Without stronger funding and research infrastructure, the dream of a fully Tanzanian-led archaeological science remains out of reach.
Archaeology is not only about the past it can also shape the future. Imagine Lake Victoria attracting tourists not only for fishing and sunsets but for guided tours of ancient rock art shelters. Imagine school curricula that teach Lake Victoria’s archaeology alongside Olduvai, instilling pride in regional heritage.
Imagine communities earning income from cultural tourism that protects, rather than destroys, their landscapes. Other African regions have done this successfully, Tanzania can too, if it invests in its archaeological assets.
The researchers behind LAHP are only at the beginning. Their next steps include documenting more sites, conducting deeper excavations, and linking their findings with those in Kenya and Uganda. Ultimately, they envision Lake Victoria as a regional research hub, attracting international scholars and nurturing Tanzanian expertise in archaeology.
But they cannot do it alone. Government support, institutional partnerships, and international collaborations will be essential. Funding, research permits, and logistics from the state are critical. And, perhaps most importantly, Tanzanians themselves must recognize the value of this hidden heritage.
Because history is not only about the past it is about who we are. The people who lived, fished, and painted on the shores of Lake Victoria thousands of years ago are part of our shared story.
Their resilience during droughts, their openness to exchange, and their creativity in art and technology still speak to us today. If quarrying and neglect erase these voices, we lose more than artifacts we lose a chance to understand ourselves and to inspire future generations.
Lake Victoria continues to feed millions with fish and water. But it also has the power to nourish our sense of belonging, if only we choose to see it. The time to act is now before the lake’s ancient stories are washed away forever.
