The MV Liemba pictured in 2011 (Spencer McCormick www.toaddis.com)

Approaching its 100th birthday, the lake steamer MV Liemba still travels once a week to ports on Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania and Zambia. Built in Hamburg in 1913, it was sunk by its German crew during the First World War when named the Goetzen. It has been many times rehabilitated but may now need to be sent into retirement – probably to become a museum. It has not escaped the eyes of Minister Mwakyembe who has been to Germany in the hope of rekindling interest in the ves­sel, for which many Germans are said to have much affection.