Mosi-oa-Tunya Meaning: The Smoke That Thunders

The Mosi-oa-Tunya meaning is usually translated as "the smoke that thunders". It is the name, in the Kololo language that took root in the upper Zambezi valley in the nineteenth century, for the great waterfall on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe that most of the world knows as Victoria Falls. The phrase describes exactly what a visitor meets before seeing any water at all: a column of spray rising above the bush, and a roar that carries a long way.

The Scottish missionary David Livingstone reached the falls in November 1855 and named them after Queen Victoria. That English name became the one printed on maps, school books and tourist brochures, but it never replaced the older names used by people who lived beside the river. This article explains where Mosi-oa-Tunya comes from, why the falls have more than one local name, and why the expedition uses the local name first.

Mosi-oa-Tunya meaning and where the name comes from

In the first half of the nineteenth century the Makololo, a Sotho-speaking people who had moved north from what is now South Africa, conquered the Lozi (then often called the Luyi) kingdom on the upper Zambezi. Their rule did not last long, but their language did. Silozi, the language spoken across western Zambia today, carries a strong Sotho influence from that period.

"Mosi-oa-Tunya" comes from this Sotho-influenced language world. Broken down, it is usually explained as mosi (smoke), oa (of) and tunya (to thunder or roar). When Livingstone travelled down the river with Makololo guides and companions, this was the name he heard, and he recorded it in his own writing even as he gave the falls a new English one.

It is worth being careful here. Mosi-oa-Tunya is not "the" single African name for the falls. Other communities lived closer to the water for far longer, including Tonga-speaking people on both banks, and they have their own names and their own relationships with the falls, the river and the spirits associated with them. The expedition's rule is not to invent one supposedly universal African name, and not to repeat lists of names from the internet without checking them with speakers. Mosi-oa-Tunya is used first because it is the established local name in Zambia today: it appears on the national park, on the World Heritage listing and in everyday speech.

How "Victoria Falls" became the dominant name

Livingstone was not the first person to see the falls, and he did not claim to be the first person to know of them. He was the first European known to have described them in print, and that is what made his name for them travel. His published account was widely read in Britain, and the name Victoria Falls moved with the maps, the railway and the colonial administration that followed.

By the early twentieth century a railway bridge spanned the gorge just below the falls, and a hotel and tourist trade grew around it. The towns on each side reflect the split in naming to this day: on the Zimbabwean bank is a town called Victoria Falls, while the Zambian town on the north side is named Livingstone. Livingstone was the capital of Northern Rhodesia until the seat of government moved to Lusaka in the 1930s.

None of this makes the English name wrong to use. It does mean that "Victoria Falls" is not a neutral label. It records a particular moment in which a European visitor's naming counted for more internationally than the words of the people who already lived there. That is the story the walk wants to tell carefully.

A shared World Heritage Site

The falls were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1989 under the joint name "Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls", as a property shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe. The listing covers the falls and the dramatic zigzag gorges downstream. On the Zambian side, the protected area is Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park; on the Zimbabwean side, Victoria Falls National Park and the Zambezi National Park lie beside the river.

At full flood the falls are more than 1.7 kilometres wide and drop around 100 metres into a narrow chasm, which is why they are often described as one of the largest curtains of falling water in the world. The gorges below are the clue to their past. The Zambezi has been cutting back along lines of weakness in the basalt rock for a very long time, and each zigzag in the gorge system marks an earlier position of the falls. The waterfall is still moving, very slowly, upstream.

You can read more about the listing on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre website.

Seasons and water levels

How the falls look depends heavily on when you see them. The Zambezi's flow follows the rains far upstream in its catchment, so the peak arrives some months after the wet season begins. Flow is usually highest from around March to May, when the spray can be so dense that it is hard to see the falls at all and anyone walking the paths gets soaked. Towards the end of the dry season, around October and November, the flow drops sharply. In dry years parts of the Zambian side can shrink to a thin line of water over bare rock.

Those low-water pictures travel widely online and are sometimes presented as proof that the falls are "drying up". The honest answer is more complicated. Seasonal low flow is normal. At the same time, residents, scientists and the hydropower authorities downstream all watch the Zambezi closely, because droughts in the region have had serious effects on electricity, farming and tourism. The expedition hopes to listen to people who live with the river every day, rather than reduce it to one dramatic photograph.

On the road to Mosi-oa-Tunya

The current plan is for Leon to enter Zambia from Botswana at Kazungula, near the meeting point of four countries on the Zambezi, and walk roughly 70 to 80 km to Livingstone. That makes Mosi-oa-Tunya one of the first places Zambia offers him, and the beginning of the country's story for the walk: who names a place, and what is lost when one name pushes the others aside. You can see the wider line on the route page, and read about the elephant country that comes just before it in living with elephants around Chobe.

Walking changes how a place like this arrives. From a car or a plane, the falls appear suddenly. On foot, the spray is visible long before the water, and the roar grows over hours rather than seconds. The walk hopes to spend time with people whose livelihoods depend on the river, from guides and traders to residents and scientists, and to learn the local names properly, including how to pronounce them, from the people who use them.

As in every place on the route, an act of kindness paid for locally is planned to be recorded on the kindness ledger. From Livingstone the walk is planned to continue north through Lusaka and Kabwe, where the story turns to the Kabwe skull, and on towards the railway town of Kapiri Mposhi and TAZARA. If you would like to help Leon get there, you can support the walk.

Frequently asked questions

What does Mosi-oa-Tunya mean in English?

It is usually translated as "the smoke that thunders", describing the spray cloud and the roar of the falls. The name comes from the Kololo language, which shaped Silozi in western Zambia.

Who named Victoria Falls?

David Livingstone named the falls after Queen Victoria after reaching them in November 1855. Local people already had names for them, and Livingstone recorded the name Mosi-oa-Tunya himself.

Is Victoria Falls in Zambia or Zimbabwe?

Both. The falls lie on the Zambezi, which forms the border, and they are a single World Heritage Site shared by the two countries. Livingstone is the Zambian town nearby; Victoria Falls is the Zimbabwean town.

When is the best time to see Mosi-oa-Tunya?

For the full force of the water, the high-flow months from around March to May. For clearer views of the rock face and gorges, the lower water later in the dry season. Conditions vary from year to year.