Aged only ten years, the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland last week died a largely unlamented death. The federation’s birth in 1953 had smacked of illegitimacy, and one of its principal ...

This story appears in the October 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine. The boat is dangerously encumbered. It pushes three barges by means of an engine that was built to convey about 750 tons.