evidence: Tensions about rights to the lake that lies between Tanzania and Malawi have been brought to boiling point yet again. Known to Tanzanians as Lake Nyasa but as Lake Malawi to those across the border, the lake is at the centre of a boundary dispute that has simmered for decades. In the latest exchanges, the foreign minister of Malawi has threatened to escalate the dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. [...] Malawi’s position is that the boundary simply follows the shoreline of the lake as established in clear terms by the 1890 Anglo-German Treaty. Malawi says its position is also backed by the 1964 Cairo Resolution to freeze African territories along the borders inherited at independence from colonial powers to cement African unity. The international court itself upheld this view in the Frontier Dispute case between Burkina Faso and Mali. [...] The dispute is no small matter for Malawi as the lake’s geographical space represents about a third of its entire territory. Malawi argues that its economic life, culture, folklore, and sentiment as a nation are inextricably linked to the lake.