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they face.We then focus brieflyon themarine and estuarineMP research that has been conducted in Africa. There are only two studies that have investigated the prevalence of plastics inAfrican freshwaters, specifically theTanzanianwaters of LakeVictoria,Ngupula et al. [16] andBiginagwaet al. [17], andonly the latter is focuseddirectlyonMPs.Theyareexemplifiedascasestudies,which, inadditionto providinguseful data,mayalsobea template for similar research inotherAfrican freshwater bodies. Lastly, we discuss the current challenges and knowledge gaps andfuture researchneeds that requireattention inorder togainabetterunderstand- ingof thepresence, sources, and fate ofMPs in inlandAfricanwaters. 1.2 AfricanFreshwaters and thePotential forMPPollution TheAfrican continent contains some of themost famous and notable freshwater bodies in the world. The River Nile, which is the second longest river, has been described as the “donor of life toEgypt” [18], and theRiverCongo is the second largest by river discharge (in both cases theAmazon is number one) and also the world’s deepest river. Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, and Turkana are perhaps the threemostwell-knownof theAfricanGreatLakes that are located inEastAfrica. LakeNasser is a vastman-made reservoir thatwas created by the construction of theAswanDamacross theRiverNile.Eachof thesefreshwaterbodies, identifiedin Fig. 1, supports significantly sizedpopulations (seeTable1a,b).ThecityofCairo, throughwhich theNileflows,will haveapopulationofover20million inhabitants by theyear2020according toUnitedNationsSources [19].TheRiverCongoflows through thecapital cityof theDemocraticRepublicof theCongo,Kinshasa,witha populationofover14million,and theLakesVictoriaandTanganyikabothhaveon their banks urban centers of >1 million people. Many of Africa’s cities have undergone rapid urban expansion [20], with sub-Saharan urban growth averaging 140% between the 1960s and the 1990s, at a rate 10 times faster than OECD countries and2.5 times than the rest of the developingworld [21]. Inevitably, the pace of increase has placed pressure on urban services and not least in themanagementofsolidwaste,whereit iscommoninthedevelopingworld for municipalities to be short of funds, deficient in institutional organization and interest, have poor equipment for waste collection, and lack urban planning [22, 23].Among thiswaste areplastics. Plastics, asweknow,areused in avariety ofproducts includingpackaging,bags,bottles,andmanyothershort-livedproducts thatarediscardedwithinayearofproduction[6]. Insomepartsof theworld,plastic recycling procedures are well established, but in African countries, even when reuse and/or recycling practices are present, they often lack legal foundation and are therefore conductedonanadhocbasis [24].Thusmuchsolidwaste endsup in landfillsor is subject to illegaldumping. Inproximity to freshwatersystems,plastic waste then has the potential to enter the aquatic environment where subsequent degradation can form MPs. The link between urban waste and MPs has been established in the freshwater MP literature [10, 11, 13, 15], but to date there is Microplastics in InlandAfricanWaters: Presence, Sources, andFate 103