Karema (or Kalema) is a settlement in Tanzania, on the east shore of Lake Tanganyika, once the location of a White Fathers mission station.

The slave and ivory trader Tippu Tip founded a private empire along the Upper Congo river to the west of the lake in the 1870s, sending his goods to Zanzibar for sale.

[4] In 1882 Captain Émile Storms took command of Karema from Lieutenant Jérôme Becker, whose term of service had expired.

However, the German scientist Richard Böhm who accompanied Storms was struck by two bullets in the leg during this action and was laid up for several months.

[6] Storms then founded Mpala on the west shore of the lake, opposite Karema, laying the foundations on 4 May 1883.

[5] At the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) the east side of the lake was assigned to the German sphere of influence, including Karema.

A former Papal Zouave named Léopold Louis Joubert offered his services to Lavigerie, and this was accepted in a letter of 20 February 1886.

[4] On 19 June 1891 Adolphe Lechaptois was appointed Bridoux's successor as Vicar Apostolic of Tanganyika and Titular Bishop of Utica.

As of 2010 the ferry boat was the MV Liemba, formerly the Graf von Götzen, a 1,300 ton steamship that the Germans assembled on the lake in 1913 for use as an armed troop transport.