10 October 2005 10:27:48
The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaïre)
Nestled in Africa’s heart, the DR Congo is the third largest country on the continent. What makes this country unique is its vast mineral resources from wood to gold, from diamonds to copper and even water, not to mention its 400 tribes. The country’s history more myth than text created first by authors like Joseph Conrad. It attracts the unscrupulous and the desperate, as well as the adventurous and lovers of the wild.
Unfortunately the DR Congo of today is also synonymous with war, anarchy and corruption. Therefore, you will find no tourist here, despite its friendly people and its fantastic landmarks.
Life in the country
The DR Congo is extremely under developed. Its infrastructure barely held the country together prior to war and is now in ruins. Electricity and running water are considered luxury anywhere, if available. Ironically this incredible poverty is on a land with some of Africa’s greatest mineral wealth.
There are almost no roads, yet at the time of independence, one could cross the country by car. The railway network has deteriorated with a similar thoroughness. Nonetheless, what has been reduced to shambles is beginning to be rebuilt as donor countries tentatively begin to invest. Yet, the path to reconstruction will be long and almost certainly not smooth.
The best way to get around is by air, motorbike and river. Airplanes are not always the safest, but they’re the only sure way to many destinations. For example, the UN peacekeeping mission has over 40 aircraft for its DRC staff, making it bigger than Kenyan Airways. The last three presidents have had their own airlines and new companies are opening and closing daily. All that is needed is for a single entrepreneur to have the money to buy one used Russian Antanov – and that is an airline.
There are four cities with over a million inhabitants. Kinshasa, the capital, is by far the most populated with an estimated 8 million people, the third largest city in Africa after
Ecological landmarks
The CongoBasin (Gabon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, DR Congo, Euqatorial Guinea, and Cameroon) harbors the world’s second largest tropical forest, 50 % of which is in DR Congo. Flying over the country, its endless carpet of jungle is a reminder of just how much of the country is still wild.
As you fly east the forests slowly rise, step like, up to the mountain range of the Albertine Rift in the Great Lakes Region at the very center of
The trademark icon of the country is the mighty Congo which serpentines through the equatorial jungle. Not only has it been a tourist attraction in better times, it is especially crucial for the local economy since most of the river is navigable. The is second only to the Amazon in flow capacity and second in length in Africa after the Nile. It has one poorly maintained dam (Inga) which feeds Kinshasa but the lucrative potential would make most other international projects look like a fancy beaver construction.
Politics and the two wars
The DR Congo has been through two wars in the last decade which involved many of its neighboring countries. Some will call it Africa’s “First World War”, which estimates say cost the lives of 3 million people.
The Rwandan genocide in 1994 triggered the first war in 1996 when those responsible for horrors were using the DR Congo as their new base. Ultimately the fall of the long standing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko came when longstanding rebel Laurent Kabila (picture) took power with the help of the Rwandans and the Ugandans.
This alliance soon fell apart, prompting a second war in which Laurent Kabila fought his one-time allies with the help of the Angolans and Zimbabweans. Following his assassination in 2001, his son, Joseph Kabila, decided in the interest of all to end the war and unite a country that was now completely divided.
The DR Congo is now being headed by a transitional government composed of the belligerent parties. Meanwhile, the Congolese are eagerly waiting for the 2006 election, their first since independence from the Belgians in 1960.
The ultimate hope is to ensure peace in Africa’s troubled heart.
Hey Ernestine, Congo is independant since 1960. Most problems your country experiences come from your greedy politicians, who just think of getting richer and do not give a damn about the Congolese.
Wake up and stop blaming the "white".(a typical Kinshasa disease BTW) Make your politicians accountable and your life will change.
This anti-white rhetoric is just plain ridiculous.
tania says:
Amen to that! well spoken
Ernestine says:
I am a young Congolese woman who stumbled upon your blog. I am extremely offended by many of the things you say. Comments like “Jimmy is my boy, my servant, my worker, my mom. He's my fourth cleaner, and he is known as a household revolution. So I was happy to see my illiterate when I got back to Kinshasa” and “Congolese are terrible at saving” are really derogatory and an insult to me and my people.
I was so sickened to read the passage you wrote about the bell your friend Hussein uses to call his “boy” and see the picture you posted of the women baring their breasts. What lack of respect you people have for blacks! Are we back to colonial days now?
Africa is filled with racists like you who falsely believe that you are doing Africans a favor by bringing them “enlightenment” and “technology” but what you expats are really doing is perpetrating the vicious cycle of poverty.
You stated, “The DR Congo is extremely under developed.”
Do you know that Congo is the way it is because of greedy whites? Do you know that the war that claimed 4 million lives, for example, was fueled by white people’s interest in Congo’s minerals? The governments of the US and Canada and many European countries continue to supply weapons and training to murderous Ugandan and Rwandan rebels as well as the mai-mai in exchange for minerals like coltan. American and European corporations and expatriates are also guilty of pillaging. It is so sad that little Congolese kids are getting sick and dying while digging minerals that end up in your lap top, cell phone, and TV etc.
I think you ought to mention on your blog how “the developed world” is playing a role in the Congo conflict. You should also reveal all the other bad things whites have done to the Congolese people. You should talk about how King Leopold II of Belgium ordered his colonial officials to chop off the limbs of Congolese who failed to meet their rubber quota for the day (Millions of Congolese died during his reign of terror). You should talk about how the CIA conspired with the Belgian government to assassinate the first and only democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, because he wanted whites to leave Congo.
You should reveal how UN peacekeeping forces are raping little girls and boys in eastern Congo. In 2005, a senior U.N. official from France, Didier Bourguet was accused of running an Internet pedophile ring in which he photographed himself having sex with Congolese girls. He also sent the photos to other UN officials (Check out http://ABCNews.go.com).
So while you and other wazungu are eating three meals a day, hosting lavish parties and playing squash, millions of Congolese are dying of starvation and disease. Where is the justice in that?
For further information about coltan read “Coltan is what it’s all about in the Congo” found in Dollars and Sense July/August 2001. I also recommend http://www.friendsofthecongo.org and journalist Ted Koppel’s investigative broadcast, “Heart of Darkness” (January 21, 2002), produced by ABC Nightline.
Jeremie says: