Kinshasa

I

Introduction

Kinshasa, formerly Léopoldville, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in Kinshasa Region on the southern bank of the River Congo opposite Brazzaville , capital of the Republic of the Congo, and below Pool Malebo (Stanley Pool), a lake formed by the widening of the river. As a quick method of distinguishing between them, the two countries are often known as Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. Kinshasa is the nation's chief administrative, cultural, and economic centre and one of the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa. The city and its surrounding area form a special administrative unit equivalent in status to a region. Its governor, 2 vice-governors, and 24 city councillors are appointed directly by the president. Public participation in local government has been strictly limited by the central government.

The inhabitants of Kinshasa are known as Kinois (plural, Kinoise). Located in the area traditionally dominated by the Bakongo ethnic group, the city has been the destination of hundreds of thousands of migrants from other parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; often these migrants are fleeing turmoil. Kikongo, the language of the Bakongo, has largely been supplanted by Lingala, which serves as a common language for the city’s diverse population. Kinshasa is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop. It is also the headquarters of the Baptist Church and of Kimbanguism, a Congolese sect that fuses Christianity and traditional African religions and is particularly strong in the region.

The Kinshasa region has an area of 9,965 sq km (3,848 sq mi), although the city proper is considerably smaller. Kinshasa’s population has increased dramatically since the 1940s, and now constitutes one-tenth of the country’s total population. Population 4,655,313 (1994 estimate).

II

Economy

Kinshasa’s main industries include food processing and the production of chemicals, paper, steel, tyres, shoes, timber, palm oil, construction materials, and textiles. River boat building is also important, and the city is known for the production and sale of traditional African arts and crafts, particularly woodcarvings, masks, and malachite jewellery. Kinshasa is an important centre for banking and telecommunications. The large Inga hydroelectric power station is nearby.

Kinshasa is the terminus of Congo River traffic from as far away as Kisangani in the north-east of the country, more than 1,600 km (1,000 mi) upstream. The long series of rapids between Kinshasa and the Atlantic Ocean are unnavigable, so passengers and cargo travel by rail or road to the port of Matadi, 265 km (165 mi) south-west of Kinshasa. A paved road also runs east to the city of Kikwit, and ferries provide connections to Brazzaville. Two airports serve Kinshasa: Ndjili International Airport, which is one of the largest in Africa, and the older and smaller but more central Ndolo Airport. Public transport includes a heavily used system of city and regional buses. Kinshasa is the national centre for radio and television broadcasting.

III

Places of Interest

The city centre is dominated by the wide Boulevard du 30 Juin (“June 30 Boulevard”—June 30 is the country’s independence day), which runs from the railway station and ferry terminal in the north-east to the western suburbs. On the eastern end of the boulevard are the city’s major offices, banks, and shops. South of this area is the Cité, an overcrowded residential quarter (home to more than half Kinshasa’s residents) that also houses the sprawling Marché Central (French for “Central Market”). In the Ndjili suburb south of the Cité is the 150-m (490-ft) high Monument to the Martyrs of Independence, an impressive structure of four concrete cylinders topped by television towers.

On the western end of the central boulevard is Gombe, a plush residential area where the Congolese parliament and high court and most foreign embassies are located. The National Museum of Kinshasa, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame are located just south-east of Gombe. Also west of the city centre, clustered around Mount Ngaliéma, is the Cité de l’OUA, a suburb built for the 1967 Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit. The president’s palace and some government offices are located here. Immediately west of Mount Ngaliéma, in the western hills overlooking the city, is the exclusive Binza residential district. West of Binza is the Île des Mimosas (Isle of Mimosas), located above scenic rapids in the Congo River. Housing in Kinshasa ranges from plush modern suburbs inhabited by the city’s elite to desperately poor shanty towns. A number of modern office and commercial buildings have been erected since 1960.

Kinshasa has two universities: the University of Kinshasa and the University Ambakart. Cultural institutions include the National Museum of Kinshasa, which contains archaeological and ethnological exhibits; the Academy of Fine Arts, which displays and sells paintings and sculpture; and a museum of prehistory at the University of Kinshasa. The city is also home to a zoo and several large sports complexes.

IV

History

The city was founded in 1881 as a trading depot on the Congo by the Anglo-American explorer Sir Henry Stanley, who named it Léopoldville after Leopold II, king of the Belgians. The completion in 1898 of a railway to Matadi initiated a period of rapid development as a trans-shipment port for the Belgian Congo, as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was then known. In the late 1920s Léopoldville replaced Boma as the capital of the Belgian Congo. Most of the European population residing here in colonial times left in 1959 following a violent black-nationalist uprising that led to the country's independence in 1960.

In 1966 the city’s European name was replaced with the African Kinshasa, after a 19th-century village that had stood at the site. Kinshasa hosted the 1967 Organization of African Unity summit and the 1982 Franco-African Summit. Kinshasa was destabilized in the early 1990s when soldiers, discontented with the government of Zairian president Mobutu Sese Seko, went on violent looting rampages. In 1997 the city witnessed the final stages of the rebellion led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila that ended Mobutu’s rule. Kabila renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For Kinshasa residents, the upheavals of the 1990s caused disruptions in city services, including education, health care, and transport.