The Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: République démocratique du Congo), is a country in central Africa with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest country (by area) in Africa.

In order to distinguish it from the neighbouring Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is often referred to as DR Congo, DRC, or RDC, or is called Congo-Kinshasa after the capital Kinshasa (in contrast to Congo-Brazzaville for its neighbour).

The name "Congo" refers to the river Congo, also known as the river Zaire. (The river name Congo is related to the name of the Bakongo ethnic group).

The Democratic Republic of the Congo was formerly, in turn, the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo-Léopoldville, Congo-Kinshasa, and Zaire (or Zaïre in French). Though it is located in the Central African UN subregion, the nation is economically and regionally affiliated with Southern Africa as a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

DR Congo borders the Central African Republic and Sudan on the North; Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi on the East; Zambia and Angola on the South; the Republic of the Congo on the West; and is separated from Tanzania by Lake Tanganyika on the East.[2] The country enjoys access to the ocean through a 40-kilometre (25 mile) stretch of Atlantic coastline at Muanda and the roughly nine-kilometre wide mouth of the Congo river which opens into the Gulf of Guinea.

The Second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country greatly and involved seven foreign armies and is sometimes referred to as the "African World War".[3] Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003, fighting continues in the east of the country. In eastern Congo, the prevalence and intensity of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world.[4] The war is the world's deadliest conflict since World War II, killing 5.4 million people.[5][6]

Contents

[hide]

1 Names
2 History
- 2.1 Congolese pre-history
- 2.2 The Congo Free State (1877-1908)
- 2.3 Political crisis (1960-1965)
- 2.4 Zaire (1971-1997)
- 2.5 Civil Wars
3 Geography
4 Provinces and territories
- 4.1 Population of major cities (2008)
5 Government
6 Economy
7 Demographics
8 Status of women
9 Religion
10 Languages
11 Culture
12 Education
13 Flora and fauna
14 Transport
15 See also
16 References
17 Further reading
18 External links

[edit] Names

Formerly the Belgian colony of the Belgian Congo, the country's post-independence name was the Republic of the Congo until August 1, 1964,[7] when its name was changed to Democratic Republic of the Congo (to distinguish it from the neighboring Republic of the Congo).[8] On October 27, 1971,[7] then-President Mobutu renamed the country Zaire, from a Portuguese mispronunciation of the Kikongo word nzere or nzadi, which translates to "the river that swallows all rivers."[9]

Following the First Congo War which led to the overthrow of Mobutu in 1997 , the country was renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[edit] History

Main article: History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

[edit] Congolese pre-history

Main article: Early Congolese history

A wave of early peoples is identified in the Northern and North-Western parts of Central Africa during the second millennium BP (Before Present).[citation needed] They produced food (pearl millet), maintained domestic livestock, and developed a kind of arboriculture mainly based on the oil palm[citation needed] From 3,500 BP to 2,000 BP, starting from a nucleus area in South Cameroon on both banks of the Sanaga River, the first Neolithic peopling of northern and western Central Africa can be followed south-eastwards and southwards.[citation needed] In D.R. Congo the first villages in the vicinity of Mbandaka and the Tumba Lake are known as the 'Imbonga Tradition', from around 2,600 BP. In Lower Congo, north of the Angolan border, it is the 'Ngovo Tradition' around 2,300 BP that shows the arrival of the Neolithic wave of advance.[citation needed]

A Katanga Cross, an obsolete form of currency.

In Kivu, across the country to the east, the 'Urewe Tradition' villages first appeared about 2,600 BP. The few archaeological sites known in Congo are a western extension of the 'Urewe' Culture which has been found chiefly in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Western Kenya and Tanzania.[citation needed] From the start of this tradition, the people knew iron smelting, as is evidenced by several iron-smelting furnaces excavated in Rwanda and Burundi.[citation needed]

The earliest evidence further to the west is known in Cameroon, and near to the small town of Bouar in Central Africa. Though further studies are needed to establish a better chronology for the start of iron production in Central Africa, the Cameroonian data places iron smelting north of the Equatorial Forest around 2,600 BP to 2,500 BP.[citation needed] This technology developed independently from the previous Neolithic expansion, some 900 years later. As fieldwork done by a German team shows, the Congo River network was slowly settled by food-producing villagers going upstream in the forest. Work from a Spanish project in the Ituri area further east suggests villages reached there only around 800 BP.[citation needed]

The supposedly Bantu-speaking Neolithic, and then iron-producing, villagers added to and displaced the indigenous Pygmy populations (also known in the region as the "Bitwa" or "Twa") into secondary parts of the country.[citation needed] Subsequent migrations from the Darfur and Kordofan regions of Sudan into the north-east, as well as East Africans migrating into the eastern Congo added to the mix of ethnic groups. The Bantu-speakers imported a mixed economy made up of agriculture, small-stock raising, fishing, fruit collecting, hunting and arboriculture before 3,500 BP; iron-working techniques, possibly from West Africa, are a much later addition.[citation needed] The villagers established the Bantu language family as the primary set of tongues for the Congolese.[citation needed]

[edit] The Congo Free State (1877-1908)

Main articles: Colonisation of the Congo, Congo Free State, and Belgian Congo

European exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. It was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who undertook his explorations under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold had designs on what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations, Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the Association Internationale Africaine, played one European rival against the other.

Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private property and named it the Congo Free State. Leopold's regime began various infrastructure projects, such as construction of the railway that ran from the coast to the capital of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). It took years to complete. Nearly all such projects were aimed at increasing the capital which Leopold and his associates could extract from the colony, leading to exploitation of Africans.

Force Publique soldiers in the Belgian Congo in 1918

In the Free State, colonists brutalized the local population to produce rubber, for which the spread of autos and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. The sale of rubber made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honour himself and his country. To enforce the rubber quotas, the army, the Force Publique (FP), was called in. The Force Publique made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives as a means of enforcing rubber quotas a matter of policy; this practice was widespread. During the period 1885-1908, between 5 and 15 (the commonly accepted figure is about 10) million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and diseases. A government commission later concluded that the population of the Congo had been "reduced by half" during this period.[10] The actions of the Free State's administration sparked international protests led by E. D. Morel and British diplomat/Irish patriot Roger Casement, whose 1904 report on the Congo condemned the practice. Famous writers such as Mark Twain also protested, and Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness was set in Congo Free State.

In 1908, the Belgian parliament, despite initial reluctance, bowed to international pressure (especially that from Great Britain) and took over the Free State as a Belgian colony from the king. From then on, it was called the Belgian Congo and was under the rule of the elected Belgian government.

[edit] Political crisis (1960-1965)

Main article: Congo Crisis

In May 1960 in a growing nationalist movement, the Mouvement National Congolais or MNC Party, led by Patrice Lumumba, won the parliamentary elections. The party appointed Lumumba as Prime Minister. The parliament elected Joseph Kasavubu, of the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO) party as President. Other parties that emerged included the Parti Solidaire Africain(or PSA) led by Antoine Gizenga, and the Parti National du Peuple (or PNP) led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko. (Congo 1960, dossiers du CRISP, Belgium) The Belgian Congo achieved independence on June 30, 1960 under the name "Republic of Congo" or "Republic of the Congo" ("République du Congo"). Shortly after independence, the provinces of Katanga (led by Moise Tshombe) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership. Most of the 100,000 Europeans who had remained behind after independence fled the country,[11] opening the way for Congolese to replace the European military and administrative elite.[12]

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