Kinshasa, formerly Léopoldville, is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of the world's fastest growing megacities.
Lingala (Ngala) is a tonal Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree in Angola, the Central African Republic and southern South Sudan. Lingala has 25–30 million native speakers and about 35 million second-language speakers, for an approximate total of 60-65 million speakers.
Luba-Kasai, also known as Cilubà or Tshilubà, Luba-Lulua, is a Bantu language of Central Africa and a national language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, alongside Lingala, Swahili, and Kikongo ya leta.
Kongo Central, formerly Bas-Congo is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Matadi.
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from the region and sold as slaves in the Americas. For this reason, while Kongo still is spoken in the above-mentioned countries, creolized forms of the language are found in ritual speech of Afro-American religions, especially in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It is also one of the sources of the Gullah language and the Palenquero creole in Colombia. The vast majority of present-day speakers live in Africa. There are roughly seven million native speakers of Kongo, with perhaps two million more who use it as a second language.
The Kongo people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others.
African French is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 167 million people in Africa in 2023 or 51% of the French-speaking population of the world, spread across 34 countries and territories. This includes those who speak French as a first or second language in these 34 African countries and territories, but it does not include French speakers living in other African countries. Africa is thus the continent with the most French speakers in the world. French arrived in Africa as a colonial language; these African French speakers are now a large part of the Francophonie.
Mali is a multilingual country of about 21.9 million people. The languages spoken there reflect ancient settlement patterns, migrations, and its long history. Ethnologue counts more than 80 languages. Of these, Bambara, Bobo, Bozo, Dogon, Fula, Hassaniya, Kassonke, Maninke, Minyanka, Senufo, Songhay languages, Soninke and Tamasheq are official languages. French is the working language.
The culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely varied, reflecting the great diversity and different customs which exist in the country. Congolese culture combines the influence of tradition to the region, but also combines influences from abroad which arrived during the era of colonization and continue to have a strong influence, without destroying the individuality of many tribal customs.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a multilingual country where an estimated total of 242 languages are spoken. Ethnologue lists 215 living languages. The official language, inherited from the colonial period, is French. Four other languages, three of them Bantu based, have the status of national language: Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.
Kituba is a widely used lingua franca in Central Africa. It is a creole language based on Kikongo, a Bantu language. It is a national language in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Radio Okapi is a radio network that operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On an annual budget of USD$4.5 million, a staff of 200 provide news and information to the entire urban population of the DRC. Radio Okapi provides programming in French and in the four national languages of Congo: Lingala, Kituba, Swahili and Tshiluba,
The Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire is a literary prize presented every year by the ADELF, the Association of French Language Writers for a French original text from Sub-Saharan Africa. It was originally endowed with 2,000 french francs.
Mass media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are both nationally and internationally state owned and operated.
The official language of the Republic of Congo is French. Other languages are mainly Bantu languages, and the two national languages in the country are Kituba and Lingala, followed by Kongo languages, Téké languages, and more than forty other languages, including languages spoken by Pygmies, which are not Bantu languages.
The LICOPA affair was a diplomatic conflict between the People's Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) and Zaire during the Cold War in the early 1970s. At the time the two neighbouring states found themselves on opposing sides in Cold War politics, with Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko a Western ally and Congo a socialist state aligned with the Soviet Union.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mondele, mundelé, or Samuel is a Bobangi term meaning "white" European-style person, person with light skin color. The words were originally used to describe Belgian and French colonists, but can be used to describe any light-skinned non-African.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem, is a Congolese historian and linguist. He is the author of several essays, studies and other publications about the history of the Congo, including the overview work L'histoire générale du Congo: De l'héritage ancien à la République démocratique.
