The 150-metre-high Échangeur tower, symbol of Kinshasa, rises above the municipality of Limete. GWENN DUBOURTHOUMIEU/JA
Welcome to ‘Kin’, home to nearly 20 million people and the largest French-speaking city in the world. Huge, seductive, chaotic and dangerous, the capital dances beneath a volcano. And searches for a viable future.
Population: 17.8 million inhabitants, making it the 13th most populous city in the world and the second or third largest city in Africa after Cairo, more or less on a par with Lagos. Kinshasa accounts for 20% of the total population of the DR Congo.
The Pentecost Martyrs Stadium (official name) is Africa's fourth largest stadium, with an 80,000-seat capacity.
As is often the case, tragically, this news item is revealing. On 24 November 2024, star journalist Jemimah Mambara Mogwo, who worked for Radio-Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), was brutally attacked and killed as she was returning home after presenting the television news.
In the Matonge neighbourhood, north of the capital, a statue of Franco, alias the ‘Grand Master’ of the famous Congolese rumba, stands proudly in the Place des Artistes. Here, stalls and shops blast local music non-stop through crackling speakers turned up to full volume.