Kinshasa, on standby
Kinshasa is the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo and, with a population of around 20 million (up from one million at the start of the 1970s), is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and the largest French-speaking city, ahead of the Greater Paris metropolitan area. Kinshasa is a conurbation boosted by the demographic shock and the rural exodus and yet, despite the urban chaos, the city seems to have its own mysterious rules of self-stabilisation. Travellers passing through are overwhelmed by the sheer size, density and magnitude. With a surface area of almost 10,000 km2 (the size of Lebanon), it's an astonishing patchwork of the occasional major boulevard (the famous 30 Juin) and heavily potholed roadways, where crossroads, generally without traffic lights, seem like the ultimate road experience. The traffic jams are Dantean in nature. They bring everything to a grinding halt. The frequent downpours make matters worse - lakes form, urban rivers wash away almost everything in their path. Kinshasa's inhabitants spend their days trying to get around or get from home to work. They don't get much sleep, and the issue is really political.
The hotel concierge will tell you as much: at certain times, it takes four or five hours to get to the airport, even though it's barely 20km away. And the airport itself is quite a sight. It's a big, patched-up hangar slap bang in the middle of a huge working-class neighbourhood called Ndjili. Despite its decrepit state, the tarmac is crowded with jumbo jets from the major international airlines, private jets and 747 Cargo planes. Clearly, business is business, despite the obstacles.
There's the mighty Congo River, which crosses the entire continent and flows majestically through here on its way to the sea. The capital on the other side, Brazzaville, just 7 kilometres away as the crow flies, seems so small and quiet. Luxury hotels cater to an underworld population of international pirates, gold, cobalt and copper miners and entrepreneurs sipping cocktails and dreaming of making their fortunes. Kinshasa's brand-new financial centre, the brainchild of President Tshisekedi, built in record time, flashes its lights and reflects the country's ambitions. And then there is the omnipresent sound of rumba rock, from Fally Ipupa and Ferre Gola to Pastor Mike Kalambay and other major stars. It comes to mind when you pass the legendary Martyrs Stadium, a monument to Chinese-African architecture (as does the Palais du Peuple, a few kilometres down the road). You also think of it when you see the proliferation of Pentecostal churches, eager to promise the faithful a better world.
Above all, Kinshasa is the gateway to a country that is immense, unstable, on a knife-edge, yet central in every sense of the word. With 110 million people, measuring 2 and a half million square kilometres, it's the size of Western Europe and a meeting point for all of Africa – North, East, West and South. It shares borders with nine countries, including 2,500 km with Angola. A country shaped by colonial and post-colonial history, where the legendary and tragic figure of Patrice Emery Lumumba still looms large, with 26 provinces, an astonishing ethnocultural diversity, quasi-nations and indigenous peoples, but also incessant ethnic rivalry for resources and land.
A nominally rich country, home to a large part of the world's natural heritage, with 60% of the Congo Basin forests. A vital carbon sink for all humanity. Yet, every year, the DRC loses half a million hectares of this forest cover. It's also a country of water, with its formidable hydraulic potential - such as the long-awaited renovation and extension of the Inga dam. And it is the country of mines, of cobalt, copper, zinc, gold, and certainly of oil and gas... And yet, this giant is still poor – less than 700 dollars a year per inhabitant, and a global GDP (65 billion dollars) lower than that of Côte d'Ivoire (80 billion dollars).
Since the end of the Mobutu era and the Rwandan genocide, it has also been a nation more or less permanently at war. From Kinshasa, this war seems so close and yet so far. In the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, it has wreaked havoc. Fuelled by groups more or less directly linked to Rwanda. A peace process is making slow progress. Community violence is rife just about everywhere else. Sporadic or structural.
The Republic is wounded. It is a tough country. And yet the stakes are high. It's time to take on the challenge. Africa needs this giant. Africa needs its heart, so to speak, if it is to truly emerge.