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There are two Congos, and the one which is in the news and where a complicated war has been waged for years is the Democratic Rep of Congo (DRC), and not the Rep of Congo (ROC) where I lived. The Rep of Congo is also known as Congo-Brazzaville, Brazzaville being its small and quiet capital. The ROC did suffer an intense civil war in the late 90s which lasted about one year. However, trouble in the DRC continues, fought mainly over that country's mineral wealth by any number of international players, the DRC army, local warlords, armies from neighboring African countries, and international mining companies.
If Congo-Brazzaville is a gentler and kinder version of the DRC, the difference is reflected in its recent history. Newly independent African countries were quick to change their names or those of their important cities if they evoked their previous colonial masters. Congo-Brazzaville, which used to be a French colony, has not. In downtown Brazzaville today there is a museum and memorial to the 19th century Italian-born explorer named de Brazza who is credited with Brazzaville's founding for France as well as establishing French sovereignty over much of west central Africa. De Brazza's competitor, just across the Congo River from Brazzaville, was Henry Morton Stanley, the same explorer who located the AWOL Dr David Livingstone in western Tanzania - and who worked for claiming what is now the DRC for King Leopold of Belgium. By all accounts, the two men were completely different. Stanley took by force - he was known as the "breaker of rocks" - while Brazza used diplomacy.
The rapids on the Congo River which stopped Victorian era explorers from opening up a maritime trade route from the Atlantic Coast into the African interior is five minutes from Brazzaville. There is still no way past these cascades. They are the reason that de Brazza went no further and planted the French flag on one side of the river, while Stanley planted the Belgian flag on the other, where the DRC capital of Kinshasa stands today.
I took these photos in and around Brazzaville over an 18 month period beginning in 2007. I hope they offer a different perspective of life in the Congo from what you see on the TV.
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