CONGO

officially Democratic Republic of the Congo, also called Congo Free State or Independent State of the Congo (18851908), Belgian Congo (190860), Republic of the Congo (196064), or Republic of Zaire (197197), French Rpublique Dmocratique du Congo, tat Indpendant du Congo, Congo Belge, Rpublique du Congo, or Rpublique du Zare, country located in central Africa. It has a short 25-mile (40-kilometre) coastline on the Atlantic Ocean but is otherwise landlocked, being bordered to the west by the Angolan exclave of Cabinda and the Congo; to the north by the Central African Republic and The Sudan; to the east by Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania; to the southeast by Zambia; and to the southwest by Angola. It has an area of 905,354 square miles (2,344,858 square kilometres), making it the third largest country on the continent; only The Sudan and Algeria are larger. The capital, Kinshasa, is located on the Congo River at a distance of about 320 miles from its mouth and is the largest city in central Africa. It serves as the nation's administrative, economic, and cultural centre. The country is often called Congo (Kinshasa) to distinguish it from the other Congo republic, which is called Congo (Brazzaville). Congo was known from 1971 to 1997 as Zaire, an attempt by then-ruler Mobutu Sese Seko to return to the source of the nation's identity and authenticity. After Mobutu's overthrow in 1997, however, the name of the country before 1971, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was restored. Zaire is a variation of traditional African names for great rivers and specifically the Congo River, whose basin lies almost entirely within the republic. The river was named during the colonial period for the kingdom of the Kongo people, who inhabit the area along the river's mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. Congo is a country rich in economic resources. Its minerals include vast deposits of industrial diamonds, cobalt, and copper; its forest reserves are possibly the largest in Africa; and its hydroelectric potential comprises half that of the African continent. officially Republic of the Congo, French Rpublique du Congo country lying astride the Equator in west-central Africa, covering an area of 132,047 square miles (342,000 square km). The capital is Brazzaville. It is bordered to the west by Gabon, to the northwest by Cameroon, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the east and south by Zaire, and also to the south by the Angolan enclave of Cabinda. To the west it has 100 miles (160 km) of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. The population in 1990 was estimated to be 2,326,000. officially Republic of the Congo, French Rpublique du Congo, country lying astride the Equator in west-central Africa. It is bordered to the west by Gabon, to the northwest by Cameroon, to the north by the Central African Republic, and to the east and south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To the southwest it shares a border with the Angolan enclave of Cabinda; the republic also has a coastline 100 miles (160 kilometres) long on the Atlantic Ocean. The Congo has an area of 132,047 square miles (342,000 square kilometres), but the country as a whole is sparsely inhabited, with somewhat more than half of its population concentrated in the towns. The national capital of Brazzaville is an important inland port on the Congo River. The country is often called Congo (Brazzaville) to distinguish it from the other Congo republic, which is called Congo (Kinshasa). Additional reading Geography Irving Kaplan (ed.), Zare: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1979); Georges Laclavre (ed.), Atlas de la Rpublique du Zare (1978); and Bernd Wiese, Zaire: Landesnatur, Bevlkerung, Wirtschaft (1980), are useful introductions. J. Vanderlinden (ed.), Du Congo au Zare, 19601980: essai de bilan (1980), reports on all aspects of the country. Lucien Cahen, Gologie du Congo Belge (1954), is a thorough study of the country's geology, rock formation, and mineralogy. Franz Bultot, Atlas climatique du bassin Congolais, 4 vol. (197177), offers a detailed study of meteorologic conditions. Ethnographic and sociological studies include Jan Vansina, Introduction l'ethnographie du Congo (1966); Jean-Luc Vellut, Femmes coloniales au Congo Belge (1987); and Valdo Pons, Stanleyville: An African Urban Community Under Belgian Administration (1969), a minor classic of social anthropology. Michael G. Schatzberg, Politics and Class in Zaire (1980), analyzes the linkages between class formation and development. Studies of Congolese politics include Daniel Biebuyck and Mary Douglas, Congo: Tribes and Parties (1961); and Herbert F. Weiss, Political Protest in the Congo (1967). Joseph Cornet, Art of Africa: Treasures from the Congo, trans. from French (1971), is a remarkable attempt to uncover the cultural explanation and meaning of Congolese art. Michel Lonoh (Lonoh Malangi Bokolenge), Essai de commentaire de la musique congolaise moderne (1969), provides a comprehensive essay on the development of Congolese popular music. Bernd Michael Wiese History Ruth Slade, English-speaking Missions in the Congo Independent State (18781908) (1959), analyses Baptist missionary activity in the lower Congo. Slade's book King Leopold's Congo (1962, reprinted 1974); Roger Anstey, King Leopold's Legacy: The Congo Under Belgian Rule, 19081960 (1966); and Neal Ascherson, The King Incorporated (1963), provide excellent coverage of the Congo Free State. Wm. Roger Louis and Jean Stengers (eds.), E.D. Morel's History of the Congo Reform Movement (1968), is an important study of the merchant criticism of Leopold's Congo and the role of Robert Casement. The most useful account of colonial rule is the classic by Crawford Young, Politics in the Congo (1965), to which must be added Ren Lemarchand, Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo (1964, reprinted 1982). Selected aspects of the Congo crisis are discussed in Alan P. Merriam, Congo: Background of Conflict (1961); Ernest W. Lefever, Crisis in the Congo (1965); Jules Grard-Libois, Katanga Secession, trans. from French (1966); Rajeshwar Dayal, Mission for Hammarskjld (1976); and Madeleine Kalb, The Congo Cables (1982). Benot Verhaegen, Rbellions au Congo, 2 vol. (196669), is a documentary study of the postindependence rebellions. Thomas Kanza, The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba: Conflict in the Congo, expanded ed. (1977), is a personal account by a participant driven to exile. Postindependence politics in Zaire are meticulously dissected by Michael G. Schatzberg, The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire (1988); Jean-Claude Willame, Patrimonialism and Political Change in the Congo (1972); and Crawford Young and Thomas Turner, The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State (1985). Nzongola-Ntalaja (ed.), The Crisis in Zaire: Myths and Realities (1986), collects essays by international experts on postcolonial Zaire. Ren Lemarchand Additional reading Pierre Vennetier (ed.), Atlas de la Rpublique Populaire du Congo (1977), graphically presents many aspects of the country. Pierre Vennetier, Les Hommes et leurs activits dans le nord du Congo-Brazzaville (1965), is an ethnographic study. Ren Gauze, The Politics of Congo-Brazzaville (1973), examines politics and government. Marcel Soret, Histoire du Congo: capitale Brazzaville (1978), although a bit dated, remains the only book-length history of the country. Georges Dupr, Un Ordre et sa destruction (1982), is an encyclopaedic effort to show the effect of colonialism and capitalist penetration on a Congolese society, the Nzabi. Jan Vansina, The Tio Kingdom of the Middle Congo, 18801892 (1973), provides a micro-level study of Tio villages and traditions paired with a macro-level analysis of the place of the Tio kingdom in the early years of colonial conquest and administration. William J. Samarin, The Black Man's Burden (1989), discusses colonial labour on the Congo and Ubangi rivers during 18801900. Dennis D. Cordell, Extracting People from Precapitalist Production: French Equatorial Africa from the 1890s to the 1930s, in Dennis D. Cordell and Joel W. Gregory (eds.), African Population and Capitalism: Historical Perspectives (1987), pp. 137152, includes a separate section on the demographic impact of the Congo-Ocean Railway. Dennis D. Cordell Administration and social conditions Government Congo is a single-party people's republic led by the Congolese Labour Party (Parti Congolais du Travail; PCT). The party's 75-member Central Committee may initiate revision of the constitution (adopted in 1979 and amended in 1984), and it appoints members of the Revolutionary Court of Justice, which heads the judicial system. The Central Committee's chairman is the president of the republic, who is head of state and of government and who is elected by the party congress to serve a five-year term. The 133 members of the People's National Assembly (Assemble Nationale Populaire) are elected by direct universal suffrage from a list of candidates chosen by the PCT; they also serve five-year terms. The judicial system consists of a Supreme Court, a court of appeals, and criminal, labour, and common law courts. Congo is divided into nine rgions and the capital district of Brazzaville, each headed by appointed district leaders and an elected council; it is further subdivided into communes and villages. In addition to Brazzaville, there are five other communesPointe-Noire, Loubomo, Mossendjo, Nkayi, and Ouessoand eight administrative control posts subordinate to their regions. The village remains the primary administrative and political unit outside the cities. Education Education is free and compulsory for students between the ages of 6 and 16. The six-year primary education course includes instruction in agriculture, manual skills, and domestic science. On the secondary level courses are offered in vocational training, academic and technical training, general education, and teacher training. Institutions of higher learning include the Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville and colleges and centres for specialized and technical learning. Congo enjoys a literacy rate much higher than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Administration and social conditions Government The constitution of 1978 was Zaire's fifth since independence in 1960; trends apparent in these successive documents included the institution of an increasingly centralized presidential form of government, the exclusion of political activity not sanctioned by the then-ruling Popular Movement of the Revolution (Mouvement Populaire de la Rvolution; MPR), and the progressive circumscription of the prerogatives of the national legislative body by the Political Bureau of the MPR. The MPR long was the sole legal political party. It was presided over by the president, who was assisted by the Political Bureau, composed only of individuals appointed by the president. The MPR had branches at every administrative level throughout the country. Party ideology was that of an anti-tribalist nationalism. Attempts at democratizing the country's political process were largely unsuccessful following President Mobutu Sese Seko's agreement in 1990 to conduct multiparty elections. A Transitional Constitutional Act, which made provisions for conversion to a democratic government, was promulgated in 1994. Further revisions to the act subsequently were drafted but not enacted before Mobutu and the MPR were overthrown in 1997. The victorious rebel leader, Laurent Kabila, suspended the 1994 act and assumed legislative, executive, and miltiary power. The country is divided into 10 provinces, including the ville (equivalent to a federal district) of Kinshasa. The provinces are presided over by commissioners, who are appointed to five-year terms. Cities are divided into zones and zones into quartiers, headed, respectively, by commissaires sous-rgionaux, or mayors, commissaires des zones, and chefs de quartiers. The mayor of Kinshasa is called commissaire urbain. Ntsomo Payanzo Bernd Michael Wiese The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Justice The judicial system is headed by the Supreme Court, which is located in Kinshasa. There are nine Courts of Appeal, and a tribunal of first instance is located in most subregional capitals. The customary judicial system in the villages is not completely abolished, and villagers may settle some cases according to traditional procedures. Congo does not apply the jury system; the judges, after deliberation, have the right to settle cases. All courts are presided over by a lawyer or person of legal training. The defendant may defend himself or choose his own lawyer or defender.