Kinshasa, municipality of Ngaliema, Binza Ozone, district of Manenga. The heavy rains of the last few days have caused considerable damage. More than twenty dwellings were engulfed in enormous erosion that continues to grow and gains ground every day.
So far, luckily, there has been no casualty to deplore. The residents of this area have to [...]
After he was greeted as a liberator in the capital Kinshasa on May 17, 1997, the man whom the Congolese affectionately called Mzee was assassinated, over 4 years after he came to power. Seven years have gone by since his demise; yet billboards bearing his image are still prominent in some parts of the country, [...]
For the first time in my life, I almost hit a policeman. I was so annoyed with him that I could have strangled him. My day had started off nicely, but everything went wrong as I was on my way to a very important work appointment. Unfortunately, the cab driver I had hired fell into [...]
A few days ago, I was asked to cover a trial in the Yolo neighborhood of the municipality of Kalamu in Kinshasa. Two men were appearing in court, one for stealing 56 meters of cable belonging to the National Electricity Board (SNEL) and the other one for buying the stolen cable.
This kind of theft is [...]
The series about Smart Congolese is a great success! The traffic police post attracted more than 200 comments and more than 1600 clicks in 4 days, a record number! Today it’s child traders. I always said that the Congolese were the smartest in the world but today I am adding a line inspired by a [...]
I have been asked by many of you to write about good things or about those Congolese who manage to get along in a country without any formal structures. I am therefore starting this series on ‘Smart Congolese‘ and the first ones today will be the traffic police, more commonly called ‘roulages’.
The job
Their role is [...]
I broke into a cold sweat a few days ago, when I looked at my home electrical wiring system. Do we need to ask about the source of the sudden power cuts and many fires happening in Kinshasa and in the rest of the country?
I should not complain, and I had better think myself lucky [...]
Each and every officer who has been at the head of the city of Kinshasa these last few years has given us an idea of their understanding of ‘cleanliness’. Some restricted their action to demolishing a few shaky buildings and others proudly pointed to a bunch of sweepers on the main thoroughfares of the city.
I [...]
Similar to their flying counterparts, the Antonov buses manufactured in the West but altered and tampered with by Congolese mechanics claim casualties every day. This morning, there was an accident in the municipality of Ngaliema, behind the American school in Kinshasa. An old bus ended up against a wall, when its brakes broke down, causing [...]
Let me introduce a genuine Kinois. His fly open, he is urinating in full daylight in a public thoroughfare, with no consideration whatsoever for the “Epekisami Kosuba awa” writing just above his head, that means: “Do not urinate here.” Seeing him, I hastened to take my camera out in order to quickly take a picture [...]
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