Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

Brazzaville is the capital of the Republic of the Congo (ROC) and that nation's administrative, economic, and political center. Founded in the late nineteenth century, Brazzaville served as the capital of French Equatorial Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. The capital's postcolonial history has been marred by civil war and profound political corruption, and in 2014 Brazzaville was listed as the city with the fifth-worst quality of life in an international survey of 223 urban centers. The Congolese government has attempted to expedite the capital's recovery from many years of violent strife. Brazzaville remains a city where poverty and damaged infrastructure continue to pose formidable challenges.

Landscape

Brazzaville is located in the southeastern section of the ROC. It sits about 500 kilometers (310 miles) inland from the Atlantic Ocean on the northern bank of the Congo River. It is directly opposite the port city of Kinshasa, which is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire). Situated within viewing distance of each other, Brazzaville and Kinshasa represent the geographically closest pair of national capitals in the world.

Brazzaville is encircled by rolling grasslands punctuated by dense thickets of tropical vegetation. Its climate is characterized by warm temperatures, typically ranging from 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit) to 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) and high levels of humidity. The rainy season lasts from October through May, while the dry season extends from June through September.

Temperatures have risen and precipitation patterns have changed in the Republic of Congo because of climate change. The country has developed adaptation strategies focused on water resources, agricultural land, health, and sanitation.

While under French colonial authority, Brazzaville consisted of a European-dominated urban district encircled by African areas. Following Congolese independence, the capital was subdivided into seven districts: Makélékélé, Bacongo, Poto-Poto, Moungali, Ouenzé, Talangaï, and Mfilou. The wealth generated by Congolese oil exports during the 1970s and 1980s fueled Brazzaville's rapid expansion as the population shifted from frequently drought-stricken rural areas in search of economic opportunity.

While the slow return of prosperity and stability is evident in the clean, modern streets of Brazzaville's city center, surrounding sections have not fared as well. Brazzaville has experienced a burst of unchecked growth as thousands of people displaced by civil conflict have come to inhabit shantytowns on the city's fringes. Overcrowding and a lack of municipal services such as potable water and the removal of trash and sewage have spawned significant public health and environmental hazards.

People

With approximately 2.15 million residents in 2023, up from 1.9 million residents in 2015, the population of Brazzaville, the ROC's most densely inhabited city, more than doubled within three years. Brazzaville's population consists of several key ethnic groups subdivided into dozens of smaller groupings. The Kongo people are the majority population in the city and make up nearly half of the population of the nation as a whole. The M'Bochi, sometimes called the Boulangi, are concentrated in areas northwest of Brazzaville, having migrated to the capital in significant numbers in recent years; most of Brazzaville's civil service workers and skilled craftsmen are M'Bochi. Other ethnic groups include the Bateke and Sangha. The nation itself is home to seventy ethnic subgroups. Prior to the devastation of the 1997 civil war, Brazzaville also had a significant expatriate community that was primarily French.

Christianity strongly influenced by indigenous beliefs and customs has a significant following in Brazzaville, while Roman Catholicism has traditionally claimed the largest number of adherents in the capital. However, in recent years evangelical Protestant denominations have surged in popularity. Brazzaville also has a small Muslim minority.

French is the language officially used in government and educational settings. The most commonly spoken language on the streets and in residences, however, is Lingala, a Bantu language, as well as various indigenous dialects.

Economy

Brazzaville's economy revolves around the city's role as the most important river port in the region. Although the 500-kilometer (310-mile) stretch of the Congo River between Brazzaville and the Atlantic Ocean is unnavigable, the part of the river that runs northeast provides a vital trade and transportation route more than 1,600 kilometers (about 1,000 miles) in length.

Brazzaville thus acts as a nexus for both commercial goods and passenger traffic moving in and out of the region. Rail links and truck routes facilitate the flow of cargo—chiefly rubber, wood, and agricultural products—between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, a major Atlantic Ocean port. Motorboats also transport goods and people between Brazzaville and Kinshasa, which lies opposite Brazzaville on the Congo's southern bank.

Brazzaville's manufacturing sector produces machine parts, processed foodstuffs, textiles, matches, printed materials, and building supplies. The civil service sector also provides many jobs in the capital, although a recession necessitated a reduction in civil service jobs in the late 2010s.

The Congolese government has resumed efforts to liberalize Brazzaville's economy and invite foreign investors back to the capital. Banks, telecommunications, transportation, and other entities that were state-owned were privatized beginning in 2003. Between 2006 and 2007, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international lending organizations agreed on significant debt relief for the ROC.

The ROC is one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producers and the nation's economy is heavily dependent on export revenues. Following the worldwide recession of 2008, oil prices rose between 2009 and 2013, helping Brazzaville's economy rebound. Oil prices began to drop in 2014, however, which triggered a recession and compelled the government to cut more than one billion dollars in planned spending.

Nonetheless, a lack of financial accountability hampered the government's efforts to revitalize Brazzaville's economy, with billions squandered during the economic rebound. Critics have stated that until the government invests the nation's wealth to upgrade Brazzaville's crumbling infrastructure and public services, the economic suffering will continue and foreign investors will remain reluctant to create economic growth and opportunities in the capital.

In 2017, the ROC requested a new relief program from the International Monetary Fund, which identified three factors hampering the nation's economic stability: economic dependence on oil export revenues; unsustainable debt; and weak governance. The following year, the IMF made the granting of a new economic relief package contingent on the ROC renegotiating its external debt levels, which were nearly 120 percent of gross domestic product.

The country's economy improved somewhat in the 2020s. In 2022, it grew by 1.5 percent and was driven by both oil and non-oil sectors. However, nearly 50 percent of the population lived in poverty.

Landmarks

Although Brazzaville sustained significant damage during the 1997 civil war, some vestiges of its graceful architectural past remain intact. French colonial buildings coexist alongside glass-and-concrete office buildings in the city's center, and Brazzaville's government buildings, banks, and hotels are all concentrated within this central enclave.

Brazzaville's most distinguishing landmark is the 106 meters (348 feet) tall Nabemba Tower, named after the tallest mountain in the country. The elegant office tower was destroyed during the 1997 civil war but eventually rebuilt at a substantial cost, despite many questioning the need for such an expenditure.

Another notable Brazzaville building is Saint Anne's Basilica, built in 1949. The church, famous for its roof of green tiles, is built in the beehive shape of traditional African homes, yet also incorporates European-style masonry work. It was also designed by the same architect responsible for another of the capital's landmarks—the house occupied by French general Charles De Gaulle during World War II.

Other Brazzaville attractions include the Temple Mosque, the National Museum of the Congo, the Brazzaville Zoo, and the Parliamentary Palace.

History

Brazzaville was founded in 1880 by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, an Italian-born French explorer of the Congo River. Savorgnan de Brazza brokered a deal with a local indigenous ruler to take possession of what was then a small fishing village called Nkuna. Subsequently renamed for the explorer, the settlement remained under French colonial authority from the time of its establishment until the ROC's declaration of independence from France in 1960.

From 1910 until 1958, Brazzaville served as the capital of the vast imperial territory that made up French Equatorial Africa. This made Brazzaville the logical headquarters for the Free French Forces—those fighters who continued to wage resistance against Adolf Hitler's army during the Nazi occupation of France—in Africa during World War II.

Brazzaville experienced a boom following World War II. The city's rapid growth was facilitated by the 1934 completion of the Congo-Ocean Railway, which linked Brazzaville with the Atlantic seaport of Pointe-Noire. Brazzaville's economic development stalled, however, following a 1968 coup that led to a long period of communist-style rule.

Disputed multiparty elections in 1992 set the stage for the 1997 civil war that destroyed much of Brazzaville and uprooted large numbers of its citizens. Rival factions, drawn primarily along ethnic lines, battled for control of the capital and the nation's offshore petroleum reserves.

Sporadic discord continued in the capital until 2002, when Congolese voters approved a new constitution. The following year opposition militia leaders agreed to a peace deal. In 2007 the main rebel leader reaffirmed his commitment to disarm his fighters and seek a political solution to his group's grievances.

Although disarmament and rebuilding efforts, financed largely by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), have restored a degree of peace and stability in Brazzaville, the capital's process of infrastructural and economic recovery remains ongoing.

In 2015, protests erupted in Brazzaville after President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who had served more than three decades as president in two different administrations, announced the passage of a constitutional referendum allowing him to seek a third seven-year presidential term despite age and term limits. He was elected in March 2016 with 60 percent of the vote in an election that the opposition and members of the international community denounced as a sham, leading protesters to take to Brazzaville's streets once more. Since then, Sassou Nguesso's government has restricted freedom of expression, prohibited public gatherings, confiscated reporters' cameras, and jailed opposition leaders, civil society leaders, journalists, and protesters. As of 2024, he remained president of the country.

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