Democratic Republic of Congo¹

How is the land laid out?

Most of this nation of 2.3 million square kilometers is an inland basin of the Congo River. The river starts in the southeast as the Lualaba and flows north. At Kisangani it turns westward in a great bow-curve that then turns southwestward; this part of the river is called the Zaire. Its lower course, from near Kinshasa, is the Congo proper. Its chief tributaries are the Ubangi² and the Kasai.³

The nation's east and southeast include high mountains and part of the continent's rift valley. The Great Rift Valley include Lakes Tanganyika,⁴ Kivu, Edward and Albert.⁵ Only Lake Mweru,⁶ on the Zambian border, and the swampy lakes Upemba, Mai-Ndombe and Tumba⁷ are not part of the continental tear.

The high mountains incude the Mitumba system, which approach 3,000 meters, the Virunga volcanoes, which reach above 4,500 meters on the Rwandan border, the Ruwenzoris, where Margherita Peak tops 5,100 meters, and the Blue Mountains, which approach 2,500 meters.

Among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites is Salonga National Park.

Who lives there?

Nearly 59 million people live here (2006). In the southwest,⁸ the majority speak languages in the Bantu H Group. In the Equator Region, the majority speak languages in the Bantu C group. In Upper-Congo, the majority speak Nilo-Saharan languges. In Kasai,⁹ the majority speak Luba. In the Lacustrine regions,¹⁰ the majority speak languages in the Bantu J Group. In Katanga,¹¹ the majority speak languages in the Bantu L Group.

The overwhelming majority are Christians, most of them Roman Catholics, though some are Protestants and some Kimbanguists. A minority, fewer than the Kimbanguists or Protestants, follow traditional religions that emphasize place-centered and ancestral spirits, witches (hereditary magicians), sorcerers (non-hereditary) and diviners that assist in curing ills, bodily or other.

Cities over a million are Kinshasa, part of the Kinshasa-Brazzaville metropolitan area and the national capital; Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of Eastern Kasai, Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga, and Kisangani, in Upper Congo.

Within the Area

Bandundu, Lower-Congo and Kinshasa
Equator Region
Upper-Congo
Western Kasai and Eastern Kasai
North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema
Katanga

Footnotes

1. Formerly called Zaire. Sometimes called Kinshasa Congo.
2. Called the Oubangui outside of this nation. It is formed by the Uele and the Bomu.
3. The lower course of the Kasai is the Kwa.
4. Drained by a tirubary of the Lualaba (Congo).
5. Lakes Edward and Albert form part of the Nile River system.
6. Drained by a tributary of the Lualaba (Congo).
7. The swampy lakes are part of the Congo River system.
8. Bandundu, Lower-Congo and Kinshasa.
9. West and East Kasai.
10. North and South Kivu and Maniema.
11. Formerly Shaba.