Democratic Rep. of Congo

Two states, one name, Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville, divided by the imposing river of the same name, around which the same cultural matrix and common traditions were separated geo-politically by colonial interests. An immense territory covered by one of the last green lungs of rainforest nature, second only to the Amazon.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, which goes by many names (Congo-Kinshasa or, more familiarly, DRC, ex-Belgian Congo, ex-Zaire), has no fewer than five natural sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list, testifying to the exceptional nature of its territory. The country that was once a private possession of King Leopold II of Belgium, the scene of the most ruthless colonialism with the “heart of darkness” of Conradian memory, one of the richest subsoils of mineral deposits in the world that have generated endless conflicts, is, in revenge, one of the most surprising countries in terms of biodiversity and natural environments that leave you breathless.

Rainforests, savannahs and fertile plateaus, floodplains, mangrove mazes, active volcanoes, swirling rapids and waterfalls of overwhelming energy. Its backbone, identity and vital vein is the Congo River, the true “highway” of a largely impenetrable territory. An exuberant and varied nature, from which mountain or lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, or the curious okapi, a kind of very rare zebra-giraffe, slowly come to an end. But in Congo, cultural richness is also part of its incredible heritage, with more than 400 different peoples, mostly of Bantu and pygmy origin, each with their own language and animist traditions that compete, and often syncretise, with the Christian religion. An adventurous destination, tinged with powerful energy on the rapids of Livingston, where the Congo River is not navigable, enriched with a subtle thrill as it makes its way along the railway that runs parallel to it, charged with pure excitement at the sighting of elephants, giraffes and rhinos in Garamba Park, the endemic bonobos and pygmy chimpanzees in Salonga Park, and the apparent phlegm of the incredible silver-backed gorillas in Virunga Park; it is coloured with exuberant gaiety in the chaotic capital Kinshasa, with its rumba and its eccentric Sapeurs, in perpetual competition with the SAPE of Brazzaville; it is tinged with decadence in the first colonial town of Boma, and finally explodes with astonishment before the fiery majesty of the eruptions of the Nyragongo volcano, or the vertiginous peak of the Ruwenzori.