50 Fun Facts About Republic of the Congo

What is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo?

It is home to more than a third of the national population and was named a UNESCO City of Music in 2013.

The Congolese capital sits directly across the Congo River from which other national capital?

It is the only place on Earth where two national capitals grew up on opposite banks of a river within sight of each other.

The Republic of the Congo gained full independence from which colonial power in 1960?

Independence day was 15 August 1960; the neighbouring Congo across the river had been Belgian.

By what nickname is the country commonly distinguished from its larger neighbour across the river?

The larger, formerly Belgian country across the river is Congo-Kinshasa, or the DR Congo.

Which country does NOT share a land border with the Republic of the Congo?

Its neighbours are Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the DR Congo and Angola's Cabinda exclave, plus an Atlantic coastline.

The country's capital is named after an explorer born in which city?

Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà was the seventh of thirteen children of an Italian nobleman and only became a French citizen in 1874.

The capital's name, via the explorer's family village of Brazzacco, unintentionally means what?

Brazzacco's name derives from the Latin bracchium; a nearby-sounding coincidence given the city's later military history.

Which Tio king signed the 1880 treaty with de Brazza putting land north of the Congo under France?

After his death his widow, Queen Ngalifourou, upheld the treaty and became an ally of the colonisers.

During World War II, the Congolese capital served as the symbolic capital of what?

It played that role from 1940, and the 1944 Brazzaville Conference went on to reshape French colonial policy.

In 1969 the country became the first in Africa to declare itself what?

The People's Republic of the Congo lasted until 1992, complete with a Soviet-style red flag.

Who returned to the presidency of the Republic of the Congo after the 1997 civil war?

He had already ruled from 1979 to 1992, and returned after a civil war in which Angolan forces helped install him; he has held office continuously since 1997.

The daughter of Congo's long-serving president married which neighbouring head of state in 1989?

Edith Lucie Bongo became first lady of Gabon; her son-in-law's father-in-law relationship tied the two oil states together for two decades.

Who was the first President of the Republic of the Congo, from independence in 1960?

The former priest and avid anti-communist was ousted after a three-day uprising in 1963.

President Marien Ngouabi, who proclaimed the People's Republic, met what fate in March 1977?

An 11-member military committee took over, and two years later Denis Sassou Nguesso rose to the presidency for the first time.

The private militia that fought for Sassou Nguesso in the 1997 civil war was known by what name?

The four-month war wrecked much of the capital and killed tens of thousands of civilians before Angola invaded to install him.

Which country's army invaded the Congo in October 1997 to install Sassou Nguesso in power?

The elected president Pascal Lissouba's government fell and Sassou declared himself president.

The Congolese flag is a yellow diagonal band separating triangles of which two colours?

It was adopted in 1959, replaced by a Soviet-style red flag under the People's Republic, and restored in 1991.

The People's Republic of the Congo's flag emblem showed a star over a hammer and what tool?

The design was inspired by the Soviet flag but swapped the sickle for an agricultural tool more familiar in Central Africa.

What is the second-largest city and main economic centre of the Republic of the Congo?

It sits on the Atlantic near the Angolan border, and its name, 'Black Point', came from Portuguese sailors who saw dark rocks there in 1484.

The name of the country's main port, given by Portuguese navigators in 1484, refers to what?

The site was then a fishing village called Ndji-Ndji under the Kingdom of Loango.

The Congo-Ocean Railway links the capital with the coast over roughly what distance?

It bypasses the rapids of the lower Congo; a luxury train, La Gazelle, was scheduled to take 14 to 16 hours for the trip.

The Congo-Ocean Railway, built after World War I, cost at least how many lives?

It was built with forced labour recruited from as far away as present-day Chad and the Central African Republic.

The Congo River is the second-longest in Africa and holds which world record?

Depths of around 220 metres have been measured, and it is the only major river to cross the equator twice.

The Congo River is the only major river in the world to do what?

It is also the world's third-largest river by discharge, behind only the Amazon and the Ganges-Brahmaputra.

The word 'Congo' derives from the Bantu Kingdom of Kongo, whose people's name is said to mean what?

The kingdom occupied the river's mouth when the Portuguese first arrived in 1483 or 1484.

Which Portuguese explorer reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484?

Centuries of trade followed, in goods and in people enslaved in the hinterland, before direct colonisation began in the 19th century.

The Republic of the Congo joined which producers' organisation in 2018?

Petroleum has replaced forestry as the mainstay of the economy and made up 92% of exports in 2008.

In 2004 the Congo was excluded from the Kimberley Process amid allegations about which export?

Most of the stones it exported were suspected of being smuggled in from the DR Congo; it was readmitted in 2007.

Alongside French, which two languages are national languages of the Republic of the Congo?

Ethnologue counts 62 spoken languages in the country in total.

Which ethnic group is the largest in the Republic of the Congo, making up roughly half the population?

The Teke, north of the capital, are second at about 17%, and the Mbochi of the north, the president's group, about 13%.

Roughly what share of the Congolese population lives in urban areas?

Most people live in the two big cities or along the railway between them, leaving the northern jungle nearly empty.

In 2010 the Congolese parliament adopted Africa's first law of what kind?

It responded to reports that some Pygmies were held by Bantu families in relationships described as slavery.

The Congo national football team won its only Africa Cup of Nations title in which year?

The Red Devils have never reached a World Cup, but they also won the 1965 All-Africa Games tournament on home soil.

How did the Congo win the 1965 All-Africa Games football final against Mali after a 0-0 draw?

Ten corners to one settled the trophy in front of a home crowd.

La Sape, the Congolese dandy subculture, abbreviates a French phrase meaning what?

An adherent is a sapeur; the movement follows ten 'commandments' of behaviour and dress.

Congolese novelist Alain Mabanckou won the Prix Renaudot for which book?

Born in 1966 and raised in Pointe-Noire, he is now a professor of literature at UCLA.

Roughly how many previously unknown western lowland gorillas did 2006-07 surveys find in Congo's northern swamps?

The 'inhospitable' swamps around Lake Télé had kept the apes isolated from people.

Which Congolese national park, protected since 1935, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023?

It has one of the continent's most diverse primate populations and only 50 tourists visited in 2011.

Lake Télé in northern Congo is best known as the supposed home of which legendary creature?

The 'living dinosaur' has drawn expeditions funded largely by young-Earth creationists rather than wildlife biologists.

The Kingdom of Loango on the Congolese coast was a major exporter of copper and what?

At its 17th-century height its influence stretched from Cape St Catherine almost to the mouth of the Congo.

French Equatorial Africa, created in 1908, comprised the Congo, Gabon, Chad and which fourth territory?

Oubangui-Chari later became the Central African Republic; the Congolese capital served as the federation's seat.

From 1903 until 1958 the French colony was known by what name?

It became the Republic of the Congo in 1958 as an autonomous colony within the French Community.

The Congo lies on which line of latitude, giving it a climate that barely changes through the year?

The average day temperature is a humid 24 °C and the dry season runs June to August.

How much Atlantic coastline does the Republic of the Congo have?

The coastal plain in the southwest is drained by the Kouilou-Niari River.

In the mid-1960s the Congolese government invited troops from which country to train its party militia?

Around a hundred Cuban soldiers helped President Massamba-Débat's government survive a 1966 coup attempt.

How many departments has the Republic of the Congo been divided into since October 2024?

The capital and Pointe-Noire are each both a department and a commune.

A 2018 declaration committed both Congos and Indonesia to protecting what?

The Cuvette Centrale is the world's largest tropical peatland, and burning it would release a vast store of carbon.

Which 1960s president of Congo made 'scientific socialism' the constitutional ideology?

His regime built textile, match and shipyard works, opened relations with Moscow and Beijing, and fell in a bloodless 1968 coup.

The 1997 civil war rebels who returned to fight in the Pool region in 2016 were known by what name?

Their 2016 attacks drove 80,000 people from their homes before a ceasefire in December 2017.

The Congolese capital was designated a UNESCO 'City of' what in 2013?

It has since been a member of the Creative Cities Network.