At the time of independence, the area now encompassing Kongo Central was part of the greater province ofLéopoldville, along with the capital city ofKinshasa and the districts ofKwango,Kwilu andMai-Ndombe. Under Belgian colonial rule, the province was known asBas-Congo (as in "Lower Congo River") and was renamed Kongo Central after independence.[7][8]
Under the regime ofMobutu Sese Seko from 1965 to 1997, the Congo river was renamed asZaire. The province was named asBas-Zaïre. The name was later reverted to Bas-Congo. It was subsequently renamed asKongo Central in 2015.
Kongo Central is the only province in the country with an ocean coastline; it has narrow frontage on the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It borders the city-province ofKinshasa to the north-east, the province ofKwango to the east, and theRepublic of Angola to the south as well as theRepublic of the Congo andCabinda to the north.
The provincial capital is Matadi, withBoma being the other official city. The remainder of the province is administratively divided into ten territories, the most of any province:[9]
Before 2015 these territories were divisions of theBas-Fleuve,Cataractes andLukayadistricts; except for Moanda, which was attached to Boma (a city/district hybrid).[10]
^M. J. Hambrey and W. B. Harland,Earth's Pre-Pleistocene Glacial Record, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 157
^Godefroid Muzalia Kihangu,Bundu dia Kongo, une résurgence des messianismes et de l’alliance des Bakongo?, Universiteit Gent, België, 2011, p. 1
^Central Intelligence Agency (2016)."Democratic Republic of the Congo".The World Factbook. Langley, Virginia: Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved10 May 2016.
^Institut National de la Statistique–RD Congo (March 2017).Annuaire statistique 2015 [2015 Statistical Yearbook](PDF) (in French). pp. 8-9 Tableau 1.3.Archived(PDF) from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved2 Jan 2023.
^Institut National de la Statistique–RD Congo (July 2015).Annuaire statistique 2014 [2014 Statistical Yearbook](PDF) (in French). pp. 36–38 Tableau 1.5. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 12 Mar 2019. Retrieved3 January 2023.
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