The population of the capital is estimated to exceed 2.1 million residents, comprising more than a third of the national populace. Some 40% are employed in non-agricultural professions. DuringWorld War II, Brazzaville served as the de facto capital ofFree France between 1940 and 1942.
The prefix "Brazza" comes from the surname of the Italian countPierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who worked on exploration expeditions forFrance and is credited with founding the town.[7]
The place name Brazzaville unintentionally has the literal meaning of "City of the Armed Wing".[7] The surname Brazza refers to the village ofBrazzacco, in the commune ofMoruzzo,Italy, whose name derives from thelatinbracchium, meaning "armed wing".[8]
Kinshasa seen from Brazzaville. The two capitals are separated by theCongo River.View of Brazzaville from space
Brazzaville covers a large area to the north of theCongo River, just below thePool Malebo.Mbamu, a large island within the Pool, is part of the Republic of Congo's territory.
Brazzaville is 506 km (314 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean and approximately 474 km (295 mi) south of theequator. Around the city are large plains. The town is relatively flat, and situated at an altitude of 317 m (1,040 ft). Downriver the Congo has numerous rapids, known as Livingston Falls, preventing navigation upriver to this point from its mouth at the Atlantic.
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is located on the southern bank of the Congo, directly across from Brazzaville. To distinguish between the two African countries that have "Congo" in their names, the Republic of the Congo is sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville, as opposed to Congo-Kinshasa. Kinshasa is more than five times larger than Brazzaville in population. This is the only place in the world where two nationalcapital cities developed on opposite banks of a river, within sight of each other.[13]
In March 2018, the "Brazzaville Declaration" was signed to promote better management and conservation of theCuvette Centrale, a region inCongo Basin and primarily in DRC. It is the world's largest tropicalpeatland, made up of swamp forests. Conservation of this area is important for the survival of megafauna, and also critical to the world's climate. Burning the peat would release too much carbon and raise the Earth's temperature. The declaration to save peatlands as the world's largest terrestrial organic carbon stock was signed byDemocratic Republic of the Congo, theRepublic of the Congo, andIndonesia, which also has peatlands.[14]
Brazzaville Market in 1905Brazzaville railway station in 1941
In precolonial times, the location of the modern-day city of Brazzaville was inhabited by two trading centres,Mfwa andMpila, which were part of theTio Kingdom (theEastern Teke).[15]: 247–55
Brazzaville was founded by theFrench colonial empire upon an existing indigenousBateke settlement called Ncuna, during theScramble for Africa when European nations established spheres of influence on the continent.[16] The Italian-born explorerPierre Savorgnan de Brazza,[17] who was granted French citizenship in 1874, officially founded the settlement on 10 September 1880; it commemorates his name.[7][16]
The Tio king,Iloo I [fr], signed a treaty of protection with Brazza, which subjugated his lands to theFrench Empire.[16] From October 1880 until May 1882, a small squad of troops led by Senegalese SergeantMalamine Camara occupied the site, in order to prevent the land from falling into Belgian hands. Their forces were active on the south side of the river, where King Leopold II ruled the Belgian Congo for a period as a private holding. The first large-scale building work of the city began four years later, as the French competed withLéopoldville (nowKinshasa) which Belgian colonists were developing on the south side of the river.[16]
TheBerlin Conference of 1884 placed French control over this area on an official footing. The city became the capital of theFrench Congo in 1904.[18] It continued as capital whenFrench Equatorial Africa was founded in 1910, as a federation of French colonial states: it includedGabon, theCentral African Republic, andChad until 1960.[18] From 1910 to 1915 the major municipal buildings were constructed, including a courthouse and headquarters for the Banque de l'AEF and Institut Pasteur.[19]
In 1934, theCongo–Ocean Railway opened, linking Brazzaville with the Atlantic port ofPointe-Noire and bypassing the rapids on the Congo River. Construction of the railway resulted in the deaths of more than 17,000 Africans, and the people revolted against the French in 1928.[20]
During World War II, Brazzaville and the rest ofFrench Equatorial Africa remained beyond the control ofVichy France, which served the Nazi occupation. The city served as the capital ofFree France from 1940 to 1943.[19] In 1944, Brazzaville hosted a meeting of theFrench resistance forces and representatives of France's African colonies. The resultingBrazzaville Declaration represented an attempt to redefine the relationship between France and its African colonies.[18]
Until the 1960s, the city was divided into European (the centre of the city) andAfrican sections (Poto-Poto, Bacongo, and Makélékélé). In 1980, it became a "commune" separated from the surroundingPool Department and divided into nine "arrondissements" along the French model of administration.
Since the late 20th century, the city has frequently been a staging ground for wars, including internal conflicts between rebel and government forces. It has been a base of conflicts between forces of the Republic of the Congo, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), andAngola. During the 1990s, civil wars resulted in thousands of civilian deaths here and forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the city.
More recently thousands of people leaving the DRC have made their way to Brazzaville; thelocal United Nations force and the DRC government have accused the city of deporting thousands of these refugees.[21][22]
In April 2016 fighting occurred between police and local militia units, with at least 18 people killed.[23]
As of the 2023 census, the city had a population of 2.15 million.[24]
The National Institute of Statistics for 2014 is 1.73 million.Kinshasa, DRC, had more than 10 million inhabitants in 2014.[25]
Together with Kinshasa, the combinedconurbation of Kinshasa-Brazzaville has about 12 million inhabitants. Significant political and infrastructure challenges prevent the two cities from functioning with any meaningful connection.[26][27]
Since the mid-19th century, the two cities have been rivals in trade, sports and power.[13] There have been proposals to connect the two capitals by aBrazzaville–Kinshasa Bridge. In 2018, with relative peace re-established in the region, theAfrican Development Bank andAfrica50 signed a deal with both governments to develop the project.[28]
Brazzaville, like Pointe-Noire, is acommune (municipality) contained within adepartment of the same name.[29] It is governed by a municipal council and a departmental council. The mayor is the president of the municipal council.[30]
The commune of Brazzaville is divided into ninearrondissements (boroughs), each with an official number:[31]
The department of Brazzaville includes the area of the commune and, since 2011, the new district ofIle Mbamou.[29] In October 2024, the department absorbed the commune ofKintélé, which was previously part of the department ofPool.[32]
The location of Brazzaville near the pool of the Congo River enabled it to grow as an industrial, trading and port settlement. It was connected through trade by ships and boats traveling upriver to inland areas, which produced raw materials from the beginning of the colonial period.[18] Construction of the railway connecting toPointe-Noire increased the ability of city businessmen to get their products to the port for export. Industries present in Brazzaville includemachine shops,textiles,tanning, andmanufacturing. As a key port on theCongo River, Brazzaville still takes deliveries ofraw materials, such asrubber,wood, andagricultural products. From here they are generally sent onward toPointe-Noire for export.
Many companies, government organizations andNGOs have regional offices in the capital city, where they can work with government officials. TheWorld Health Organization has its regional office for Africa located in Brazzaville.[33] Companies headquartered in Brazzaville includeEquatorial Congo Airlines[citation needed] and the mobile operatorWarid Congo.[34]
Roger Erell, a highly regarded architect, designed a house in the city forCharles de Gaulle when he was the leader ofFree France here. Other buildings include the Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza Mausoleum, theNabemba Tower, and the Congressional Palace (Brazzaville).
TheMarien Ngouabi Mausoleum,Brazzaville Zoo, and the Poto-Poto School of Painting are also destinations for visitors and city residents.
TheMarien Ngouabi University is a publicuniversity in Brazzaville, named after a former leader.[36] The university was founded in December 1971 after independence. Today it has approximately 26,000 students.[36]
Brazzaville features atropical wet and dry climate. Its wet season, which runs from October–May, is longer than its dry season, which covers the remaining months. Brazzaville's driest months, July and August, on average have no significant precipitation. Since Brazzaville is south of the equator, its dry season begins at around its "winter" solstice, which is the month of June. The city has relatively consistent temperatures throughout the course of the year.
The city is home toMaya-Maya Airport, which lies in the centre of the city and which has regular flights toPointe-Noire as well as international destinations in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. A flight operates twice weekly between Brazzaville and Kinshasa, but the flight time is only five minutes.[13]
The city is an importantriver port, withferries sailing toKinshasa and toBangui viaImpfondo.[13] Ferries and fast private boats serve as the primary means of connection between Kinshasa and Brazzaville.[13] TheLivingstone Falls lie on the outskirts of the city, where theDjoué River meets the Congo, rendering river transport to the coast impossible, qualifying the railway as aportage railway.
Although there is no organised public transport system, privately owned buses are available in the capital.[39]
Taxis are available on every street and are easily recognized, being painted with a green body and white top, and the fare for a short trip is CF700. About twenty percent of the vehicles in Brazzaville are taxis. There are also collective taxis that drive certain routes and charge CF150.
A road-rail bridge is proposed to connect Brazzaville with Kinshasa. The rail gauge on both sides is the same at 1067mm.[40]
^abcdRoman Adrian Cybriwsky (2013).Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. USA: ABC-CLIO. p. 60.
^Giovanni Frau (1978).Dizionario Toponomastico Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Istituto per l'Enciclopedia del Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
^Sylvie Ayimpam,Vie matérielle, échanges et capitalisme sur la rive méridionale du Pool du fleuve Congo (1815-1930), Centre d'Étude des Mondes Africains (CEMAf), 2006, p. 4 and p. 9
^André JACQUOT,Lexique Laadi (Koongo), L'Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer (O.R.S.T.O.M.), 1974
^Joseph ZIDI,Brazzaville : Les enjeux de la géographie des migrations (1800-2010), Université Marien Ngouabi de Brazzaville, 2016
^MARTIN Phyllis M.,Loisirs et société à Brazzaville pendant l'ère coloniale, KARTHALA Editions, 2006, p. 31
^"Monographie de la Ville de Kinshasa" (in French). Unité de Pilotage du Processus d'Elaboration et de mise œuvre de la Stratégie pour la Réduction de la Pauvreté (UPPE-SRP). Archived fromthe original(SWF) on 9 February 2007. Retrieved19 January 2007.
^abLaws n° 12 to 14-2011"JO n° 21-2011"(PDF).sgg.cg (in French).Secrétariat Général du Gouvernement - Journal Officiel. 26 May 2011. pp. 581,585–586. Retrieved2 September 2023.
^"Les arrondissements".Brazzaville.cg (in French). Commune de Brazzaville, Congo. Archived fromthe original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved12 September 2017.
Tiepolo, M. (1996) "City Profile: Brazzaville" inCities v. 13, pp. 117–124
Brisset-Guibert, Hervé (2007)Brazzaville petit guide historique, in the site www.presidence.cg ("palais presidentiel")
Cultural reference: In the final scene of the 1942 film, Casablanca, it is to Brazzaville that Captain Renault (Claude Rains) suggests he and Rick (Humphrey Bogart) might escape to together for "vacation" and, as Rick counters, "the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Whitehouse, Bruce (2012).Migrants and Strangers in an African City: Exile, Dignity, Belonging. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.ISBN9780253000811.
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