Democratic Republic of the Congo

Visited: May 2022

Duration of visit: 10 days

Capital city: Kinshasa

Population: 90 million (2022)

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes

• Challenging process to visit and getting visa before arrival.
• Kinshasa – Africa’s third-largest metropolitan area after Cairo and Lagos with 11 million people, organized chaos, luxury Gombe area, popular grand marche and huge distances.
• The country does not care about tourists: expensive, little comfort, zero tourists, young expats only.
• Spectacular gorilla trekking in Kahuzi Biega National Park.
• Vibrant city of Goma – observing chukudeurs carrying up to a half ton of weight on wooden wheelbarrow, UN helicopters flying over and luxury Landcruisers transporting important officials.

Back to Africa after 9 years! It is never easy to prepare for the challenges of the most demanding continent to travel, but now even more time, patience and audacious planning are required.

There are not so many countries on the bucket list, complying with my personal requirements: decent weather conditions, Covid-19 sustainability, safety, visa availability and reasonable air connection. Africa is still the less visited continent; therefore, I decide for a trip to Central Africa.

The original plan was to explore DR Congo, Republic of the Congo and Gabon, but it surprisingly turned out that e-visa for the most tourist friendly country in the region (Gabon) was not approved. I had to travel to Belgrade to apply for DR Congo visa, after getting a special letter of invitation approved by the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Kinshasa. Not an easy, nor cheap procedure. At the end, I was happy to get an opportunity for multiple entry visa at 150.00US$.

For Republic of the Congo‘s visa, the only feasible option was an appointment at the embassy in Rome, therefore, I planned to combine it with an outbound flight to Kinshasa. I had prepared all the necessary documents, a fake airplane ticket, hotel reservation in DR Congo, and booked two days in Rome to successfully obtain the visa. My first attempt was a disaster. Arriving at the Embassy of Congo in Rome on Day 1, I noticed that the building was closed. No employees were around, the guard on the roof was ignoring my calls in French. Well, maybe he didn’t understand my fresh knowledge of a new language and therefore overlooked me.

I came back the next day and it turned out to be my lucky day. In two hours, my visa was ready and 140.00US$ fee was paid. Single entry was enough this time.

Even before boarding the first plane to Africa, I had spent 290.00US$ for two visas, plus related expenses of 400.00US$ for invitation letter and travel to Belgrade and Rome.

Delicious burek and fine Italian pizza would hardly justify the fact that Africa is crazy expensive and not always rewarding to visit. A side trip to Novi Sad, business meeting plus my partner’s company in Rome were added value. In the meantime, my original flight with Air Egypt from Cairo to Kinshasa was cancelled. A new alternative was going to be offered at Rome airport.

Can there be more obstacles before landing to the African soil?

Well, yes!

I got an alternative connection with a stopover in Nairobi that would bring me to Kinshasa 20 hours after taking off from Rome. As soon as I landed in Nairobi, the information screen was showing that my connection flight was programmed for 12:00 noon instead of 7:30 am.

“No Sir. Your flight departures on time. Be at the gate one hour before!“, a lovely representative of Kenya airlines clarified the situation to me.

Two passengers queuing before me were denied to board the plane due to lack of PCR test. My Covid-19 test did magic again, my hotel reservation and fake return ticket impressed the officer. When showing the invitation letter approved by Ministry of Foreign affairs and visa, Kenya airlines staff was so impressed that they almost offered me to walk on a red carpet. There were no objections to board the plane to Kinshasa any more.

An African chaos and disorganization received us on arrival to Njida airport in Kinshasa. Nevertheless, my paperwork was in order and I passed by immigration, sanitarian, security and other unknown checkpoints quickly. I was the only white man arriving, but leaving the airport hall, the atmosphere was surprisingly quiet.

Rather small airport, without many airplanes or modern infrastructure didn’t attract attention of vendors. The traffic to Kinshasa on Saturday midday was smooth; many taxis, vans and moto-taxis stopping all the time and blocking the vehicles behind.

Kinshasa is one of the biggest cities in Africa; with a population estimated at 11 million, it is one of the world’s fastest growing megacities.

Since there are hardly any high apartment buildings, the capital city of DR Congo spreads around for kilometers in all directions, but one. The Congo River separates Kinshasa from Brazzaville, the capital of Republic of the Congo.

Although home to less than 15% of the DRC’s population, 85% of country’ economic activities are concentrated here. Still, 70% of inhabitants don’t have a formal work, but try to survive on a dollar per day with any kind of activity. Some wealthy Congolese businessmen, who are mostly involved in politics and/or with influential families, strong communities of Lebanese, Chinese and Belgians, are running the biggest projects, commerce and construction projects in the capital and wider.

Rich sources of minerals hidden in inaccessible jungle have cursed the country big time. Most of the internal conflicts, never ending wars and fights among militia groups, instability and lack of infrastructure, are the miserable consequences.

DR Congo and Kinshasa, as a headquarter for international governmental and non-governmental organizations, host one of the biggest missions in Africa. Never-ending conflicts, diseases, natural disasters and very basic infrastructure in the country, call for help in billions of dollars.

This explains, why the most luxurious part of Kinshasa (Gombe) is full of UN offices, with mostly inexperienced young employees, who are willing to leave Western luxury and security behind, while working and living in a segregated community, in hope of getting promoted after finishing the mandate.

Still, walking around the streets of Gombe, I haven’t seen any white people. Even in high end restaurants, bars and other exclusive places they are in minority comparing to wealthy Congolese, who are usually lacking style, manners and values.

Sunday was the perfect day to avoid regular heavy traffic. My host Waddy drove me around to check the main attractions. Honestly speaking, there is not much to see and even less to appreciate in Kinshasa. Besides that, the distance between places is extremely large, which makes it impossible to walk around.

Here is a list of some main attractions that I visited:

Palais de la Nation, serving as an official residence of the president on the banks of Congo River. It is protected by high walls and hidden from the public. Built in 1956 for a Belgian governor, it soon became a place where Congo’s first president, Patrick Lumumba, 4 years later announced independence.

Sunday morning was time for a mass in Cathedral Notre-Dame du Congo. Built by bricks from outside and inside, decorated with fresco of an African Jesus and followers, the cathedral was raised in 1947. The ceremony itself was rather quiet and calm for African standards or invocations I attended before.

Academy des Beaux-Arts is a place where future local artist study and attend workshops to learn new skills. Some sculptures spreading around a well-maintained park and a building behind the academy, covered with colorful paintings, called most of my attention while visiting it.

Palais du People – enormous People’s Palace is the seat of National Assembly and Senate, completed in 1979. Financed by China and inspired by the Great hall of people in Beijing.

It was on my bucket list to visit National Museum, but I was discouraged with prohibitively expensive entry ticket for foreigners at 10.00US$. High representatives of UN, whom I met in front of the museum, warned me that the building was actually more interesting from the outside and the exhibition doesn’t justify the price.  Since I am not a big fan of museums anyway, I passed this one.

Marche central – central market of Kinshasa – only a few long blocks from the main boulevard, showcases all, that DRC has to offer: colorful mix of women dresses, products of any kind, hassle and bustle of screaming sellers, knowledgeable agents, food, clothes, shoes, organized chaos, household utilities, extravagant dishes, plants and much more. Impressed by numerous attractive scenes, I began to take photos in a very respectful, non-intrusive form.

It didn’t last long until a young guy, who was not even in the field of my camera lens, started to scream and approached me in an attitude, suggesting that I am at least a serial killer, ready to go to the darkest jail in Kinshasa.

He forced me to delete all photos, made a scandal, where everyone around was smiling and joking about a stupid le blanc, taking photos.

Yes, Congolese in DRC don’t want to be photographed!

People in Kinshasa don’t treat themselves nicely and politely; police harass drivers, moto-taxis push pedestrians out of the way, people scream often to each other with loud voices, while traffic jams cause nervousness in pretty much everyone. Nevertheless, visiting marche central was a unique experience that should be part of any visit to Kinshasa, but with high safety precautions, as always on African markets.

Lola ya Bonobo is located a little bit further out of the city, but still pretty much within the confines mix of houses, huts, market stands and constant traffic jams. It is a refuge sanctuary for Bonobo monkeys, protecting them from extinction and raising awareness about this endemic DR Congo species. At Banobo Sanctuary, orphaned bonobos are rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, nursed back to health and cared for, before being returned back to wildlife, even though that might not occur to many at all.

Four big separated areas for different groups of bonobos are real wild rainforest habitats, where monkeys spend their time. During organized tour, four times per day, bonobos are attracted by food for photo shooting or simply posing, since they are very intelligent and cooperative. The main differences between bonobos and chimpanzees is in their black face, sexual behavior and relationship.

Bonobo monkeys are masters of avoiding conflicts. After bonobos fight (which is very uncommon), they quickly solve problems with sexual activity.

For a difference from chimpanzees they mix together independently of family, age or status within a group. 98.7% of bonobo DNA is the same as human. The dominant bonobo in any group is always a female, even though being smaller than male. I wonder how humanity could handle similar distribution of power in the family or society in general.

The capital cities of DR Congo and Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa and Brazzaville) are separated only by the powerfully Congo River, which is crossed in 15 minutes by boat. It would have been an easy border crossing in most parts of the world, but not in this part of Africa, where even the simplest procedures convert to a complicated operation.

Consequently, the process of crossing the border formalities, waiting and navigating the river took me half a day, paying bribery on both sides, waiting and complying with various unnecessary formalities.

As soon as I arrived to the entrance of the port in Kinshasa, a policeman stopped me, asked for my passport, yellow fever vaccination, Covid-19 test and cash. I gave him some money to buy a ticket and cancel administrative fees, that were apparently not covering custom duty fees where two guys and a strong lady were unconventionally asking me how much money I was carrying.

After some misunderstanding the fat lady said directly: “Give me one dollar for food!“. And that was it.

No more questions or interrogation; everybody was happy when I donated her a dollar. So obvious, almost cultural in Kinshasa!

The policemen backed me up at other checkpoints and guided me to the final waiting point with all kind of people in uniforms, passengers, officials, etc. He asked me for more help and when I offered him a dollar, he gave up and left. Yes, at least once, I managed to win over their greediness. After another hour and a half of waiting, my name was called, I got my passport with an exit stamp back and boarded the boat, that took me to Brazzaville in Republic of the Congo.

Returning to DRC was supposed to be an easy ride from Bujumbura in Burundi, after a short detour through Rwanda, and entering smoothly to the city of Bukavu. I found a transport to the border town of Ruhwa quickly and we were driving like crazy on the best road in Burundi. An hour and a half later we arrived to Rukana, the last descent town before the border, where everyone abandoned the car. The driver proposed to charge me a dollar extra to take me to the border, which was only a few kilometers away.

As soon as I arrived there, I noticed that something was wrong: “Your documents and permission, please!“, asked me the immigration officer. My passport was in order, but I didn’t know anything about the special permit.

“This border has been closed on Burundian side for 2 years and without a special permit from our Minster you cannot cross to DRC or Rwanda. Nevertheless, the border in DRC and Rwanda is open, so you will not be having any problem there.”

What sense does it make?

The immigration office on the other side is open, but I cannot leave Burundi. If I was in DRC, a couple of dollars would have solved the problem and suddenly the solution would be found. But Burundi is another country, where I have never paid or seen anybody paying briberies.

So, what is my option?

“Go back to Bujumbura and take a van to Bukavu. The road is bad in DRC, but you will pass right there, on the other side of this hill, 3 kilometers from here and then continue to your final destination.”

How bizarre. I had to drive back to Bujumbura and then, with another vehicle, cross to DRC in Gatuma, on a horrible road to arrive at yet very similar location on the other side of the border 6 hours later.

Welcome to Africa!

The one and only reason to return to the eastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo was to trek gorillas. Virunga National Park had been closed since the Covid-19 pandemic started and it will not reopen for at least the whole year due to security issues in northeastern part of DR Congo. Never mind, I found a much less known alternative in Kahuzi Biega National Park.

Besides being much cheaper, less visited and easily accessible with public transport, I decided for Kahuzi Biega NP, because it is almost 100% assured that gorillas would be seen.

The national park offers home to lowland gorillas, which are bigger than highland gorillas and gather in smaller groups with only 1 male. They have shorter and softer fur; elderly males often lose the gray hair on their back and hips.

Eastern lowland gorillas are the largest living primates, weighting over 200 kilograms, with the maximum standing height at 1.70m.

The females are much smaller, weighting half the weight of males. While highland gorillas might live in bigger groups with various males, lowland gorillas in Eastern Africa gather around a single male in smaller groups.

The road from Bukavu to the park headquarter was in extremely poor condition, but the park administrator, Kelvin, arranged a regular old Toyota sedan car to cover the 30 kilometers path to save money, have fun and challenge the nature. It is impossible to imagine where technology limits are, when navigating a Congolese jungle road at the end of rainy season.

From the park headquarters I was transported in a much more comfortable Toyota Landcruiser five kilometers further uphill to a junction, where I started to walk with two park rangers. Four kilometers of wet, but well-marked walking path was easy, even though we were at 1,500 meters above sea level.

Two more rangers joined us to continue deeper into the rain forest, machetes were opening our way; it was slippery and wet. Another ranger with walkie talkie took the lead and after a few minutes we found a male gorilla on the top of a tree.

Roughly half an hour later Bonne anee (Happy new year, as he was named) slowly, but smoothly descended to the ground. He turned around and started to walk peacefully into impassable rainforest. Not far away he stopped, sat down and rested. Other family members joined him within 15 minutes: 3 females and 4 kids.

They seemed to be tired, with lack of energy or simply bored by our presence. No serious interest was showed by any member of gorilla family, so we were just staring at each other, observing how marvelous we are. I believe the perception was mutual.

There I was; in the middle of Congolese jungle with 8 park rangers and a gorilla family 4 meters away.

The largest world living primate, was looking at me. Oh man, this is something special!

An hour with gorillas ran out quickly. It was time to return to the reality of Bukave. A big city without planning, attractions or beauty, located on the south shores of Lake Kivu. Who cares about Bukavu! My day was perfect. I saw gorillas, one of the last animal species on my bucket list.

Goma is the mayor city on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, bordering Rwanda to the east. The city itself is known as an enormous base for UN peace forces and other organizations that have been trying to bring peace to this turbulent region for decades.

Goma is a start point to explore Virunga National Park, where volcano Mount Nyiragongois is located and lowland gorillas trekking is fantastic.

Due to continuous fighting of rebel groups, attacks on civilians and even foreigners, the park had been closed for the whole year 2022. I will need to come back one day, to climb the volcano and appreciate the spectacular observation of its lava filled crater. Namely, the main crater is about two kilometers wide and usually contains a lava lake.

The vibrant city of Goma has no real attractions, even though, due to strategic position on the Lake Kivu, it could have some tourist potential in the future.

Nevertheless, driving around on a moto-taxi, walking on lively streets and exploring Grand marche, was well worth the visit.

My host Olfi was extremely helpful, driving me around, and I was invited to a birthday party with his friends. First, we shared a traditional local dinner with cassava fufu, vegetables sauce and fish. The evening in a bar was short, since the 10:00pm curfew is strict and supervised by military or police forces.

The unique mean of transport that called my attention on the streets of Goma is chukudu – a hybrid between a bicycle and a wheelbarrow. The chukudu was invented by Pedro Sarracayo in 1972 in North Angola, recognizing the need for local, inexpensive transportation of heavy goods on foot.

These days, it is found all over the province of North Kivu. It is inexpensive and able to manage all kinds of cargo, approximately 2 meters long, with high handlebar and mostly made of hard mumba wood and eucalyptus wood.

The first chukudu were invented in the early 20^th century; slightly improved modern version uses tires and back-wheel brakes. A well trained and strong driver (chukudeurs) can carry up to a half ton of weight on his chukudu. They drive – walk up and down on the main streets. On a descent, the rider stands on the deck like a kick scooter, while on flat ground, the rider can put one knee on the deck and push the ground with the other foot like a knee scooter.

In order to honor the importance of chukudus and chukudeurs, the local municipality erected a giant statue in one of the main roundabouts – Chukusudu roundabout.

Many Western embassies advise against all travel to Democratic Republic of the Congo due to insecurity, coronavirus issues and other regional fighting between insurgent groups. I decided to visit it anyway, limiting the risk by avoiding potentially dangerous areas and I didn’t have any security issues.

People are not used to foreign visitors (except UN collaborators), they don’t like being photographed and majority cannot understand why somebody would visit their country.

It is expensive, difficult to travel around or visit most of the attractions; visa application process is complicated. But DRC has its charm, people are strong and confident, moving forward, fighting against one of the most corruptive systems in the world. They all know how rich the country natural resources are, and how little its inhabitants benefit from them. It is impossible to understand, why there are hardly any decent roads in such a big country.

Bottomline, I am happy to have visited DR Congo, but I don’t recommend it to beginner travelers.