Author: Congo Times

A Literary Milestone Anchored in National Commemoration On 14 August, on the eve of the Republic of Congo’s sixty-fifth Independence Day, Franco-Congolese academic Milie Théodora Miéré will publish Culture ou cultures d’entreprise with Paris-based L’Harmattan. The carefully chosen date embeds the volume within a broader national narrative that celebrates sovereignty while projecting contemporary intellectual ambition. Government officials in Brazzaville have long regarded the cultural sphere as a catalyst for international engagement, and a high-profile release by a diasporic scholar reinforces that strategy at a moment of heightened diplomatic visibility (Ministry of Culture, Brazzaville 2024). Congo’s Literary Diaspora and Soft Power…

A rite of passage in Congo’s maritime capital In the nave of Saint Christophe parish, beneath a vaulted ceiling that still bears traces of colonial architecture, Archbishop Abel Liluala placed his hand on the bowed heads of 104 catechumens and invoked the Holy Spirit. The 13 July 2025 liturgy, enriched by the polyrhythmic harmonies of the parish choir, conferred the sacrament of confirmation upon candidates drawn from six communities of the Vicariate Mgr Foret. In a nation where Christianity coexists with vibrant indigenous traditions, the rite reaffirmed the Church’s determination to nurture a generation capable of reconciling faith with the…

Decentralisation Gains Renewed Momentum For more than a decade the Republic of Congo has formally embraced decentralisation as a vector for balanced territorial development. The 2014 law on local authorities granted departments and communes wider latitude in socioeconomic programming, while the National Development Plan 2022-2026 underlined the need to translate macro-economic ambition into grassroots impact. Recent data from the African Development Bank suggest that sub-national expenditure now accounts for roughly ten percent of public investment (African Development Bank, 2024), a figure still modest but steadily increasing. Against this backdrop, a specialised workshop convened in Brazzaville on 11 July 2025 has…

Medals in Oran and a Surge of National Pride Inside the new Miloud Hadefi Stadium of Oran, the six-member Congolese delegation walked away with one gold and three bronze medals, an efficiency ratio that drew measured applause from African Union observers. Long-jumper Gladise Boukama Ndoulou’s 6.18-metre flight—her personal best—earned Congo’s first gold of the Games, while judokas Symphoria Mankala and Divine Mpiaya Massala secured bronze in the –52 kg and –57 kg categories. Boukama Ndoulou added a second bronze over 200 metres, illustrating a versatility that national coaches hailed as “rare in continental youth sport” (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 7…

Veteran Broadcasters Reunite in Brazzaville In the hushed auditorium of the Centre Interdiocésain des Œuvres, the roll call of familiar voices carried a distinct resonance. On 1 August 2025, mic in hand, Michel Rudel Ngandziami, once a household name on the airwaves, presided over the inaugural session of the Amicale des Anciens Journalistes de Radio Congo. Three months after the organisation’s formal creation, the gathering signalled much more than a nostalgic reunion: it offered the promise of a structured contribution to the Republic of Congo’s evolving media environment. Observers from the Ministry of Communication and several diplomatic missions discreetly attended,…

A Quiet Powerhouse in Brazzaville Few institutions in Central Africa have navigated the nexus of academia and public policy with the quiet persistence displayed by the Centre for Strategic Studies of the Congo Basin, better known by its French acronym CESBC. Founded in 2005 in Évry before relocating the bulk of its operations to Brazzaville, the non-profit think-tank has evolved from a doctoral support hub into a multidisciplinary engine of evidence-based advice. On 30 July 2025, scholars, civil servants and diplomats gathered in the capital to salute two decades of work and to debate a theme of acute global relevance:…

A Farewell That Resonates Beyond the Pitch News of Bienvenu Kimbembé’s death on 28 July 2025 at the age of seventy-one moved the Congolese public and diplomatic circles in equal measure. Messages of condolence flowed from the presidency, the Ministry of Sports and the Congolese Football Federation, all acknowledging that the disappearance of “Akim-La Wanka” deprives the nation of a rare figure who embodied both sporting excellence and civic modesty. While the language of grief is universal, the circumstances of this farewell offer an instructive glimpse into the ways in which Brazzaville articulates soft power through the commemoration of its…

A New Interface Shaping B2B Supply Chains In the port city of Pointe-Noire, long synonymous with hydrocarbon exports, the local tech scene has quietly taken centre stage. SOSEP Groupe, an emerging digital-logistics specialist operating in both Congo-Brazzaville and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, has introduced Joukwa, a mobile and web-based application designed to streamline business-to-business procurement. During a press briefing on 16 July 2025, Operations Lead Abiguel Massouka portrayed the tool as a “strategic partner” capable of solving chronic frictions such as delayed shipments, fragmented tracking and foreign-currency payment bottlenecks. His colleague, Communication Officer Ame César Sehossolo, underscored the…

Historic Context of the Health Council Created in 1984 during President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s first administration, the National Health Council spent four decades in relative dormancy before its revival in 2021. The second ordinary session, held in July 2025 at Kintélé, thus carried both symbolic and operational weight. Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso framed the gathering as a decisive moment for social cohesion, arguing that no economic dividend can be harvested without a healthy population. His statement echoed the Presidency’s broader development vision, encapsulated in the current National Development Plan, which earmarks public health as a strategic growth sector (Government…

Continental Imperative for Energy Sovereignty Rarely has the African energy discourse been so sharply focused on financing as in the past two years. With the International Energy Agency estimating that Africa requires up to $50 billion annually to meet rising demand for electricity and clean fuels, policy makers have become increasingly vocal about the need for home-grown solutions (Oxford Institute for Energy Studies 2024). The joint proposal by the African Petroleum Producers Organization and Afreximbank to create the Africa Energy Bank is perhaps the most ambitious response yet, designed to marshal domestic capital at scale while preserving the sovereign decision-making…