Author: Congo Times

Government-backed fair spotlights artisanal excellence The vast courtyard of the Palais des Congrès has taken on the air of a bustling craft village as more than one hundred stalls display hand-carved beds, polished mahogany armchairs and woven raphia handbags. The fourth edition of the Salon des Métiers du Bois, running from 11 to 25 August, was opened by the Minister of Industrial Development and the Promotion of the Private Sector, who described the exhibition as “a living laboratory of Congolese know-how”. Official figures indicate that some 70 percent of the exhibitors come from the nation’s interior departments, suggesting a deliberate…

Historical Foundations Shaping Contemporary Governance Long before the modern state emerged, the lands that now form the Republic of the Congo were knitted together by vigorous Bantu-speaking polities whose riverine commerce connected the Atlantic coast to the heart of Central Africa. French annexation in the late nineteenth century eventually folded the territory into French Equatorial Africa, and the proclamation of the republic in 1958 initiated a constitutional trajectory distinct from neighbouring former colonies. Independence came on 15 August 1960, yet the ideological inflection that followed—most conspicuously the Marxist-Leninist interlude of 1969-1992—imprinted a lasting state-centric vision of development. The 1997 civil…

Presidential Decree Sets a New Tone for Media Governance On 7 August 2025, Presidential Decree 2025-340 entrusted Médard Milandou Nsonga with the presidency of the Conseil supérieur de la liberté de communication (CSLC). The nomination, applauded by the Ministry of Communication, has been presented as part of a broader governmental roadmap aimed at “consolidating democratic debate through responsible journalism”. While some foreign observers interpret the move as continuity, domestic stakeholders perceive a possible inflection point, given Mr Nsonga’s dual background as a journalist and cultural impresario. CSLC’s Institutional Evolution and International Benchmarks Created in 2001, the CSLC was conceived to…

Brazzaville as Pilot Site for the Mattei Blueprint When Italian Ambassador Enrico Nunziata stood beside Minister Léon Juste Ibombo in Brazzaville on 22 July, the symbolism was deliberate. By confirming that the Republic of the Congo would serve as the inaugural laboratory for the Mattei Plan’s start-up window, Rome placed a diplomatic wager on one of Central Africa’s most stable political environments. Signed in Rome on 19 June, the bilateral memorandum anticipates a roll-out capable of accompanying up to half a million African ventures over the next decade, with Congo’s experience expected to shape subsequent deployments across the continent (Italian…

Strategic Lifeline for Pool Region By launching the 86-kilometre Mpiem–Kindamba rehabilitation on 8 August 2025, Minister of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance Juste Désiré Mondelé signalled Brazzaville’s intent to address one of the Pool Department’s most persistent logistical bottlenecks (Ministry press release, 8 Aug 2025). The earthen strip linking the small trading post of Mpiem to Kindamba, and from there to Kimba and Vinza, has long been the only artery through which cassava, peanuts and charcoal reach urban centres. Seasonal deterioration frequently isolates entire communities for weeks, inflating transport costs and eroding household incomes. Local administrators interviewed by…

Strategic Geography and Demography In the cartography of Central Africa, the Republic of the Congo occupies a linchpin position between the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo River basin, providing Brazzaville with a natural vantage point over both Atlantic maritime routes and deep continental hinterlands. Stretching from mangrove-lined littorals to equatorial rainforests, the territory offers an exceptional range of ecological assets. Satellite data released by the Central African Forest Initiative in 2023 indicate that more than 60 percent of Congo’s 342,000 km² remain under primary forest cover, a carbon sink that places the country at the forefront of global climate…

Algiers Sets the Stage for Pan-African Commerce From 4 to 10 September, the Palais des Expositions in Algiers will momentarily become the continent’s busiest trading floor. The fourth Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF), convened by Afreximbank in partnership with the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, is forecast to welcome more than 2 000 companies, 35 000 visitors and a cohort of political leaders intent on translating the AfCFTA’s promise into palpable contracts (Afreximbank press release). The organisers target 44 billion USD in trade and investment commitments—an ambition that would eclipse the 36 billion concluded during the…

Brazzaville’s Evolving Social Protection Landscape When the Republic of Congo introduced its Single Social Registry in 2019, the initiative was framed as the technocratic backbone of the National Development Plan, a database able to match scarce public transfers with households in greatest need. Supported by concessional financing from the World Bank and technical input from the African Development Bank, the registry today contains more than 450 000 households, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs. Until recently, however, its very design mirrored a traditional notion of citizenship that excluded some 61 000 refugees and asylum-seekers residing mainly in the departments…

Football fields as civic classrooms There are evenings in Brazzaville when the equatorial dusk settles over the Ornano military stadium and floodlights reveal more than just budding strikers. Throughout the first week of August, the ground became an open-air classroom where notions of discipline, fair play and collective responsibility were rehearsed alongside tactical drills. Endorsed by the Commandement des Forces de Police and inaugurated by the Minister of Technical and Vocational Education, Ghislain Thierry Maguessa Ebomé, the U13 and U20 tournament explicitly carries the slogan “Combating Juvenile Delinquency”. The wording is not ornamental. In a city where two-thirds of residents…

A Capital on the Move: Symbolism of the 28 September Walk When Brazzaville’s riverfront awakes to the measured rhythm of hundreds of participants pacing from the Plateau des 15 Ans to Square de Gaulle, the choreography will be anything but spontaneous. Wild Safari Tours and the state-run Office for the Promotion of the Tourism Industry have chosen 28 September, the first morning after World Tourism Day, to stage a five-kilometre promenade celebrating the capital’s architectural, historical and cultural patrimony. The timing is redolent of the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s annual plea for “tourism for inclusive growth” (UNWTO, 2023) and…