Author: Congo Times

A Continental Showcase with Geopolitical Overtones When the Confederation of African Football assigned the eighth African Nations Championship to a transnational trio—Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania—it quietly acknowledged East Africa’s rising appetite for continental leadership. For Brazzaville, whose football diplomacy has been largely conducted through the more glamorous senior Africa Cup of Nations, CHAN 2025 offers a lower-risk yet symbolically potent arena. The tournament is restricted to domestically based players, allowing governments to project the health of their domestic leagues as a proxy for wider institutional stability (CAF communiqué, 2024). President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s administration has long framed sport as a…

An Unexpected Comeback on Brussels Stage When Ley de Mamad’u stepped onto a modest Belgian stage in April 2025 to preview “Taxi-moto”, few anticipated the ripple that a three-minute rumba track could send through Congo-Brazzaville’s sizeable diaspora community. Better known at home as “Sugar Daddy” for his velvety baritone, the artist had receded from the spotlight since his 2020 ballad “La Paix” became an unofficial soundtrack to post-election reconciliation rallies. His current re-emergence, strategically unveiled in Europe before reaching the Congolese airwaves, reflects an increasingly common pattern among Central African musicians who test new material on the diaspora circuit, then…

Rumour Ecology in Brazzaville Public Sphere In the crowded cafés of Poto-Poto and across the airwaves of community radios, whispers about the 2026 presidential race circulate with the urgency of the rainy-season River Congo. Seasoned observers note that every electoral cycle rekindles this informal marketplace of tales, yet the present moment feels unusually volatile. Digital penetration has leapt from 9 percent of households in 2016 to more than 35 percent in 2023, according to the International Telecommunication Union, altering the velocity and reach of political gossip (ITU 2023). The Congolese state is hardly unfamiliar with this phenomenon. In 2002 and…

Holiday Consumption Meets Digital Finance For a growing share of Central African travellers, the act of stepping onto a beach in Pointe-Noire or a rainforest lodge on the Lefini plateau now begins not with a wad of bank notes but with a slender plastic card. Holiday seasons, traditionally weighted with logistical frictions around foreign exchange and security, are being reshaped by digital payment rails. Recent numbers from the Bank of Central African States indicate that electronic transactions across the Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale rose by roughly thirty-eight percent year-on-year in 2023, outpacing nominal GDP growth. The spike…

Memory, Literature and Nationhood in Brazzaville The sun-washed patios of the Maison Russe in Brazzaville rarely witness a silence as pregnant with expectation as on 26 July 2025. Writers, critics, students and a sprinkling of diplomats settled into polished wooden chairs for the inaugural Grand Atelier Littéraire, curated by the essayist and critic David Gomez Dimixson. Entitled “From Memory to the Future: Literature Building Bridges,” the gathering came at a propitious moment: the Republic of the Congo is refining its cultural diplomacy, and the written word figures prominently in that strategy (Agence Congolaise d’Information, 2024). Seated in the first row,…

Franco-Congolese Rap as an Emerging Diplomatic Language When Tiakola, known for his crystalline melodic phrasing, joined forces with the more percussive Genezio for the EP “Fara Fara Gang”, the collaboration was immediately framed by industry observers as a commercial coup. Yet the release also deserves attention from diplomatic circles: it embodies a form of non-state soft power that operates at the intersection of the Congolese diaspora in France and a rejuvenated cultural scene in Brazzaville. Streaming data compiled by Spotify for Artists indicate that more than forty percent of the EP’s first-week plays originated from Central and West Africa, an…

A decisive moment for human-capital formation The first week of August found school courtyards in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and eight departmental capitals humming with the controlled excitement typical of high-stakes testing. According to the Ministry of Technical and Vocational Education, 7,738 candidates—4,421 of them in the capital—were registered for the annual concours direct, the gateway to the country’s most sought-after institutes of technology. By seven o’clock on 6 August, sealed envelopes containing French language papers had been opened under the joint supervision of the Director of Cabinet to the Minister, Mamadou Kanté, and the President of the National Board of Examiners,…

Subtle Codes of Respect in Congolese Society To an outsider, the casual cordiality of urban Brazzaville can mask a highly codified system of social precedence. Age, lineage and institutional rank remain decisive markers of authority, and public discourse is ritually tempered to honour them. Congolese linguist Jean-Gildas Nzouzi notes that “direct contradiction of an elder is still interpreted as a blemish on one’s own dignity” (Nzouzi 2023). The practice, far from inhibiting debate, channels it through consensus-building formulas that diplomats often describe as a local art of compromise. This culturally embedded deference has facilitated the government’s national dialogue forums, where…

French Withdrawal Accelerates Across the Continent From Rabat to Pointe-Noire the tricolour logos that once dominated African high streets are being repainted. In the course of eighteen months Société Générale announced the divestiture of a dozen subsidiaries, including its Congolese unit sold to Vista Group in 2023, while BNP Paribas finalised its West African exit and BPCE reduced its network to a handful of representative offices (Reuters, company statements 2023-24). Rather than an isolated repositioning, the decisions reflect a long-gestated consensus in Parisian boardrooms that capital and compliance budgets yield higher risk-adjusted returns in Europe or North America. Executives frame…

A Timely Infusion of Medical Resources The arrival in early August of pharmaceuticals and surgical equipment worth 27.51 million FCFA at the Sino-Congolese Friendship Hospital of Mfilou has generated measured optimism among practitioners in Brazzaville. Handed over by Dr Wang Zhitao, head of the 28th Chinese medical mission, to senior health-ministry official Donatien Moukassa, the consignment comprises anti-inflammatories, antimalarials and broad-spectrum antibiotics, alongside sterilisation sets and portable monitors (Xinhua dispatch, 05 Aug 2025). Although modest in absolute monetary terms—roughly 44 000 USD—the package plugs recurrent supply gaps at a facility that receives close to 400 outpatient visits daily. Health Diplomacy…