Author: Congo Times

Congo’s Ethical Turn on the African Stage In Brazzaville, beneath the discreet chandeliers of the Haute Autorité de Lutte contre la Corruption, Emmanuel Ollita Ondongo invoked an unexpectedly intimate notion: the right to dignity. The occasion was the ninth African Anti-Corruption Day, a moment that increasingly resembles a continental stock-taking exercise. Against a backdrop of cautious optimism, the HALC president argued that corruption, far from being a purely financial offence, corrodes the ability of citizens—particularly society’s most vulnerable—to participate meaningfully in civic life. Observers recalled that the African Union’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption defines the vice not only…

A Transatlantic Heritage Enters UNESCO Memory When the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO inscribed “Congolese rumba” on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2021, delegates applauded what they termed “a living testimony to Africa’s dialogue with the Afro-Caribbean world” (UNESCO 2021). Yet the celebratory roll call, filled with illustrious male names from Wendo Kolosoy to Franco Luambo, was strikingly mute on its feminine voices. Franco-Algerian filmmaker and former minister for La Francophonie, Yamina Benguigui, recalls the moment as a revelation: “Not a single woman was cited, as if the genre had evolved in a male vacuum.” The oversight has now…

A quest for orderly commerce along the Atlantic littoral In the heart of Congo-Brazzaville’s economic capital, the sound of cement mixers now rivals the customary chant of traders. The Minister of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance, Juste Désiré Mondelé, visiting Pointe-Noire on 9 July, declared himself “pleasantly surprised” by the pace and workmanship observed on the two state-sponsored market complexes. His assessment echoed comments frequently voiced by municipal officials who view the projects as a linchpin of urban order (La Semaine Africaine, 11 July 2024). Though markets seldom headline geopolitical briefings, their revitalisation tells a wider story of…

Symbolism of a Cross-Atlantic Convergence The signature of the twin-city agreement on 4 July between Pointe-Noire, Congo-Brazzaville, and its namesake in Guadeloupe resonates far beyond municipal diplomacy. For the Congolese side, the ceremony presided over by Senate President Pierre Ngolo exemplifies the Republic’s commitment to a pragmatic South-South paradigm that complements its traditional North-South engagements (Agence Congolaise d’Information, 5 July 2023). For Guadeloupean officials led by Mayor Camille Elisabeth, the union offers a palpable route to reconnect diasporic communities with continental African realities while diversifying their economic base (France-Antilles, 6 July 2023). A Strategic Layer within Brazzaville’s Foreign Policy President…

A coastal threshold to the continental heart Congo-Brazzaville occupies a pivotal strip of land astride the Equator where the Atlantic littoral melts almost imperceptibly into a mosaic of plateaus and rainforests. The hundred-mile shoreline, though modest in length, anchors Pointe-Noire—an oil terminal of continental consequence—and provides the sole Atlantic outlet for several landlocked neighbours. The Mayombé Massif rises gently behind the dunes, a natural rampart that historically shielded inland polities yet now supplies manganese, timber and eco-tourism prospects in equal measure. For diplomats charting the future of the Gulf of Guinea security architecture, the Congolese coastline functions as both a…

Heritage and Hierarchy in Public Life The Republic of the Congo, often overshadowed by the demographic heft of its neighbours, has cultivated a finely tuned etiquette in which deference to age and status constitutes a social currency recognised from village councils to ministerial corridors. Anthropologists trace this respect culture to pre-colonial chieftaincy traditions, but diplomats posted to Brazzaville today note that a handshake offered first to the eldest participant still opens doors more smoothly than any business card (UNESCO 2022). Government interlocutors emphasise that these conventions reinforce stability by embedding authority within community consensus rather than coercion. Family Structures and…

From Equatorial Heartland to Atlantic Gateway Few African states match the Republic of the Congo’s ability to straddle dense rainforest, mineral-laden plateaus and a 160-kilometre Atlantic façade. This composite geography has long conferred both logistical challenges and strategic depth. Rail lines that pierce the Mayombé Massif and skirt the Niari Valley link Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville, transforming the ocean corridor into an indispensable hinterland for landlocked neighbours. According to the African Development Bank, over seventy per cent of Central African intra-regional trade now transits Congo-Brazzaville’s rail-port nexus (AfDB 2023). Such figures underscore how topography, once perceived as an impediment, is gradually…

Strategic crossroads in the heart of Central Africa Few capitals illustrate Africa’s geographic intimacy better than Brazzaville, seated on the northern bank of the Congo River and facing Kinshasa at arm’s length. From this vantage point, the Republic of the Congo projects influence across a neighbourhood that includes Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Cabinda enclave of Angola and the far larger Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country’s modest Atlantic shoreline offers an outlet to global trade, while an interior carpeted by one of the world’s most significant rainforests places it at the centre of contemporary climate diplomacy.…

Strategic Mobilisation in the Pool Heartland In a carefully choreographed meeting held on 7 July in Brazzaville, National Assembly Speaker Isidore Mvouba convened senior cadres from the Pool Department, urging them to coalesce behind the Congolese Labour Party’s candidate for the March 2026 presidential election. The gathering, which took place in the discreet yet symbolically charged salons of the lower house, underscored the ruling coalition’s determination to secure an incontestable mandate in a constituency long considered both pivotal and politically delicate. The Pool, nestled just south of the capital, has historically been a bellwether of national sentiment. Ensuring its alignment…

A Trophy Rooted in Nation-Building Since 1985 When President Denis Sassou Nguesso endorsed Decree 85-1410 four decades ago, the objective was clear: a nationwide football cup capable of binding a young republic together through the universal language of sport. Each 15 August final, staged beneath the presidential banner, has therefore functioned as far more than a match. It has been a ritual of cohesion, an annual tableau in which the Head of State, or his envoy, hands a symbolic vessel of unity to the victorious captain. Such ceremonials have historically underlined Brazzaville’s soft-power narrative—football as a non-partisan space where departmental…