Author: Mbala Kasongo

An appeal for restraint amid mounting frustration The hush of the Senate chamber in Brazzaville was broken on 7 November when its president, Pierre Ngolo, addressed a delegation representing three associations of civil-service retirees. With measured diction he invited his elderly interlocutors to “trust us and allow us to seek, together, solutions to your concerns”, asking them to suspend the sit-ins they had announced for 17 November in front of the Prime Minister’s office and provincial administrative buildings. The warning was also a call for prudence: “If the sages begin to break, I do not know what the young will…

Parliamentary Oversight at the Forefront The final gavel of the ninth ordinary session of the Congolese National Assembly resonated far beyond the chamber’s marbled walls. In a carefully calibrated address, Speaker Isidore Mvouba urged deputies to “shadow the government at the belt,” invoking a sporting metaphor to convey a measured yet unambiguous call for intensified legislative scrutiny. Far from signalling confrontation, the appeal fits within the presidency’s broader narrative of constructive accountability, a theme that has gained salience amid regional macroeconomic headwinds and the ongoing reform programme agreed with the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC. Diplomatic observers noted…

A choreographed return to civic order When Minister of Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance Juste Désiré Mondélé declared that “there will be no excuses” after 5 July, he encapsulated the spirit of a campaign that has become almost cyclical in Brazzaville’s recent history. Authorities argue that the capital’s arteries, many of them laid out in colonial grids never intended for a metropolis of two million inhabitants, can no longer accommodate the mushrooming of informal stalls, improvised sheds and stranded vehicles that impede traffic and compromise public health. The forthcoming operation mobilises police units, municipal agents and market committees in…

A continental conversation expands beyond Abidjan What began five years ago as a Côte d’Ivoire-based round-table has now matured into a full-fledged diplomatic forum, capable of attracting over 2 500 delegates and more than fifty national flags. Held in Cotonou on 24–25 June, the fifth Cyber Africa Forum (CAF) revolved around the notion of digital ecosystem resilience, a theme that resonates with the accelerated uptake of cloud services, mobile payments and artificial intelligence throughout the continent. According to the organisers, the move from Abidjan to the Beninese capital aimed to showcase the forum’s pan-African vocation while honouring Benin’s steady rise…

A River That United Before It Divided Long before European mariners inscribed the Atlantic coast on their maps, the Kingdom of Kongo exercised a loose but recognisable sovereignty from the Atlantic estuary to the cataracts above modern-day Kinshasa. Portuguese chroniclers in the sixteenth century marvelled at the kingdom’s diplomatic sophistication, its structured tributary network and its capacity to mobilise regional trade along the great river. Archaeological evidence suggests that copper, ivory and raffia fabrics travelled widely, forging a commercial space whose cohesion owed much to the navigable lower Congo (Thornton 2020). Thus, the river was less a border than a…

The Geopolitical Landscape The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains a sprawling nation of contrast. It is both enriched by vast natural resources and plagued by enduring instability. The nation holds nearly half of Africa’s forest resources and is a global leader in cobalt production, essential to the tech industry. Yet, its geopolitical landscape is perilous, shaped by historical colonial legacies and ongoing regional conflicts (United Nations report, September 2023). Resource Wealth and Economic Potential Congo’s resource wealth suggests a potential for high prosperity. The mining sector is pivotal, with cobalt and copper leading exports, attracting significant foreign investment. However,…