DR Congo

Kinshasa — the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the second-largest country in Africa at 2.34 million km², population 110 million — the most populous Francophone country in the world, larger than France, Germany and Spain combined) with the Kin Malebo (the Congo River’s Stanley Pool — a 35km lake in the middle of the river, facing Brazzaville on the opposite shore) and the Musée National de la République Démocratique du Congo (the finest collection of Central African art and artefacts on the continent).

The Democratic Republic of Congo (formally Congo-Kinshasa — the country has had six official names since independence in 1960) is the most biodiverse country in Africa and the fourth-most biodiverse on earth: it contains approximately 10,000 plant species, 1,100 bird species and 400 mammal species, including five species of great ape. The Congo Basin rainforest (1.8 million km²) is the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and the most important carbon sink in Africa.

The Kinshasa music scene — the city that gave the world Congo rumba and soukous (electric Congo rumba, the most influential African dance music genre of the 20th century) with live concerts at the Halle de la Gédépu (the main concert venue), the Béton Brulé bar in the Matonge district (the cultural quarter where musicians from across Central Africa gather) and the market of Matonge (wax print fabric, sculpture, music and street food in the busiest African urban market south of Lagos).

Matonge (the Ixelles neighbourhood in Brussels that serves as the cultural centre of the Congolese diaspora in Belgium — approximately 150,000 Congolese in Brussels) was named after the Matonge district of Kinshasa; both Matonges pulse with the same energy of Congolese music, cuisine and fashion. The Brussels Matonge is the most visited African-diaspora neighbourhood in Northern Europe.

By plane to Goma (1h30). Virunga National Park (Africa’s oldest national park, established 1925 — UNESCO World Heritage, 7,800km² of volcanic mountains, savannah and rainforest on the Rift Valley floor — with the mountain gorillas of the Mikeno sector, the Nyiragongo Volcano (an active lava lake at 3,470m, one of the world’s two permanent lava lakes) and Ishasha, where lions climb fig trees — the most wildlife-dense national park in Central Africa).

Nyiragongo Volcano (3,470m — in Virunga National Park, one of only two permanent lava lakes in the world, the other being Erta Ale in Ethiopia) erupted in January 2002, sending lava flows through 40% of the city of Goma and destroying 15,000 homes in 20 minutes. The volcano erupts approximately every 10–15 years; a smaller eruption in May 2021 again threatened Goma. Despite the risk, the crater rim hike is the most dramatic volcanic experience in Africa.

The Virunga mountain gorilla trek (the oldest and most established gorilla trekking programme in Africa, in operation since the 1970s — the habituated gorilla groups of the Mikeno sector, with a permit quota of 8 visitors per group per day — trekking through volcanic rainforest at 2,000–3,000m to spend one hour with a family group of 15–30 mountain gorillas at close range — the original gorilla trekking experience that all others are modelled on).

Virunga National Park’s gorilla tracking programme was established by Dian Fossey’s research collaborators in the 1970s and 1980s — it was the first gorilla habituation programme in Africa and the model for Rwanda and Uganda’s subsequent programmes. The mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) population has recovered from approximately 250 individuals in 1981 (when Fossey counted them) to over 1,000 today, the only great ape whose population is increasing.

The Nyiragongo crater rim overnight (a 6-hour guided ascent from the Kibati gate at 1,548m to the crater rim at 3,470m, sleeping in the metal huts on the rim and watching the active lava lake — a churning lake of molten rock 200m in diameter — glow red through the night from the crater edge — one of the most physically demanding and visually striking overnight hikes in the world, subject to park safety conditions and permit availability).

The Nyiragongo lava lake (the largest lava lake in the world by surface area at peak activity — the molten rock in the crater churns and surges continuously, with lava fountains 50m high during active phases) is heated by the Earth’s mantle directly below and has been continuously active since at least 1884 (when first described by European observers). The night view from the crater rim — the lava lake glowing in total darkness with no other light for 200km in any direction — is incomparable.

By road or flight to Bukavu. Kahuzi-Biega National Park (UNESCO World Heritage — 6,000km² of montane and lowland forest in South Kivu, with the world’s only habituated eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri — the largest gorilla subspecies, larger than mountain gorillas, and critically endangered with only 4,000 individuals remaining) — a different species from the mountain gorillas, more densely built and living at lower altitude).

The eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri — the Grauer’s gorilla, the world’s largest gorilla subspecies by body mass, endemic to eastern DR Congo) has declined from approximately 17,000 individuals in 1995 to approximately 4,000 today — a 75% population collapse in 25 years, primarily due to mining, charcoal cutting and the bushmeat trade associated with the eastern Congo wars. Kahuzi-Biega is the primary remaining stronghold.

Return to Kinshasa. Lola ya Bonobo (the world’s only bonobo sanctuary — 30km from Kinshasa, a 75-hectare forest reserve caring for 60+ bonobos (Pan paniscus — the most closely related species to humans alongside chimpanzees, found only in DR Congo, the most distinctive of all great apes for their female-dominated social structure and their use of sexual behaviour to resolve all social tensions) rescued from the bushmeat trade, open to visitors daily). Fly from Kinshasa (FIH).

The bonobo (Pan paniscus — the gracile chimpanzee, found only in the Congo Basin south of the Congo River, never in captivity outside specialised sanctuaries) is one of our closest living relatives (99% DNA similarity to humans) and the great ape with the least-studied social structure. Bonobos are unique among great apes for having female-dominated societies, resolving conflicts through sexual behaviour rather than aggression, and showing no evidence of lethal intergroup aggression — behaviours directly opposite to chimpanzee society.