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The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo
Confused yet?
Me too.
Let’s sort through this.
These are two bordering countries with similar names in Central Africa.
Both get their names from being in the Congo Basin which feeds into the Congo River.
Yep, folks who don’t live in Central Africa often get them mixed up, so my goal for this
video is to help you not...um...do that.
Both countries are known by different names, though.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also known as Congo-Kinshasa since Kinshasa is
its capital city.
The Republic of the Congo is also known as Congo-Brazzaville since Brazzaville is ITS
capital city.
But wait, there’s more.
A lot more actually.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also known as DR Congo, DRC, or even just “The Congo."
But hold up, the Republic of the Congo is ALSO simply called “The Congo,” and also
the Congo Republic or RDC.
From this point forward in this video, I will refer to them as the DRC and Congo Republic
because those are my favorite names for the two ok?
Ok, great.
Fabulous.
Let’s finally get on with this.
Both are separated by that magnificent Congo River, the second longest river in Africa,
second biggest in the world by discharge volume, and deepest river in the world.
The capitals of both countries, the aforementioned Kinshasa and Brazzaville, both sit across
from each other along that river, as matter of fact, less than 1 mile, or 1.6 km apart.
They are the closest capital cities between two sovereign countries in the world.
Well, second closest if you count Vatican City and Rome.
Also, Kinshasa is by far the largest city in the DRC, with more than 12 million people,
which is around 13% of the country’s population, and Brazzaville is by far the largest city
in the Congo Republic, with more than 1.8 million people, which is around 1/3 of the
country’s population.
Despite being so close to one another, there are no bridges connecting Kinshasa and Brazzaville.
Instead, the most common way to get back and forth between the two cities is by boat, crossing
the Congo River, and thousands cross it every day.
That said, you can also travel by plane- apparently 5-minute flights go back and forth between
the two.
However, a road/rail bridge that links the two cities is currently in the works, and
construction should be resuming soon after this video releases.
The metropolitan area of both Kinshasa and Brazzaville, by the way, makes up the third
largest urban area in all of Africa, behind the Cairo metro and Lagos metro.
Goose: Ok, Mr. Beat, will you stop just focusing on Kinshasa and Brazzaville?
What about the rest of the countries?
Mr. Beat: Uh, sure.
Both countries do have a lot in common.
Back to what separates them.
Not only the Congo River, but Cabinda, a small exclave province of Angola.
Yep, it just sits up there all separate from the rest of the country, and many of its residents
have called for independence from Angola for years.
But both the DRC and the Congo Republic have access to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Congo Republic has more access, with 103 miles, or 165 km of coastline.
The DRC only has 20 miles, or 32 km of coastline.
Not that it matters.
Cargo boats sail up the Congo River anyway to get stuff to the DRC.
Due to the legacy of foreign influence, residents of both speak French.
While French is the official language, residents speak many different languages in both, depending
on what region you’re in.
An estimated 242 languages are spoken in the DRC, but its four national languages are Kikongo,
Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba.
The Congo Republic has two national languages- Kituba and also Lingala.
At least 42 other languages are spoken there.
Most residents of both identify as Congolese.
Both countries are very conservative culturally, especially with regard to family matters.
Both have life expectancies that are some of the lowest in the world, but the life expectancy
is higher in the Congo Republic.
Both countries have a bunch of young folks.
The median age is only 19.6 in the Congo Republic and only 18.8 in the DRC.
The most popular religion in both is Christianity.
Specifically, most identify as Roman Catholic, although there is a wide variety of different
faiths in both, especially the DRC, where 10% there identify as Muslim.
The two countries also have this sect of Christianity that has been around less than 100 years called
Kimbanguism.
It was actually started by a guy named Simon Kimbangu, and his followers believed he was
the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus Christ and became a Jesus Christ-like figure himself.
10% of the DRC and 1.5% of the Congo Republic identify as Kimbanguist.
The equator goes right through both countries, which explains why both have mostly a tropical
climate.
Well shoot, the Congo Republic is all tropical, with tropical rainforest, monsoon, and savannah.
It’s about the same in the DRC, except for pockets of temperate climate zones at the
higher altitudes.
Higher altitudes?
Heck yeah.
The Congo Republic is mostly flat, but does have small mountains in the central part of
the country and near the northern border.
The DRC has a much more varied landscape, with mountains in the south and much bigger
mountains along its eastern border.
Yep, that’s the Rwenzori Mountains, that dramatically rise up and goodness that is
gorgeous.
The highest peak is Mount Stanley, aka Mont Ngaliema, which straddles the border of the
DRC and Uganda.
Looking at satellite images of both, you see a lot of green.
They are oh so lush.
Both have huge areas of untapped wilderness, not necessarily because of environmentalism,
but simply because both countries never got around to destroying their natural environment
due to overdevelopment.
The Congolian rainforest, which is the world’s second-largest tropical forest, expands into both.
The DRC is home to 60% of it, and 12.5% of all of the planet’s remaining tropical rainforest.
The rainforests of both countries, by the way, are still home to various tribes of people
that have little contact with the outside world.
Arguably the most famous are the African Pygmies, the hunter-gatherers of the Congo basin.
But the DRC has more, with an estimated 600,000 living in its huge forests.
Ok, so speaking of development, both are rich in natural resources.
In particular, precious metals, but the Congo Republic has lots of oil.
The DRC is famous for being the world’s largest producer of cobalt, making up 60%
of global production.
Cobalt?
You know, the stuff mainly used in lithium-ion batteries keeping your phone on right now.
The DRC also has a lot of coltan, which also is in that phone you’re holding.
Unfortunately, all these natural resources do not translate into wealth overall for both
countries because they are mismanaged.
While both have lots of good land for farming, folks in the Congo Republic seem to have taken
advantage of it more.
So other than subsistence hunting and farming, major industries in the Congo Republic include
petroleum, lumber, and cement.
Major industries in the DRC also include lumber, but additionally mining and mineral processing.
The way most residents in both most easily get around is water, believe it or not.
The roads, highways, and railroads are lacking in both.
Parts of the interior of the DRC are only reachable by gravel or dirt roads that are
often in poor shape.
Both have gorillas, and these gorillas keep thriving since it’s so difficult for humans
to even get to their natural habitats.
Oh, and lots of other non-human primates.
Both used to be part of the Kingdom of Kongo, which existed from 1390 to 1859.
But I’m ahead of myself a bit.
Let’s go back way before that.
Like 80,000 years.
That’s the earliest we know that humans lived in the modern-day DRC.
It wasn’t until tens of thousands of years after that we see evidence of humans living
in the modern-day Congo Republic.
For thousands of years, hunter gatherers lived in the Congo Basin.
We have little records from back then, but we do know much more about theaforementioned
Kingdom of Kongo.
It was well structured and had royalty similar to other parts of the world at the time.
The first European to encounter the Kingdom of Kongo was a Portuguese explorer named Diogo
Cão, who began friendly relations between Kongo and Portugal.
In the modern-day DRC, there was also the Kingdom of Lunda, the Kingdom of Luba, and
a rogue group known as the Mongo people.
In the modern-day Congo Republic, there was also the Anziku Kingdom.
In the following years, more and more Portueguese would come to the region, eventually bringing
their religion, Roman Catholicism, with them, and converting many of the locals.
Once the kings were in, it became the state religion.
The Kingdom of Kongo became an important source of slaves for Portuguese traders.
Usually the slaves were captured after a war victory.
Things were relatively peaceful until Portugal went all up and decided to create a colony
nearby called Angola, creating the city of Luanda in 1576.
In the 1600s, the Portuguese rulers there began encroaching onto territory claimed by
the Kingdom of Kongo, ultimately leading to a series of wars.
But while Kongo was revolting against Portugal, it had internal turmoil as well and found
itself at war with itself.
Several kingdoms broke away.
Still, by the 1800s, most Europeans had been too afraid to go far into the interior of
central Africa since they often died from horrible diseases or didn’t want to deal
with the rainforests and swamps.
Portugal was even like “nah,” and just claimed Cabinda, which is now that small exclave
province of Angola I told you about earlier.
This began to change when explorers like David Livingstone (I presume) and Henry Morton Stanley checked
out the region and told the world about it.
Stanley, who that aforementioned Stanley Peak was named after, even wrote a book, Through
the Dark Continent, released in 1878, about all his exploring adventures there.
Stanley helped Leopold II, the King of the Belgians, take over the entire Congo Basin
for himself.
Stanley explored further and mapped out the region, built roads, and established treaties
with local chiefs and native leaders that effectively gave control of all their land
directly to King Leopold II.
Yep, these local chiefs and native leaders often had no idea what they were signing but
did so because they were getting bribes.
Leopold II brought in his military to back up his claims.
Remember, he was the sole, private owner of the territory now, which included all of the
present-day DRC.
It was like his own giant backyard.
He convinced the rest of the European powers it was legit and ran a huge publicity campaign
to convince everyone he was taking over the area in the name of saving the local people.
You know, it was all humanitarian.
He wanted to “civilize” the locals.
(sigh) At the Berlin Conference of 1884, he was able to seal the deal, and soon the Congo
Free State was established.
“Free” is such the wrong word, though, as Leopold’s absolute rule led to horrible
mistreatment of the Congolese.
It was so bad that many of them were treated like slaves, particularly with the collection
of rubber for export.
Infamously, Belgium colonial officials amputated and mutilated workers to punish them.
Some were even children.
Due to starvation and disease due to poor working conditions, it’s estimated up to
15 million Congolese died in the Congo Free State.
And all to make this dude filthy rich.
It’s really messed up.
Meanwhile, France had taken over the modern-day Congo Republic in 1882, establishing the colony
of Gabon and Congo in 1886, later renamed Colony of French Congo and even later renamed
French Equatorial Africa.
After King Leopold II’s reign of terror was exposed to the world, he was pressured
to give up control, and stepped down on November 15, 1908.
However, Belgium still ruled over the territory for the next 52 years.
Jump ahead to 1960.
That was a big year.
By then, nationalism and decolonization were huge and countries were declaring their independence
from European rule all over Africa, and it was no different in the Congo Basin.
Under the leadership of folks like Patrice Lumumba, who deserves an entire video all
his own, the DRC became a country on June 30, 1960, declaring independence from Belgium.
Of course, it wasn’t called the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 1997.
Unfortunately, after Lumumba was assassinated, there was a civil conflict known as the Congo
Crisis over the next five years.
On August 15, 1960, the Republic of Congo became an independent country, breaking away
from French rule.
For many decades, the DRC was the Republic of Zaire, ruled by the totalitarian dictatorship
of Mobutu Sese Seko.
During the Cold War, it aligned itself with the United States and kept close ties to Belgium.
The Republic of Congo, on the other hand, was the People’s Republic of the Congo,
with a Marxist-Leninst socialist government and aligning itself with the Soviet Union
and the eastern bloc countries.
Well in the 1990s Zaire and the People’s Republic of the Congo collapsed and dealt
with civil wars.
Zaire actually also ended up fighting a bunch of countries in the First Congo War and Second
Congo War.
Those two wars absolutely devastated the country.
The Second Congo War caused millions to die.
It was the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two.
Oh hey want to know more about it?
This video is actually a collaboration with the channel Jabzy.
He has just released a video that goes into more detail about the Second Congo War.
Be sure to check it out when you’re done watching this video.
So anyway, over the past 15 years, both countries have been relatively peaceful.
However, today both still have fairly authoritarian governments.
Sure, they have “democracy” and are “republics” but....um...not really.
So how about differences between the two?
Well first, perhaps the most obvious.
In terms of area, the DRC is much bigger.
7 times bigger.
In fact, the DRC is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, the second-largest in
all of Africa, and 11th largest in the world.
The DRC has more people.
A lot more people.
Like, 16 times more.
The population is more spread out in the DRC, whereas most
residents live in the south portion of the Congo Republic.
The DRC borders more countries.
Eastern DRC has to worry about volcanoes, whereas Western DRC and the Congo Republic
have to constantly worry about floods.
Floods?
Yeah, remember how I said both are oh so lush and that was cringeworthy?
While both get a lot of precipitation overall, the DRC gets more, on average, thanks to parts
of it getting 80 inches, or 203 cm a year.
More residents of the Congo Republic have access to clean drinking water and internet access.
The Congo Republic spends more on education and has a higher literacy rate.
Most kids in the DRC don’t go to secondary school.
Related to this, the poverty rate is higher in the DRC.
Many more residents in the Congo Republic have access to electricity.
The Congo Republic is more urban.
67% of the country lives in cities, while just 44.5% in the DRC live in cities.
Most residents of the Congo Republic live along the railroad between Pointe-Noire and
Brazzaville.
Based on everything I told you so far, you probably already guessed that the Congo Republic
is wealthier.
In fact, its GDP per capita is six times higher.
However, the DRC’s economy is growing at a faster rate.
Also, and this is weird, but despite being a wealthier country, the cost of living is
apparently lower in the Congo Republic.
The DRC is in two time zones.
The Congo Republic just one.
The DRC has a space program.
The Congo Republic has a strange, secluded, round lake that, legend says, is home to a
Loch Ness type monster named Mokele Mbambe.
The shape of the DRC looks like a man with a crazy hat on.
The shape of the Congo Republic looks like a beat up rabbit.
In conclusion, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo have
so much potential, and they are two countries to keep an eye on over the next twenty years.
I expect them both to dramatically improve.
Heck, if I’m still around doing this in twenty years, I’ll make another video comparing
the two.
Hold me to it, ok?
If you’re leaving a nasty comment on this video right now, you’re biased, man.
Oh, and I’m biased.
Everybody is biased.
Which is why we should always be critical about where we get our news from.
Newsvoice is an app that is helping us critically think about how we consume news.
What I like most about it is how it shows multiple sources and perspectives for the
same stories.
You can upvote stories you find interesting and add stories or links that are missing.
So dig deeper, and try Newsvoice by clicking the link to download it in the description
and pinned comment.
Thanks to Newsvoice for sponsoring this video.
Don’t forget to check out Jabzy’s video about the Second Congo War.
While you're over there
Be sure to subscribe to his channel if you haven’t already.
And I need to do more African comparison videos, dad gomit.
Hey two questions for you.
Do you think the DRC and Congo Republic should join forces and form a super country?
Also, what other African countries or cities should I compare next?
Let me know in the comments below.
As always, I want to hear from ya if you are actually from one of these
two wonderful countries.
Thank you for watching!