Republic of the Congo

The smaller Congo, distinguished from its neighbour mainly by which European power took it and how the Cold War treated it afterwards. The kingdoms of Kongo, Loango and Teke governed the region before Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza claimed the north bank for France in 1880, and Brazzaville is the only African capital named after the man who claimed the territory. France ran it as the seat of French Equatorial Africa, leasing much of the interior to concessionary companies whose forced labour Andre Gide publicised, and built the Congo-Ocean railway at the cost of perhaps fifteen thousand conscripted lives. The city's other distinction is 1940, when Felix Eboue declared for de Gaulle and Brazzaville became the capital of Free France. Independence came in 1960, and the country declared itself a Marxist-Leninist state in 1969, the first in Africa, while continuing to sell its oil to French companies. Denis Sassou Nguesso has governed for most of the period since 1979, interrupted by an election he lost and a civil war in the 1990s that returned him. Oil provides almost all export earnings. Around two-thirds of the country is rainforest and most people live in the two largest cities. The country has about six million people. French is official, with Lingala and Kituba widely spoken. Brazzaville faces Kinshasa across the river, the closest pair of capitals in the world. The Nouabale-Ndoki forest is a World Heritage site and holds gorillas and forest elephants. Congolese rumba, shared with its neighbour, is recognised by Unesco.

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