This is going to be a bit of a photo blog, since I feel like the city tour was a conglomeration of rushing around Kinshasa in our little minibus (with aircon!) to see a bunch of different sites all over the place.
This tour was actually the first thing I did without any of the Toths, so that was crazy to begin with! Kevin dropped me off at the US Embassy in the morning, and I hopped on the minibus with a few of the people I’d met via KT and Kevin already during my stay. I was essentially hoping to just assimilate into their group so I could be awkward with other people, and not just by myself. Spoiler Alert: It totally worked.
Anyhow, heeeere we go!
If you can read French, here’s a map of our route for the day:
Our first stop was the “city center” – there were three items of interest there, the first being a large fountain with statues of leopards residing inside. There was also constant Congolese music playing from several speakers situated around the fountain. This area was originally a park in the center of the city, but one of the presidents decided that too many local people were hanging out there, so he bulldozed the park and turned it into this “tourist attraction” of a fountain with traditional music.
After the fountain was a monument, situated probably about 20 meters behind the fountain. For the life of me, I can’t recall what the monument is recognizing (this is a typical problem…sorry.). However, it’s pretty cool looking! Lots of people were hanging around here catching shade from the two pillars.
Last in the city center was the railway station. Interestingly, we were told that we weren’t allowed to take photos of anything other than the “first train” or the guards would confiscate our cameras. Yes, there were guards blocking off the train station… typical Kinshasa. Also typical is that I didn’t listen to directions and snapped a couple of extra photos. WHOOPS! Interesting to also note: The train yard only sees action on Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday there is one train that goes OUT to another DRC city, and Sunday the train returns from there. Go figure.
After the city center, we hopped back on the minibuses and headed to an art museum featuring Congolese artists. It was pretty sweet b/c we had a guide from the art museum show us around, so we got background and details on SO MANY of the paintings and various other works. This particular one was my favorite. It showcases the emotions of the people after the death of Patrice Lumumba, the first elected President of the DRC.
The stairwell up to the museum also had some pretty sweet street art, which I snapped as well. Interestingly, I didn’t really see much other street art in Kinshasa.
After the museum, we did something TOTALLY typical Congo. We headed off to see the monument to Lumumba, which is best viewed by parking in the middle of the highway and hopping out of your vehicle to take a phot. Ohhhhhh Congo.
Next we went to visit the President’s residence, which also happens to house the body of Congolese politician Laurent-Desire Kaliba. The tomb is made of glass and has a beautiful canopy structure above, full of symbolism and art. The corners of the structure are my favorite, with all four being models of fists breakout out of their chains.
The last place we went to was the National Museum of the DRC. This museum is actually housed within the area that used to be Mobutu’s personal zoo… gotta love Congolese rulers! The museum itself is pretty small, but it DOES have aircon, and the exhibits are actually pretty interesting and informative. What really got me was that so many of the artifacts are just out in open air for anyone to touch or destroy or pretty much anything… No laser security and tripwires here, folks! Here are the two things I found most interesting…
The first is Mobutu’s throne. This is one of those items that’s just out and exposed! It actually has a tiny thread across it and a small paper sign saying not to sit there…but that’s all that’s protecting this wooden chair, complete with an actual leopard fur.
This container served to hold powder that women used as birth control. When the family had a young child that the mother believed still needed individual care, she would paint her body with this powder so that her husband would know not to engage in marital relations with her. Aka… women had to paint their bodies to tell their husbands to back off because it wasn’t babymaking time!
After the National Museum, we went by the craft market, but since I’d already been there with KT, I just hung out by the bus with some of the others who weren’t shopping.
After a pretty thorough day (our guides talked NONSTOP and were super informative and nice), we were dropped back off at the Embassy around 4pm.
Amusingly, some of Kristen’s friends who had been on the tour were taking me home, but I didn’t have my passport and they were parked inside the Embassy. WHOOPS.
We ended up just being thoroughly watched while we went and scooped up the car before heading back home.
Overall, pretty wicked awesome day! I definitely needed to get a better perspective on Congolese history, and this absolutely did the trick.
