The Bomani, the navigating city of the Congo

A strange compact vessel, consisting of a main ship about a hundred meters long, and several terraced barges, awaits the arrival of passengers and cargo to begin the long journey from Kinshasa to Kisangani at a distance of almost 1,700 kilometers.

There are no land routes that cross the Congolese territory and, apart from the airway, of an unattainable cost for the immense majority of the population, the waterway is the only means of transport available for the impoverished inhabitants of the country.

The passengers who board the Bomani, which is the name of the ship, for the long voyage, are made up of a disorderly crowd of crew members, men and women with children, entire families and all kinds of loads and freights. Little by little they go up to the big boat until they fill it completely. Days and weeks pass before the strange "ship" fully loaded with passengers can sail.

After a month of waiting, passengers become impatient. The captain promises that the next day the floating complex will sail at last, which for the umpteenth time does not happen.

Fuel did not arrive, you have to adjust details, tomorrow without fail. Two months later the ship (or whatever it is called) receives the thousands of liters of fuel required in more than 50 barrels and it is time to start the engines that do not respond yet. Finally, after numerous attempts and some makeshift arrangements, the engines light up and the ship sets sail.

It is a true floating city, carrying up to 2,000 passengers, there is practically no room to move or sleep.

On the boat there are no toilets, no cabins, only the heterogeneous deck full of all kinds of people. There is also no drinking water (only the polluted river water). Logically after a few days many passengers get sick. A single nurse practically without drugs, has to attend intestinal diseases, fevers, wounds, births and many other health problems of passengers.

The food reaches the passengers from the banks, boats and canoes approach offering their goods, fish, cakes, fruits, allowing passengers with a resource to buy them.

The engine breaks, it has to be fixed, it can take several days, floating in the river.

To gain time the "floating city" sails at night. As you can not see anything, you finally run aground on a sandbar.

After a lot of work and efforts, the crew manages to disengage the boat and continue the march.

After two months the strange fluvial procession that advances slowly must interrupt the navigation due to strong combats in the zone. The Bomani was barely halfway there. .

The passengers get off and wait a few days or weeks until another boat passes and takes them to their destination, with their distant families, or even the city of Kisangani where they are waiting, possibly job opportunities that did not exist in Kinshasa.

Colonial history produced two very different countries

In the Congolese region, colonial history produced two very differente countries. On the one hand the Republique du Congo,, on the other hand the Republique Democratique du Congo, known for a short period as Republique Zaire.

While the much larger Republique Democratique du Congo was colonized by the Belges, and practically was treated as a personal property by King Leopold of Belgium, the smaller Republique du Congo was colonized by the French, and probably because of the important role of a explorer and first French commissioner, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, became a much more organized society, before and after independence. Precisely because of that, on the RDC side Leopoldville became Kinshasa and on the RC side, Brazzaville did not change its name.

In present time, after half a century of independence, “Brazzaville and Kinshasa, which stare each other down from opposite banks of the Congo River, are famed as the two national capitals closest to one another, but they are hardly sister cities.

The streets of Kinshasa are a disaster, and whatever colonial-era grid there ever was has been submerged beneath a layer of mud, grime and neglect. Packs of young men fight their way into crude minibuses with holes drilled in the sides for ventilation, while in Brazzaville shiny green taxis cruise clean streets, gliding to a stop for their fares.

On hot days, Kinshasa reeks of fermenting fruit and urine. In Brazzaville, the whiff of freshly baked croissants creeps from under the doors of the city’s patisseries, as people in smart suits and enviable shoes sip café au lait. Brazzaville’s relative prosperity is due to oil money and the country’s small population, estimated at three million, with about a third in the capital.

It is here that the statue of Mr. Brazza towers over town, the pose inspired by a famous photograph of the explorer wearing a Lawrence of Arabia outfit.

And this may be just the beginning. Mr. Kamba, the head of the Brazza Foundation, wants a Brazza library, a Brazza traveling exhibit, even a Brazza theme park.

He remembered with a smile the soiree in October, when the bones were returned from Algeria — where Mr. Brazza had retired — and top diplomats gathered to swig Champagne and eat crepes.

“It was huge,” he said. “And the party didn’t end until dawn.”

Partially reproduced from The New York Times.