Republic of the Congo

Overview

The Republic of the Congo lies in Central Africa on the Atlantic coast, bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cabinda, an exclave of Angola. Much of the country is covered by the western portion of the Congo Basin rainforest, and its eastern border runs along the Congo River, across from Kinshasa, the capital of the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. France administered the territory as a colony until 1960, as part of French Equatorial Africa, and this colonial legacy still shapes the country's official language. The economy relies heavily on oil extraction, concentrated along the southwestern coast and offshore in the Atlantic.

Brazzaville, the capital, sits on the banks of the Congo River directly across from Kinshasa, making the two the closest pair of national capitals in the world. The Basilica of Sainte-Anne du Congo, built in 1949 with a distinctive green-tiled roof, is one of Brazzaville's well-known buildings and a reminder of the French colonial period. Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, in the north, protects one of the least disturbed stretches of the Congo Basin rainforest and is home to lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and chimpanzees; since 2012 it has been part of a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage site shared with neighboring parks. Loango National Park, on the southwestern coast, brings rainforest and ocean shoreline together in close proximity, a rare combination where forest elephants occasionally appear on the beach.

The salt clearings, known as bais, in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park regularly attract lowland gorillas and forest elephants, which gather in open clearings, making this one of the more accessible wildlife-viewing experiences in the dense rainforest. Along the coast of Loango National Park, whales and dolphins can be observed depending on the season, while gorilla trekking within the park is available through guided tours. Local cuisine is built around cassava and fufu, a thick paste served with palm oil and spiced meat or fish sauces, and river fishing remains an important part of daily life for communities along the Congo River.