Brazzaville Travel Guide, Congo

Brazzaville Travel Guide – One of the Congo River Capitals

This Brazzaville travel guide will give you all the real and relevant information you need if you decide to visit this city. The first point that has to be made is that Brazzaville is the capital city of the Republic of Congo, which is not to be mistaken with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which lies on the other side of the Congo River. The capital of the latter is Kinshasa and it has over 7 million inhabitants, while the population of Brazzaville barely exceeds one million. Still, the whole metropolitan area reaches up to 1.5 million and the conurbation Brazzaville-Kinshasa is thus considered to have about 9 million inhabitants.

Brazzaville lies right on the Congo River and is home to over a third of the population of the Republic of Congo, while iitn handles almost half of the non-agricultural employment of the country. It also functions as an administrative and economical centre, as all government buildings and major businesses are located in Brazzaville.

Brazzaville Travel Guide – The Civil Wars

Any Brazzaville travel guide should mention the geographical characteristics of Brazzaville that are unique in the world: it is the only capital that lies across a river form another capital, within sight of each other. Moreover, the countries both have “Congo” in their names, so the Republic of Congo is often called Congo-Brazzaville in order to avoid any confusion. The river Congo separates the two countries and their capitals and Brazzaville lies at the north, while Kinshasa is located on the southern bank. The territory of the two countries has witnessed several civil wars during the ‘90s and thousands of people from the two countries and Angola were killed. Although Luanda, in Angola or Yaounde, in Cameroon are located at considerable distance from Brazzaville, the conflicts in the area affected all these cities and the whole area surrounding them.

Brazzaville Travel Guide – Economy and Transportation

The Congo River is a key factor not only in the city’s location, but also in its economy and function. As a main port on the river, the economy of Brazzaville heavily relies on export of raw materials (rubber, wood and agricultural products) and the main industries are also related to different manufacturing processes and the work with textiles. Still, agriculture provides most of the income necessary for the population, even in the country’s capital. Brazzaville is also home to the World Health Organization that handles the problems in Africa. There are all kinds of transportation available to get into the city: you can do it by plane, ferry of train, and while you are in the city, you can use taxis that are available everywhere, but it is also safe to walk from one destination to another.