Republic of the Congo

Where the name comes from

Congo takes its name from the Congo River and the Kingdom of Kongo, a Bakongo state near the river’s mouth.

First people

From the late 1300s, the Bantu-speaking Kongo kingdom covered parts of today’s Angola and both Congos, and the Teke kingdom ruled inland.¹

Known for

Brazzaville faces Kinshasa across the Congo River, the closest pair of capital cities in the world after Rome and Vatican City.^2,3

Outside contact

France signed a treaty with the Teke ruler in 1880 and set up French Congo in 1891, later part of French Equatorial Africa.⁴

The modern country

The Republic of the Congo became independent in 1960, the same year as its larger, Belgian-ruled neighbour.²