Kinshasa

Kinshasa Symphony is a documentary by German filmmakers, filled with magnificent imagery and camera work. The impoverished but proud town of Kinshasa is home to the world’s only all-black orchestra. Glassless windows, unstable electricity, and bare feet on dirt roads are all facts of life for it’s citizens, but the symphony brings beauty to a life of hardship. By examining the lives of three members of the Kinshasa Symphony, one can see that life in the Democratic Republic of Congo is filled with

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or also known as the Congo-Kinshasa, is the second poorest country in the world, and the poorest in Africa as of 2015. It is also one of the largest countries in Africa, and as a result of the generous population, the country is poverty-stricken. The Congo has beautiful traditions, cultures, and art that is known and appreciated around the world. Though, also struggles with a mixture of awful health, financial system, and unemployment problems. The Democratic

This review is on the scientific paper ‘Architecture of an active mud-rich turbidite system: The Zaire Fan’ by Droz et al [2] published in 2003. The main purpose of this article was to take the seismic results from the ZaïAngo program, acoustic imagery and bathymetry information and present the architecture of the Zaire Fan. The Zaire Fan is located off the coast of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola on a mature passive continental margin at the base of the Zaire River now named the Congo

“Forcing people to be generous isn 't humanitarian, effective, compassionate or moral. Only acts that are truly voluntary for all concerned can be truly compassionate.” – Harry Browne. Sadly the good humanitarianism would not reach Africa until some thousands were killed by the greed of the Europeans. Europeans wanting to explore Africa for their personal gain should not have used the excuse of humanitarianism to justify the true act of imperialism that was happening in Africa because, many European

Norman Mailer’s The Fight fits a mold of story telling described by Jerome Bruner, but not in the ways expected. The characters are more than just characters and the plot fits more a mode of telling than an actual plot. Considering Bruner’s features of narrative that he describes in “The Narrative Construction of Reality”, through an illustration of canonicity and breach, the protagonist of The Fight is the ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ itself, while the antagonist of the story is the breach of the

Congolese guitarist, singer, bandleader and composer Francois Luambo Makiadi (Franco) “the sorcerer of the guitar” was 20th century Africa’s most important musician; he was the greatest. My opinion is amply supported by the recent release of two double CD retrospectives Francophonic Volume 1(1953-1979) & 2 (1980-1989). The sets demonstrate Franco’s amazing longevity, prolificacy, and innovation. From 1950 until his death in 1989, he record over a thousand songs, created a dominate style of African

In 1876, no more than 10 percent of Africa was under European rule, but by 1900 more than 90 percent was controlled by a European country. Belgium was about as strong as the three less dominant Western powers of Portugal, Italy, and Germany, but was able to manipulate people, prices, and circumstances to level itself with those major powers above it such as Britain and France, who worked together to draw out their own maps of the “dark continent” to prevent conflict in the midst of the conquest of

King Leopold II of Belgium was born on April 9th, 1935. When Leopold was born, Belgium itself was only about five years old! Leopold became the oldest son of Belgium I that was alive. Leopold I was the very first king of Belgium, with his second wife, Louise-Marie of Orléans being queen. Leopold II became the Duke of Brabant in 1846 as well as serving in the Belgian army. In 1853, Leopold II a beautiful woman married Marie-Henriette. She was the daughter of the Austrian archduke Joseph, who was the

In the late 19th century, the Congo was but a peaceful African country – a land rich in farms, rainforests, and hard workers, but by the time the imperialist King Leopold II finally ceded the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908, the Congo was without 10 million people and those that remained were scarred with terrible memories. Imperialist countries seek to expand their empire or create an empire by taking control of another country for a number of reasons including political, social, cultural, military

King Leopold set his focus on the Congo because he wanted to rule a colony of his own, something bigger than just little old Belgium, and the Congo provided that. It had waterways that connected the land, as well as people that he could use as slaves. A book that he had read titled Java, or How to Manage a Colony had sparked Leopold’s interest for a colony of his own (Hochschild, p. 37). According to the quote, “In the mid-1870s, sub-Saharan Africa was a logical place for an aspiring colonialist