The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Kinshasa and formerly known as Zaire is today celebrating 63 years of self rule.
President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo has congragulated the citizens upon this milestone on the occasion of the commemoration of the 63rd anniversary of our country’s accession to independence.
The DRCongo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960.
Belgian interference with Congo began in 1885 when King Leopold II established his own ‘Congo Free State’ and started to rule.
His reign brought brutal oppression and forced labor to the people of Congo, which thankfully ended after valiant independence struggles. In 1960, Belgium finally released its hold on the nation.
The history of D.R. Congo can be traced back to the fourteenth-century ‘Kongo Empire,’ a highly developed and structured state which ruled over the southwestern part of present-day Congo, part of the Republic of Congo, and Angola.
The ‘Kuba Federation,’ with similar levels of development, also emerges in what is now known as southern Congo. 500 years after its rise, the Kongo empires fall as a result of internal slavery and rivalry during the 1800s.
Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo) is bordered by Zambia in the southeast, Angola to the southwest, Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania to the east, and finally, the Atlantic Ocean, the Angolan exclave of Cabinda and Congo (Brazzaville) to the west.
