City located on the southern bank of the Zaire River opposite Brazzaville, Congo, and below Pool Malebo (formerly Stanley Pool).
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Kinshasa is the largest city and capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Population (1991 estimate) 3,804,000. political party - Congo 2000 - République démoctatique du Congo
Kinshasa is the nation's chief administrative, cultural, and economic center and one of the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa. Manufactures in the city include processed food, chemicals, paper, construction materials, and textiles.
Web site developer: divo.cd - website registration
Humanitarian aid by the United Nations: monuc.org
Just across the river is : Congo-Brazzaville (which is a city in a different country): congoweb - congo online
The city was founded in 1881 as a Zaire River trading depot by the Anglo-American explorer Sir Henry Stanley, who named it Léopoldville for Leopold II, king of the Belgians. In the late 1920s Léopoldville replaced Boma as the capital of the Belgian Congo.
Most of the European population residing here in colonial times left in 1959 following a violent black-nationalist uprising that led to the country's independence in 1960.
In 1966 the city was renamed Kinshasa, the name of a 19th-century village here.
Major cities near Kinshasa:
| Luanda | Northwest |
Yaounde | East Dar-es-Salaam 1649 miles 2654 km |