Kisangani

Kisangani
Coordinates	0 ° 31 '  N , 25 ° 12'  E Coordinates: 0 ° 31 '  N , 25 ° 12'  E
Symbols
coat of arms
Basic data
Country	Democratic Republic of Congo
province	Tshopo
height	401 m
Residents	539,164 (January 1, 2005)
Street scene in Kisangani (2006)

Kisangani (until 1966 Stanleyville ) is a city in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 539,164 inhabitants and at the same time the capital of the Tshopo Province .

geography

Kisangani Cathedral

In Kisangani, the Lualaba River becomes the Congo , north of Boyoma Falls . From here on upstream, the Congo is no longer navigable for many ships .

history

Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) founded the Stanley Falls Station on an island in the Congo near the small town in December 1883 , where the Scottish technician Mr. Binnie remained as representative of the Congo Free State and operator of the trading station. A conflict with Arab slave traders escalated. In 1888 the station was the seat of the slave trader Tippu-Tip (1837-1905).

After the fall of Lumumba , Antoine Gizenga declared Stanleyville the seat of his counter-government on December 12, 1960. After the Soviet aid to the Lumumbist rebels failed to come and Gizenga was forced to accommodate the central government, he invited the US diplomat Frank Calrucci to Stanleyville. When he arrived there on March 10, 1961, he was surprised by an unexpectedly friendly welcome, which ultimately led to an official agreement with the central government in Leopoldville .

During the Simba rebellion in 1964, the city was the scene of an insurgent massacre of white civilians and the subsequent " Operation Dragon Rouge ", a joint military operation by Belgian and American troops against the Simbas to rescue another 1,500 white hostages (including the missionary doctor Carlson, who was im November 1964 was shot by black mercenaries).

In 1966 and 1967, two mutinies took place in Kisangani: the Kisangani Mutinies , Stanleyville Mutinies or Mercenaries' Mutinies . When rumors surfaced that the deposed politician Moise Tshombe was going to take power again, around 2,000 former Katanga state police officers rose in Kisangani in July 1966. The mutiny was put down. Exactly one year later , 100 former gendarmes Katangas and 1,000 other residents mutinied at the same site , led by the white settler Jean Schramme . These were able to withstand a 32,000 strong contingent of the central government until November 1967. The mutineers then fled to Rwanda.

On November 21, 1976, a Pacific Western Airlines (C-FPWX) L-100-20 Hercules crashed near Kisangani. The pilots were looking for a way to make an emergency landing in poor visibility when their machine collided with trees and termite mounds . Five out of six people died on board. There was not enough kerosene on board to return to another airport (see also the Pacific Western Airlines accident at Kisangani ) .

Personalities

• Biko Botowamungu (* 1957), wrestler and boxer
• Kilitcho Kasusula (* 1982), national soccer player
• Koffi Olomide (* 1956), singer and songwriter
• Diblo Dibala (* 1954), singer and songwriter

Climate table

Kisangani
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     85   31 21st     121   31 21st     170   31 21st     182   31 21st     159   31 22nd     105   30th 21st     111   29 20th     163   29 20th     188   30th 20th     223   30th 21st     232   30th 21st     101   30th 21st Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: wetterkontor.de

Monthly average temperatures and rainfall for Kisangani Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 30.6 31.2 31.2 30.9 30.6 29.8 28.8 28.8 29.8 30.1 29.9 29.8 O 30.1 Min. Temperature (° C) 21.1 20.7 21.1 21.4 21.7 20.8 20.3 20.3 20.4 20.6 20.7 20.6 O 20.8 Precipitation ( mm ) 85 121 170 182 159 105 111 163 188 223 232 101 Σ 1,840 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 5.8 6.3 5.8 6.0 5.8 5.1 4.5 4.1 5.2 5.7 5.3 5.2 O 5.4 Rainy days ( d ) 7th 9 11 10 10 9 10 11 13 14th 15th 10 Σ 129 Humidity ( % ) 85 83 85 85 86 87 90 88 85 85 86 87 O 86 Source: wetterkontor.de

Kisangani in art

Novels

• At the bend of the great river , VS Naipaul's book on Kisangani

• In the Congo by Urs Widmer

literature

• David Reed: 111 Days of Stanleyville - The Rising of the Simbas . Vienna: Zsolnay, 1966

Web links

Commons : Kisangani  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ As of January 1, 2005
2. ↑ Sergej Masow: The Soviet Union and the Congo Crisis 1960 to 1964 . In: Bernd Greiner, Christian Th. Müller, Dierk Walter (eds.): Crises in the Cold War, Studies on the Cold War, Volume 2 . 1st edition. Hamburger Edition , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-936096-95-8 , pp. 284 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Sergei Masow: The Soviet Union and the Congo Crisis 1960-1964 . In: Bernd Greiner, Christian Th. Müller, Dierk Walter (eds.): Crises in the Cold War, Studies on the Cold War, Volume 2 . 1st edition. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-936096-95-8 , pp. 295 .
4. ↑ Lois Carlson: Doctor in the Congo. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna.
5. ^ Anthony Mockler, 'The New Mercenaries,' Corgi Books, 1985, ISBN 0-552-12558-X
6. ↑ accident report L-100-20, C-FPWX Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 6 April of 2019.