Mbanza-Ngungu

Mbanza-Ngungu
Coordinates	5 ° 16 ′  S , 14 ° 51 ′  E Coordinates: 5 ° 16 ′  S , 14 ° 51 ′  E
Basic data
Country	Democratic Republic of Congo
province	Congo Central
Residents	100,000

View of the village near Thysville / Mbanza Ngungu. Photo Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1941/42)

Mbanza-Ngungu is a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

General

The city has about 100,000 inhabitants and is located on the former railway line and today's road between Matadi and Kinshasa in the Congo Central province . Since 1932 the place has been connected to the Matadi-Kinshasa Railway via a 15 km branch line to Marchal . Because of its famous grottos , it used to be a tourist destination. It is an important garrison town of the Congolese army and is a site of the iron industry. Also here is the private university l'Université Kongo, founded in 1990 .

history

During the Belgian colonial period , the city was called Thysville , named after Albert Thys , who founded it in 1905, previously the place was called Sona Qongo .

After his arrest in September 1921, the Congolese religious founder Simon Kimbangu was imprisoned in Thysville for several years. In 1957 the Thysville-Kasangulu Bridge, which crosses the Sukasou River, was inaugurated .

In July 1960, took insubordination of the Force Publique in the local Camp Hardy began. At the end of 1960, the anti-colonialist Lumumba was temporarily imprisoned here. He had won the first democratic elections in May 1960 and became the country's first prime minister. For the former colonial power Belgium , which wanted to maintain its economic influence in the Congo, it was a danger. After a coup agreed with Belgium and the USA , he was overthrown by Mobutu , transferred from here by Belgian agents to Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) in the separate province of Katanga , and murdered on January 17, 1961.

literature

• G. Blanchart: Le Rail au Congo Belge. Volume II, Blanchart, Bruxelles 1999, ISBN 2-87202-015-2 .

swell

1. ^ G. Blanchart: Le Rail au Congo Belge. Volume II, 1999, p. 128.
2. ↑ Lumumba murder: Son announces lawsuit against twelve Belgians. In: derStandard.at. June 22, 2010, accessed December 3, 2017 .