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PROFILE
ON CONGO
Relief
Map of Congo - 237K
About 1,000 km of the eastern boundary of Congo is provided by the Zaire
(Congo) river, and the Equator crosses the northern part of the country.
In an area of 342,000 sq km (132,047 sq miles) about one-third of the
population are dependent on agriculture, mainly of the bush-fallowing type,
but this is supplemented where possible by fishing, hunting and gathering.
The main ethnic groups are the Vili on the cost, the Kongo centred on
Brazzaville (the capital), and the Teke, m'Bochi and Sanga of the
plateaux in the centre and north of the country. Congo's main port
is Pointe-Noire.
Substantial deposits of petroleum have been found offshore, and their
exploitation by US, French and Italian companies is now a major sector of
the economy. The immediate coastal zone is sandy in the north, more
swampy south of Kouilou, and in the neighbourhood of Pointe-Indienne
yields small amounts of petroleum. A narrow coastal plain does not rise above
100m and the cool coastal waters modify the climate, giving low rainfall
and a grassland vegetation.
Rising abruptly from the coastal plain are the high-rainfall forested ridges
of the Mayombe range, parallel to the coast and rising to a height
of 800m, in which gorges, incised by rivers such as the Kouilou, provide
potential hydroelectric power sites. At Holle, close to the Congo-Ocean railway
and at the western foot of the range, are considerable phosphate deposits.
Mayombe also provides an important export commodity, timber, of which the
main commercial species are okoume, limba and mahogany.
Eastwards the Niari valley has lower elevation, soils that are good by tropical
African standards and a grassland vegetation which makes agricultural development
easier. A variety of agricultural products such as groundnuts, maize,
vegetables, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, sugar and tobacco, is obtained
from large plantations, European farms, new colonies of African farmers and
also peasant holdings. These products provide the support for a more
concentrated rural population and the basis for some industrial development.
A further forested mountainous region, the Chaillu massif, is the Zaire basin's
western watershed, and this gives way north-eastwards to a series of
drier plateaux, the somewhat negative Bateke region and, east of the
Likoula river, a zone of Zaire riverine land. Here are numerous watercourses,
with seasonal inundation, and dense forest vegetation, which supports some
production of forest products, although the full potential has yet to
be realized.
A part of the country's southern border follows the Zaire river while
in the east the country is bounded by the Zaire and Oubangui rivers.
With tributaries, these provide the country with more than 6,500km of navigable
waterway, which are particularly important, owing to the lack of good
roads.
Plant and animal life
Nearly two-thirds of the country is covered with tropical rainforest. The
dense growth of African oak, red cedar, walnut, softwood okoume, or gaboon
mahogany, and hardwood limba (Terminalia superba) provides an evergreen canopy
over the sparse undergrowth of leafy plants and vines. The coast and the
swampy areas contain coconut palms, mangrove forests, and tall grasses and
reeds.
The plateau areas and the Niari valley are covered with grasses and widely
spaced broad-leaved trees. The forests contain several varieties of monkey,
chimpanzee, gorilla, elephant, okapi, wild boar, and buffalo. Wildlife in
the savanna regions includes several varieties of antelope, jackal, wild
dog, hyena, and cheetah. On the plateaus, rhinoceroses and giraffes are numerous,
but lions are scarce.
Birdlife includes the predatory eagle, hawk, and owl, the scavenging vulture,
and the wading heron. Freshwater fish include perch, catfish, sunfish, and
mudskippers. Crocodiles live throughout the Congo River. The numerous snakes
include such poisonous varieties as cobra, green mamba, and puff adder, as
well as species of python.
Among the insects, the most dangerous are the tsetse fly, which causes sleeping
sickness in human beings and a similar disease, called nagana, in cattle,
and the mosquito, which carries malaria and yellow fever.
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