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Lingala Language
Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree in Angola, the Central African Republic and southern South Sudan. Lingala has 15–20 million native speakers and about 25 million second-language speakers, for a total of 40–45 million speakers. History Prior to 1880, Bobangi was an important trade language on the western sections of the Congo river, more precisely between Stanley Pool ( Kinshasa) and the confluence of the Congo and Ubangi rivers. When in the early 1880s, the first Europeans and their West- and East-African troops started founding state posts for the Belgian king along this river section, they noticed the widespread use and prestige of Bobangi. They attempted to learn it, but only cared to acquire an imperfect knowledge of it, a process that gave rise to a new, str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Democratic Republic Of The Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered to the northwest by the Republic of the Congo, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the northeast by South Sudan, to the east by Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and by Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), to the south and southeast by Zambia, to the southwest by Angola, and to the west by the South Atlantic Ocean and the Cabinda exclave of Angola. By area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 108 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous officially Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the nation's economic center. Centered on the Cong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinshasa
Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of the world's fastest growing megacities. The city of Kinshasa is also one of the DRC's 26 provinces. Because the administrative boundaries of the city-province cover a vast area, over 90 percent of the city-province's land is rural in nature, and the urban area occupies a small but expanding section on the western side. Kinshasa is Africa's third-largest metropolitan area after Cairo and Lagos. It is also the world's largest nominally Francophone urban area, with French being the language of government, education, media, public services and high-end commerce in the city, while Lingala is used as a ''lingua franca'' in the street. Kinshasa hosted the 14th Francophonie Summit in October 2012. Residents of Kinshasa are known as ''Kinoi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swahili Language
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili has borrowed a number of words from foreign languages, particularly Arabic, but also words from Portuguese, English and German. Around forty percent of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coast'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab slave traders and the Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. The number of Swahili speakers, be they native or second-language speakers, is estimated to be approximately 200 million. Due to concerted efforts by the government of Tanzania, Swahili is one of three official languages (th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Égide De Boeck
Égide de Boeck was born on 13 November 1875 in Oppuurs, Belgium. He was a priest, religious and linguist in the then Belgian Congo. He died on 20 December 1944. Life De Boeck grew up in Flanders. His father was a primary school teacher, his mother a very devout woman. He had several younger brothers and sisters: Alphonse, a priest in Belgium, Marlo, Achilles and Jules, both missionaries in Scheut, a sister who worked as a nun in the Philippines and a brother who married. After secondary school in Malines, he entered the novitiate of the missionaries of Scheut in 1894. He was ordained a priest on July 1, 1900 and was sent to New Antwerp (now Makanza) in the Congo on September 1 of the same year. From 1913 to 1916 he was Apostolic Prefect of Kasaï Supérieur. On 8 May 1921 he was ordained Bishop and Titular Bishop of Azotus. Already on 4 January 1921 he took up the office of Apostolic Vicar of New Antwerp, which he held until 27 January 1936. On that day he was appointed Aposto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CICM Missionaries
The CICM Missionaries officially named as the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( la, Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae) abbreviated C.I.C.M, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men established in 1862 by the Belgian Catholic priest Theophile Verbist (1823–1868). Its members add the post-nominal letters C.I.C.M. to their names to indicate membership in the congregation. The order's origins lie in Scheut, Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, due to which it is widely known as the Scheut Missionaries. The congregation is most notable for their international missionary works in China, Mongolia, the Philippines and in Congo Free State/Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). Presently, their international name "CICM Missionaries" is preferred, although, in the United States, the congregation is mostly known as Missionhurst. History Verbist was a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in the mid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soukous
Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar improvisation, and gained popularity in the 1980s in France. Although often used by journalists as a synonym for Congolese rumba, both the music and dance associated with soukous differ from more traditional rumba, especially in its higher tempo and longer dance sequences. Notable performers of the genre include Franco Luambo and his band TPOK Jazz, Papa Wemba, Sam Mangwana, Tabu Ley Rochereau, and Pépé Kallé. History 1960s In the 1950s and 1960s, artists began altering the popular dance style of Congolese rumba to have faster rhythms and more prominent guitar improvisation, as well as more pronounced African elements. Guitarist and bandleader Franco Luambo is credited with pioneering the genre alongside his band TPOK Jazz. Tabu Ley Roch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lingua Franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages. Lingua francas have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term is taken from the medieval Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a Romance-based pidgin language used especially by traders in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. A world language – a language spoken internationally and by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, normally spoken informally rather than written, and seen as of lower status than more codified forms. It may vary from more prestigious speech varieties in different ways, in that the vernacular can be a distinct stylistic register, a regional dialect, a sociolect, or an independent language. Vernacular is a term for a type of speech variety, generally used to refer to a local language or dialect, as distinct from what is seen as a standard language. The vernacular is contrasted with higher-prestige forms of language, such as national, literary, liturgical or scientific idiom, or a ''lingua franca'', used to facilitate communication across a large area. According to another definition, a vernacular is a language that has not develope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae
The CICM Missionaries officially named as the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( la, Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae) abbreviated C.I.C.M, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men established in 1862 by the Belgian Catholic priest Theophile Verbist (1823–1868). Its members add the post-nominal letters C.I.C.M. to their names to indicate membership in the congregation. The order's origins lie in Scheut, Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, due to which it is widely known as the Scheut Missionaries. The congregation is most notable for their international missionary works in China, Mongolia, the Philippines and in Congo Free State/Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). Presently, their international name "CICM Missionaries" is preferred, although, in the United States, the congregation is mostly known as Missionhurst. History Verbist was a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in the mid-19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bangala Station
Makanza or Mankanza is a town in the Équateur province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, headquarters of Makanza territory. History Makanza was formerly known as Bangala Station and then as Nouvelle-Anvers / Nieuw-Antwerpen (New Antwerp). It is a port on the River Congo. Located midway between Kinshasa and Kisangani, the location housed a trading post from the 1890. The town was one of the main stages of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. The Bangala people of the area were among the first people to come in contact with the colonialists. Their language, Lingala Lingala (Ngala) (Lingala: ''Lingála'') is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the northern half of the Republic of the Congo, in their capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and to a lesser degree in ..., eventually merged with the "Lobangi" lingua franca of the river. Demographics References {{reflist Populated places in the province of Équateur Communities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ubangi River
The Ubangi River (), also spelled Oubangui, is the largest right-bank tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa. It begins at the confluence of the Mbomou (mean annual discharge 1,350 m3/s) and Uele Rivers (mean annual discharge 1,550 m3/s) and flows west, forming the border between Central African Republic (CAR) and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Subsequently, the Ubangi bends to the southwest and passes through Bangui, the capital of the CAR, after which it flows southforming the border between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo. The Ubangi finally joins the Congo River at Liranga. The Ubangi's length is about . Its total length with the Uele, its longest tributary, is . The Ubangi's drainage basin is about Mean annual discharge at mouth 5,936 m3/s Its discharge at Bangui ranges from about to , with an average flow of about . It is believed that the Ubangi's upper reaches originally flowed into the Chari River and Lake Chad before b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Pool
The Pool Malebo, formerly Stanley Pool, also known as Mpumbu, Lake Nkunda or Lake Nkuna by local indigenous people in pre-colonial times, is a lake-like widening in the lower reaches of the Congo River."Malebo Pool" ''''. Accessed June 2011. The river serves as the border between the Republic of the Congo on the north and the to the south. The pool's for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
