Lodja is a remote town in the

Sankuru Sankuru is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Sankuru, Kasaï-Oriental, and Lomami provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Kasaï-Oriental province. Sa ...

(formerly

Kasaï-Oriental Kasaï-Oriental (French for "East Kasai") is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Kasaï-Oriental, Lomami, and Sankuru provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the form ...

) province in central

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 ...

. It is serviced by the Lodja Airport which is about from town. Lodja is a hub for both rice production in the province and diamond mining in the country. Lodja is and has been home to many Tetela.

History

Lodja Hospital was built in the 1950s by Belgian colonizers but was abandoned unfinished when the Republic of the Congo declared independence in 1960. The town was captured by rebel forces during the Second Congo War in April 1999 but returned to Congolese rule by January 2000. According to censuses, Lodja had 28,671 residents in 1984; 52,798 in 2004; 64,147 in 2012; and 68,244 in 2016.

Language

The Sankuru province consists mainly of the Otetela Bantu, often shortened to Tetela, language tribal areas, with 98% speaking the language and 50-60% speaking it exclusively. Thirty to forty percent of Lodja speak

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 ...

, a military and trade language, with those from the Kinshasa and Équateur provinces. French is used mainly by government officials and those who are well-educated; about 20-30% of Lodja residents speak it at least conversationally. English and neighboring tribal languages, such as Tshiluba and Swahili are spoken by about 1-2%.

References

Lodja Populated places in Sankuru Populated places in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{DRCongo-geo-stub