Article 2 of the Constitution of the

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 ...

divides the country into the capital city of

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 o ...

and 25 named provinces. It also gives the capital the status of a province. Therefore, in many contexts Kinshasa is regarded as the 26th province.

List

History

When Belgium annexed the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

as a colony in November 1908, it was initially organised into 22 districts. Ten western districts were administered directly by the main colonial government, while the eastern part of the colony was administered under two vice-governments: eight northeastern districts formed Orientale Province, and four southeastern districts formed Katanga. In 1919, the colony was organised into four provinces: *

Congo-Kasaï Congo-Kasaï was one of the four large provinces of the Belgian Congo defined in 1914. It was formally established in 1919, and in 1933 was divided into the new provinces of Léopoldville and Lusambo. Location Congo-Kasaï was named after the Ka ...

(five southwestern districts), * Équateur (five northwestern districts), *

Orientale Province Orientale Province ( French: ''Province orientale'', "Eastern province") is one of the former provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its predecessors the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo. It went through a series of boundary ...

and Katanga (previous vice-governments).Provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Statoids, accessed 1 May 2016. In 1932, the colony was reorganised into six provinces. Initially they were named after their capital cities, but in 1947 regional names were adopted. The Belgian Congo became an independent country in 1960, named

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

. By 1963, the country was organised into 21 provinces (informally called ''provincettes'') plus the capital city of Léopoldville, similar to the original 22 districts under colonial rule. In 1966, the 21 ''provincettes'' were grouped into eight provinces, and the capital city was renamed Kinshasa. In 1971, the country was renamed

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

, and three provinces were also renamed. In 1975, the capital city of Kinshasa obtained the status of a province. In 1988, the province of Kivu was split into three. In 1997, the country was renamed

, and the three provinces that had been renamed in 1971 either retook their previous name or took another. Article 2 of the

Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo () is the basic law governing the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Constitution has been changed and/or replaced several times since its independence in 1960. Current Constitution Th ...

, adopted in 2006, specifies a territorial organisation into 26 provinces, again resembling the previous ''provincettes'' and original colonial districts. The reorganisation was scheduled to take effect within three years of the new constitution's promulgation, however progress was slow. In October 2007 the Minister for Decentralisation, Denis Kalume Numbi, presented a bill for decentralisation in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

. The subsequent debate turned up a variety of issues that first had to be addressed with changes to related laws. In an October 2010 conclave of the ruling

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coalition, it was proposed to revise Article 226, which calls for the creation of 26 provinces out of the current 11, in order to allow more time for the transition. On 9 January 2015 the National Assembly passed a law on the new administrative divisions of the country, according to which new provinces should be installed in period of 12 months.Election of governors: definite results expected on 18 April
Radio Okapi, 27 March 2016.

Maps

Image:Mapcongo1914.jpg, Districts of the Belgian Congo in 1914 Image:DCongoNumbered.png, Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1997–2015 File:2006 Nouvelles provinces de la République Démocratique du Congo.png, Provinces since 2015 (officially formed in 2006)

Approximate correspondence between historical and current provinces

References

Bibliography