Former place names in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on:
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This is a list of place names of towns and cities in the
This is a list of place names of towns and cities in 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 ...
which were subsequently changed after the end of Belgian colonial rule. Place names of the colonial era tended to have two versions, one in French and one in Dutch, reflecting the two main languages of Belgium
The Kingdom of Belgium has three official languages: Dutch (Flemish), French, and German.
A number of non-official, minority languages and dialects are spoken as well.
Official languages Legal status
The Belgian Constitution guarantees, si ...
. Many of these place names were chosen after local geography or eponymous colonial figures.
Many of the place name changes occurred under the '' authenticité'' programme in the 1960s and 1970s during the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...
. In some cases, the names had genuine pre-colonial usage or had already been used unofficially during the colonial period. Mobutu also changed the country's name from Congo to 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, ...
. Today, European speakers of both French and Dutch use the modern Congolese place names.
Towns and cities
Landmarks and geographic terms
See also
*Authenticité (Zaire)
''Authenticité'', sometimes Zairianisation in English, was an official state ideology of the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in what was first the Democratic Republic of Congo, later renamed Zaire. ...
*Belgian colonial empire
Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi (modern Rwanda and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. It also had small concessions in Guate ...
* Mount Stanley
Notes
References
{{DRC topics Democratic Republic of the Congo geography-related lists Belgian CongoCongo, Democratic Republic of the
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 ...
Congo