Congo+Culture


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 CULTURE IN THE CONGO

Mbote. Ndenge nini? Ozali malamu?..........(Hello. How's it going? Are you doing well?)

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Welcome to the Congo- Creating Awareness! **Beliefs/Traditions/Etiquette**


 * Casual clothes are permitted, but the nicer one looks, the more respect one will receive. Most local Congolese dress in clean, crisp clothes and colorful outfits. Women wear long skirts, never pants.


 * Greetings are very important in Congolese life; saying hello and inquiring about the other person's situation must be addressed before other matters are discussed. Special respect is given when greeting elders or village headmen, especially if the person who approaches is younger than the other.


 * Most political, economic, and religious institutions have male leadership.


 * The way a woman is treated in the Congo depends on her immediate environment and racial background.


 * Women are regarded as lower than males on the scale of social hierarchy.


 * There is a high degree of societal pressure placed upon young women to marry


 * Women must tell their husbands exactly what they purchase. Males usually do not have to account for their own expenses. The goal is to keep women dependent on and subservient to men!

**Childcare**


 * Women commonly carry their babies on their backs as they work in the field, care for other children, carry water, cook, gather firewood, and clean their clothes and homes.


 * Young girls learn from a very young age to take care of their younger siblings. Babies are seen on the backs of girls as young as five years of age.


 * From the time babies are able to walk, they are expected to take on adult responsibilities.


 * Good children treat their elders with utmost respect and perform chores without complaint.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Education**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Traditionally, male children go to an initiation camp away from their villages for one year. Culminating in a festival and circumcision, this rite of passage into adulthood provides an opportunity for boys to learn to hunt, make handicrafts, and perfect their singing and dancing.

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Catholic Church has several mission schools for children that enjoy great popularity, since many national schools have understaffed classrooms.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In state schools, the teachers' salaries are often unpaid, forcing many to bribe students for a high test score.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some male teachers offer good grades or money in exchange for sexual acts. Such obstacles usually do not deter most females from pursuing education and a better life.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some Africanists argue that students waste precious hours each day learning useless facts in schools, rather than spending time inheriting wisdom from their elders.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There are four universities in the Congo. Two are located in Kinshasa with one each in Lubumbashi and Kisangani. There are also a number of other technical and teacher-training schools throughout the country.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Religious Beliefs**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Most Congolese profess Christianity as their primary religion.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Roman Catholic Church is prominent as a religion and organized group. Over half of the population is Roman Catholic, owing to the large number of missions, schools, hospitals, and foundations run by the church. The Catholics have the most extensive social network of schools, hospitals, and churches in the country.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Traditional beliefs pervade nearly every aspect of life, even for churchgoing Christians. People in the Congo who still primarily adhere to traditional African religions believe in the presence of a supreme being who is best accessed through ancestors rather than by direct prayer.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Traditional beliefs hold that divine spirits inhabit inanimate objects, and that god can be found as a rock, a tree, or any other object. Having respect and reverence for one's ancestors is part of daily life in the Congo, and people hold a continual dialogue with their ancestors. Angry ancestral spirits looming around villages are offered sacrifices and gifts to placate them.

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Many Congolese fear witches, which are believed to bring all sorts of destruction to communities.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Spiritual healers, often called ngangas, use sacred medicines made of a variety of herbs to cure patients. Someone seeking advice or a cure may go to a healer to remedy a headache, skin disease, or AIDS; to ask for good crops or to become pregnant; or to be told the future.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Many Congolese believe that the spirits of people who have died remain with the family in very obvious ways. Ancestors are very much alive and remain active in the life of the family for generations. People communicate with their ancestors, who act as intermediaries between humans and God.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">People often ask their ancestors for rain, health, good crops, or the solution to a difficult problem.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**The Arts**

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Government support for the arts has been limited to those who help the political agendas of the ruling party. Many artists also farm, fish, or engage in underground commercial activity to supplement their income.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A large copper industry in the southern Katanga province has sparked a new artistic form in which portraits are sketched into a copper sheet, which is then covered with clay for unique color and texture. Many famous African heads-of-state have had their likenesses imprinted on copper. This art form is gradually gaining recognition in Europe and around the world.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Congolese writers have focused on issues of identity in relation to their colonial past, the differences and similarities between ethnic groups, and conflicts between old and new ways. Some popular poets, playwrights, and novelists include:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Elebe ma Ekonzo
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Valerin Mutombo-Diba
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Paul Lomami-Tshibamba
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Lisembe Elebe
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Mwilambwe Kibawa.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In large towns and cities, tourists can buy handcrafted art, including wood carvings, paintings, baskets, jewelry, and masks. In addition, clothing and mats are popular wares, which are often made from the ubiquitous raffia palm tree.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Music**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Kwasa-kwasa can be heard in circles throughout Africa.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This extremely popular dance music originated in Kinshasa, considered by many to be the African music capital.

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Congolese music and dance of all types can be heard on radios and seen on televisions throughout the world. Congo jazz and soukous, played on a guitar, are popular varieties for such dances.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Traditional instruments, such as the thumb piano and various drums, are often used to accompany singers and dancers, who may be singing about anything from love and gender roles to issues of power abuse and government. When artists are afraid to discuss such controversial topics openly, they hint about them through the poetry of song.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Mbuti people are renowned for a vocal style in which many voices simultaneously sing different, independent melodies.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Most types of artistic talent are learned from family members or village elders.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Holidays**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The rich Culture of Democratic Republic of Congo are largely reflected through the Holidays in Democratic Republic of Congo. People take preparations to celebrate these important days and to make it successful.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Democratic Republic of Congo Holidays include the national holidays, public holidays, religious holidays and others. Some of the important Holidays of Democratic Republic of Congo, which are celebrated with joy and excitement are:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **January 1:** This day is celebrated all over the country with great joy and excitement. It is the New Year in Democratic Republic of Congo and is celebrated with the rest of the world. People arrange for parties and deck up their houses to make it look beautiful.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **January 4:** This day is observed as the Day of the Martyrs all over the country. As a mark of respect and honor to the martyrs, this day is remains a holiday in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On this day people pay tribute to those brave people suffered for their country.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **May 1:** Labor Day is celebrated in this country with the whole world on this day. The day remains holiday and people arrange for rallies and functions to make this day a special one.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **May 17:** This day is celebrated as the Liberation Day all over the country. People arrange for various functions to commemorate this day.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **June 30:** This is celebrated as the Independence Day in this country. On this auspicious day, national flag is hoisted and various functions are held. The day of independence is remembered through the speeches of the leaders as well as of the common men.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **August 1:** This is observed as the Parents' Day. This day is celebrated as the holiday as people all over the country observe this day with great excitement.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **November 17**: Army Day is celebrated on this day. People arrangefor variousevents to make this day successful.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Sports**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Soccer is called 'Football" in the Congo and it is the nation's most popular sport.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Organized sports are not common in the DR Congo, there is not enough funding for sports equipment and training

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Food**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The food represents the taste of the people of the country. The Democratic Republic of Congo Cuisine varies largely. But the staple food includes the cassava. This delicious cuisine can be enjoyed with other side dishes. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some of the typical Food of Democratic Republic of Congo are the following:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Moambe:** It is made of eight ingredients to make it sumptuous and tantalizing.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Chikwanga:** This dish is made from cassava and stored in banana leaves.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Fufu:** This delicacy is a sticky dough-like dish made of cassava flour. This is considered as a staple dish very much like rice or potatoes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Sombe:** It is prepared with boiled, mashed and cooked cassava leaves.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Ndakala:** This small dried fish preparation is simply mouth watering.

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Cuisine of Democratic Republic of Congo is by large a combination of the fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, grains, fish, milk and meat products. These ingredients are cooked with right spices and in right style to make them taste delectable. Giant oysters, fishes and shrimps are an integral part of the cuisines of the Congo. These ingredients are prepared in a traditional style.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Steaming, grilling and barbequing are the chief methods that are tried for preparation of the cuisines.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There are several Restaurants of Democratic Republic of Congo that cater to the taste of the individuals. Some of the restaurants in the Democratic Republic of Congo include:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Lolo La Crevette
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Dusty Dishes,
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">La Savane


 * Resources:**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">African Music, African Music Albums, African Musicians, African Bands, Reviews, Labels, Discographies, and more, from Afropop Worldwide, the experts on African music. (n.d.). //African Music, African Music Albums, African Musicians, African Bands, Reviews, Labels, Discographies, and more, from Afropop Worldwide, the experts on African music//. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from http://www.afropop.org/explore/sty

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">BBC NEWS | In Depth. (n.d.).//BBC News - Home//. Retrieved December 12, 2010, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">Culture of Democratic Republic of the Congo - traditional, history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social, dress, marriage, men, life, population, religion, rituals, History and ethnic relations. (n.d.). //Countries and Their Cultures//. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo.html

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">Democratic Republic of the Congo Economy, Democratic Republic of the Congo People. (n.d.). //World Map, Map of the World//. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from http://www.mapsofworld.com/country-profile/congo-economy-people-culture-flag.html

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">Holidays in Democratic Republic of Congo,Democratic Republic of Congo Holidays,Holidays of Democratic Republic of Congo. (n.d.). //World Travel, World Tour//. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from http://travel.mapsofworld.com/democratic-republic-of-congo/holidays-in-democratic-republic-of-congo.html