DR Congo’s riverboat economy – how a floating transport system tells the country’s story

Road transportation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has received much scholarly attention.

Some studies have examined the urban landscape (p.142).

Others have studied transportation in the context of armed conflict in the east of the country, where roadblocks are a pronounced feature.

The Congo Basin’s inland waterways, of which 25,000km are classified as navigable , have been studied with regard to the taxation regime of larger pushboat-barge convoys .

The less far-reaching scale of small- and medium-scale river transportation, however, so far has been less studied.

This is despite the overwhelming reliance of cities such as Kinshasa, Mbandaka and Kisangani on these smaller craft.

A significant part of the traffic on these waterways is handled today by wooden cargo ships called baleinières (literally “whaleboats” in English).

Measuring between 20 and 40 metres in length, these locally developed, handcrafted vessels connect the ever-growing cities with crop-producing communities in the rainforest hinterlands along distant fertile riverbanks.

Baleinières have been the focus of my ongoing research, centred mainly on the city of Kisangani in DR Congo’s Tshopo province.

I have been interested in the emergence , transformation, materials and socio-technical realities of these handmade watercraft, their propulsion system and their crews.

I have also paid attention to the systemic character of their artisanal infrastructure and its reliance on traditional environmental knowledge.

Wooden baleinières date back to the early 1960s.

But since the 1990s they have been crucial to the reinvention of a transport system across the Congo Basin.

These wooden ships ensure the food security of central Africa’s riverine cities, including the continent’s third-largest city, Kinshasa.