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Katanga Province

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Katanga Province
Province du Katanga
Province
Flag of Katanga Province
Flag
Location of Katanga Province
Country Democratic Republic of the Congo
CapitalLubumbashi
Largest cityLubumbashi
Government
 • GovernorMoïse Katumbi Chapwe
Area
 • Total
496,871 km2 (191,843 sq mi)
Population
 (2010 est.)
 • Total
5,608,683
 • Density11/km2 (29/sq mi)
DemonymKatangese
Official languageFrench
National languages spokenSwahili
Websitekatanga.cd
Malachite specimen, showing the original botryoidal form & a polished face of the opposite half of the specimen Mines in the vicinity of Kolwezi supply much of the polishing-grade malachite in the world.
Another spectacular Malachite specimen from Katanga, on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Katanga is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997 (during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko when Congo was known as Zaïre), its official name was Shaba Province.

Katanga's area is 497,000 km2. Farming and ranching are carried out on the Katanga Plateau. The eastern part of the province is a rich mining region, which supplies cobalt, copper, tin, radium, uranium, and diamonds. The region's capital, Lubumbashi, is the second largest city in the Congo.

Moïse Katumbi Chapwe, a businessman, is the governor of Katanga province. He took office on 24 February 2007.[1]

History

Copper mining in Katanga dates back over 1,000 years and mines in the region were producing standard sized ingots of copper for international transport by the end of the 1st Millennium AD.[2] In the 1890s the province was beleaguered by Cecil Rhodes from the South (Rhodes has colonized Northern Rhodesia) and the Belgian Congo which was owned by King Leopold II. Msiri, the King of Katanga, held out against both but eventually Katanga was subsumed by the Belgian Congo.[3]

In 1960, after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called Republic of the Congo) had received independence from Belgium, Katanga attempted to secede from the country. This was supported by Belgium but opposed by the Congolese Prime Minister Lumumba. It led to the Katanga Crisis (or "Congo Crisis") which lasted from 1960 to 1965. The breakaway State of Katanga existed from 1960 to 1963.

Militias such as Mai Mai Kata Katanga led by Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga have been fighting for Katanga to secede and his group briefly took over the provincial capital Lubumbashi in 2013.[4]

Economy

Copper mining is an important part of the economy of Katanga province.[5] Cobalt mining by individual contractors is also prevalent. There are a number of reasons cited for the discrepancy between the vast mineral wealth of the province and the failure of the wealth to increase the overall standard of living. The local provincial budget was $440 million in 2011.[6][7]

Mining

Lubumbashi, the mining capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a hub for many of the country's biggest mining companies. The Democratic Republic of Congo produces "more than 3 percent of the world’s copper and half its cobalt, most of which comes from Katanga".[8]

Major mining concessions include Tilwezembe, Kalukundi.

Mining companies

  • Gécamines, La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, is the state-owned copper-cobalt mining company which had monopoly concessions in the province.
  • Katanga Mining Ltd TSX:KAT operates a major mining complex in Katanga province, producing refined copper and cobalt with the "potential of becoming Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s largest cobalt producer".[9] Katanga Mining Ltd is majority-owned by Swiss commodity trader Glencore DCC[10] A joint venture of Katanga Mining (75%) and Gécamines (25%) began mining Tilwezembe, an open-pit copper and cobalt mine, in 2007.[11]

Geography

The province forms the Congolese border with Angola and Zambia. The province also borders Tanzania - although Katanga province and Tanzania do not share a land border - but the border is within Lake Tanganyika. Katanga has a wet and dry season. Rainfall is about 49 inches per year (120 cm).[12]

Hills of Katanga

Education and medical care

The University of Lubumbashi, located in the northern part of Lubumbashi city, is the largest university in the province and one of the largest in the country. A number of other university-level institutions exist in Lubumbashi, some public, some private: Institut Supérieur de Statistique, Institut Supérieur Pédagogique, Institut Supérieur des Études Sociales, Institut Supérieur de Commerce, Institut Supérieur des Techniques Médicales (all state-run), Université Protestante de Lubumbashi (Korean Presbyterian), Institut Supérieur Maria Malkia (Catholic), Institut Supérieur de Développement Mgr Mulolwa (Catholique), Theologicum St François de Sales (Salesian seminary), Institut Supérieur de Théologie Évangélique de Lubumbashi (Pentecostal/Anglican/Brethren), etc. Université Méthodiste au Katanga, the oldest private university-level institution in the province, is located at Mulungwishi (between Likasi and Kolwezi) but organizes its Masters in Leadership courses in Lubumbashi. The University of Kamina, the University of Kolwezi and the University of Likasi are former branches of the University of Lubumbashi, which continues to have branches in some locations such as Kalemie.

TESOL, the English Language School of Lubumbashi, is a secondary school that serves the expatriate community. It was founded in 1987 on the grounds of the French School, Lycée Français Blaise Pascal, which suspended operations in 1991 with a new French School starting in 2009.[13]

There are French, Belgian and Greek schools in Lubumbashi sponsored by the respective embassies.

The Jason Sendwe Hospital is the largest hospital in the province, located in Lubumbashi. The Afia (Don Bosco) and Vie & Santé hospitals are among the best-equipped and staffed. The University of Lubumbashi maintains a small teaching hospital in the center of Lubumbashi.

Katanga province has the highest rate of infant mortality in the world, with 184 of 1000 babies born expected to die before the age of five.[14]

Provincial assembly building of Katanga in Lubumbashi

Transportation

The Congo Railway provides Katanga Province with limited railway service centered around Lubumbashi. Reliability is limited. Lubumbashi International Airport is located northeast of Lubumbashi. In April 2014, a train derailment killed 63 people.[15]

Media

Katanga province is served by television broadcasts. Radio-Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC) has a transmitter in Lubumbashi that re-transmits the signal from Kinshasa. In 2005, new television broadcasts by Radio Mwangaza began in Lubumbashi.

Notable Katangese

See also

References

  1. ^ Ben Cahoon. "Provinces of Congo (Kinshasa)".
  2. ^ The History of Central and Eastern Africa, Amy McKenna, 2011, pg. 9
  3. ^ Crawford, Daniel. Thinking Black: 22 Years without A Break in The Long Grass of Central Africa, New York, George H. Doran, 1912
  4. ^ "Katanga: Fighting for DR Congo's cash cow to secede". bbcnews.com. 11 August 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  5. ^ "COPPER". congo-pages.org. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Katanga: le budget 2011 s'élève à 396 milliards de Francs congolais". Radio Okapi. 21 September 2010.
  7. ^ The State vs. the People: Governance, mining and the transitional regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo (PDF) (Report). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa. 2006. ISBN 90-78028-04-1.
  8. ^ Michael J. Kavanagh (23 March 2013). "Congolese Militia Seizes UN Compound in Katanga's Lubumbashi". Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  9. ^ "History: dead link". Katanga Mining. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
  10. ^ Katanga Mining (Report).
  11. ^ "An Independent Technical Report on the Material Assets of Katanga Mining Limited..." (PDF). SRK Consulting. 17 March 2009. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  12. ^ Katanga, or Shaba (province, Democratic Republic of the Congo) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  13. ^ English-speaking School of Lubumbashi (TESOL), page from 2007, Internet Archive, Accessed 3 March 2013.
  14. ^ "DR Congo eyes a greater share of its mineral riches". BBC News Online. 22 April 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  15. ^ "Scores killed in DR Congo train crash". Al-Jazeera. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
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