ON THE rooftop of La Crèche, a bar in Kinshasa, Mbalane Seli-Ja sings the rumba. Even in the muggy evening heat, he looks sharp in his shiny shoes and crisp white shirt. His bassist sports a trilby; his backup singer, a tight black dress. The crowd look dapper, too, for in Kinshasa sartorial elegance is almost a religion. The bar, by contrast, looks shabby. Beers are served from a rust-flecked ice box; the dance floor is lit only by a string of fairy lights. On the lower floors, seedy-looking rooms are rented by the hour.
Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities. Some 12m people live there; in Africa only Lagos and Cairo are larger. It is a hard place to live, says Mr Mbalane, who has been here for 27 years. The nightlife may be vibrant, but the streets are filthy. And with Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, up against term limits next year, with no clear successor, no one takes peace for granted.
Congo’s horrific civil war—fought mostly in the east, far from Kinshasa—is winding down. It split the country into warring fiefs and claimed somewhere between 800,000 and 5m...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1NVkG8f
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