Above: Roundabout in Gisenyi. Copyrght Rupi Mangat
Published: 21 September 2019
Gisenyi in western Rwanda is the other half of an urban landscape that includes Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. So like Goma, Gisenyi is perched on the edge of the gas-filled Lake Kivu that is one of the African great lakes.
Above: CBD Goma. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: 20 July 2019
Congo’s been my dream destination even before Nyiragongo erupted in 2002 and nearly wiped out the little town of Goma in eastern DRC that’s on the shores of Lake Kivu and neighbouring Rwanda. The country is gigantic and the second largest in Africa, the Congo River sways 3,000 kilometres across its girth flowing through the mighty Congo forest which like the Amazon forest is a major lung of our planet. The river empties with such force into the Atlantic that for 200 kilometres into the ocean the water is said to be fresh.
Continue reading “Gone to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo”
Above: Approaching Bukavu from Lake Kivu – Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: 6 July 2019
Spending lazy days in Goma with family and discovering Congolese cuisine like the famous fish sambaza and the plaintain lintula, sipping coffee in smart restaurants like Nyumbani for eastern Congo people speak Swahili unlike Kinshasa where Lingala is the lingua franca and French spoken widely, the gorilla painted on a gate caught my attention. It was a Grauer’s gorilla and endemic to DRC.
I’d never heard about this sub-species of mountain gorilla unlike its more famous cousin in the Virunga mountains. A visit to the office inside revealed that Grauer’s gorilla is found only in Kahuzi-Biega National Park not far from a town called Bukavu that’s 195 kilometers on the southern end of the lake. The researcher at the office was heading that way. He was happy to take us with him. My excitement shot through the clouds. Continue reading “In Search of the Endemic Grauer’s Gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo”
Above: Boy practising acrobatics by Lake Kivu in Gisenyi, Rwanda. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: The East African Nation Media 26 June 2019
Goma and Gisenyi echo Charles Dickens’s novel, A Tale of Two Cities, based on a peaceful London and a Paris dogged by unrest before and after the French Revolution.
Goma and Gisenyi share a horrific history — the Congo wars and the Rwandan Genocide Against Tutsi.
Recently I spent a few days in the two cities separated by an international border, Goma in DR Congo and Gisenyi in Rwanda. Gisenyi is genteel while Goma is a work in progress after being dogged by years of unrest — wars and a volcano eruption. Both cities straddle Lake Kivu in the Albertine Rift. The lake is a source of methane and carbon dioxide gases that have the potential of being hazardous.
LIFESTYLE Continue reading “Goma and Gisenyi: A Tale Of Two Cities”
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