Fondation Carmignac
  • 11th Carmignac Photojournalism Award

Congo in Conversation

  • Project
  • Congo (DRC)
  • Finbarr O’Reilly
  • Contributors
    • Arlette Bashizi
    • Bernadette Vivuya
    • Charly Kasereka
    • Dieudonne Dirole
    • Guerchom Ndebo
    • Guylain Balume
    • Justin Makangara
    • Ley Uwera
    • Moses Sawasawa
    • Pamela Tulizo
    • Raissa Karama Rwizibuka
  • Themes
    • Access to clean water
    • Economy
    • Electricity and Hydroelectric Plants
    • Environment
    • Gender-Based Violence and Rape
    • Health
    • Mineral Extraction
    • Obstacles to Progress
    • Politics and Insecurity
  • Carmignac Award
  • Fr
Congo in Conversation
  • Project
  • Congo (DRC)
  • Finbarr O’Reilly
  • Contributors
    • Arlette Bashizi
    • Bernadette Vivuya
    • Charly Kasereka
    • Dieudonne Dirole
    • Guerchom Ndebo
    • Guylain Balume
    • Justin Makangara
    • Ley Uwera
    • Moses Sawasawa
    • Pamela Tulizo
    • Raissa Karama Rwizibuka
  • Themes
    • Access to clean water
    • Economy
    • Electricity and Hydroelectric Plants
    • Environment
    • Gender-Based Violence and Rape
    • Health
    • Mineral Extraction
    • Obstacles to Progress
    • Politics and Insecurity
  • Carmignac Award
  • Fr
Congo in Conversation
Mont Ngafula, Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. In addition to making it more difficult to contain the coronavirus, the lack of electricity is blamed for insecurity in certain areas, such as along Lutendele road in the Mont Ngafula neighbourhood of Kinshasa, where a knife-wielding gang called "Kuluna" has been carrying out attacks. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

Electricity versus Coronavirus

byJustin Makangara
May 16, 2020
in Electricity and Hydroelectric Plants
Reading Time: 5 mins read

Mont Ngafula, Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. In addition to making it more difficult to contain the coronavirus, the lack of electricity is blamed for insecurity in certain areas, such as along Lutendele road in the Mont Ngafula neighbourhood of Kinshasa, where a knife-wielding gang called “Kuluna” has been carrying out attacks. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Grand Inga dam has the potential to be the largest hydropower project in the world, capable of generating twice as much electricity as China’s the Three Gorges dam. If ever completed, the project – first conceived in the 1950s – could provide 40 percent of Africa’s electricity needs. 

Instead, decades of political instability and misrule, as well as the insufficient investment, mean that progress has been so slow that Congo has one of the lowest electrification rates in the world at just over 9%, with 1% in rural areas and 19% in urban areas.

As coronavirus spreads, especially to low-income countries such as Congo, access to electricity will be key to fighting the pandemic as it puts pressure on every country’s economy and society, according to the World Bank. For developing countries that were already facing major challenges before COVID-19, this pressure will be particularly painful. If hospitals and local communities don’t have access to power, this could magnify the human catastrophe and significantly slow the global recovery, the World Economic Forum has warned.

Mbudi, Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. After paying to charge his phone at a communal charging station powered by a generator, a youth named David reads from his screen in the darkness in Mbudi, Kinshasa. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac
Mbudi, Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. After paying to charge his phone at a communal charging station powered by a generator, a youth named David reads from his screen in the darkness in Mbudi, Kinshasa. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

Congo’s government pledged to supply water and electricity free of charge to its citizens for two months when the country went into lockdown in March. But such promises offer little in Congo, a country of more than 80 million people, where the state utility, Société nationale d’électricité (SNEL), has just 500,000 registered connections. Many of those connected to the grid still find themselves without power. Despite its vast potential, Congo’s energy infrastructure is crumbling and there are grid outages of more than 75% of the time.

Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. Across Kinshasa, public kiosks selling phone credit also have banks of generator-powered extension cables filled with power outlets where people can pay the local equivalent of $1-$2 to charge their phones and computers.© Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac
Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. Across Kinshasa, public kiosks selling phone credit also have banks of generator-powered extension cables filled with power outlets where people can pay the local equivalent of $1-$2 to charge their phones and computers. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

Over the past weeks in Kinshasa, we have been without electricity for days at a time. People are relying on generators and on charcoal for cooking, which when used in confined environments can cause respiratory problems that worsen health risks related to coronavirus. The generators require expensive fuel, are noisy, and also produce noxious exhaust fumes.

Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. Across Kinshasa, public kiosks selling phone credit also have banks of generator-powered extension cables filled with power outlets where people can pay the local equivalent of $1-$2 to charge their phones and computers.© Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac
Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. Across Kinshasa, public kiosks selling phone credit also have banks of generator-powered extension cables filled with power outlets where people can pay the local equivalent of $1-$2 to charge their phones and computers.© Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

The lack of electricity is making life extremely difficult when we are being told to stay at home. Our children cannot follow the learning programs broadcast on television, we are using coal-heated irons to press our clothes, and we cannot refrigerate food so we must go out of confinement to crowded markets to buy fresh food or to charge our phones and computers at communal charging stations. This also costs money and can damage the batteries. It took me five days to get enough charge on my computer and a good enough Internet connection to send the pictures for this story. I know a lot of people around the world are struggling right now, and are having a hard time staying home in the midst of the uncertainty.

  • Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. A woman named Laeticia uses a coal-heated iron to press clothing due to a lack of electricity in Kinshasa this month. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac
  • Terminus, Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020. Youths who have no electricity at home last month stay out late playing video games at a local kiosk powered by generator in the Terminus neighbourhood of Kinshasa. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac
Kinshasa, DRC, May 2020 [1] A woman named Laeticia uses a coal-heated iron to press clothing due to a lack of electricity in Kinshasa this month. [2] Youths who have no electricity at home last month stay out late playing video games at a local kiosk powered by generator in the Terminus neighbourhood of Kinshasa. © Justin Makangara for Fondation Carmignac

But imagine how much worse it would be without electricity. That’s how it is for nearly a billion people worldwide. And with the World Health Organization warning that Africa still faces a growing threat from the pandemic as countries across the continent begin to ease lockdowns, many of us worry that the worst is yet to come.

Tags: Coronavirus
Share2TweetShareSendSend
Justin Makangara

Justin Makangara

Justin Makangara is an independent photojournalist and blogger based in Kinshasa. His work focuses on underreported stories surrounding social justice, politics, music, and daily life. He is a member of APJD African Photojournalist Database, VII academy scholarship holder.

Related Posts

Goma, DRC, February 2021. A student has her temperature checked at the entrance to Mwanga Institute in the eastern Congolese city of Goma as schools reopened in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday after a two-month hiatus due to a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. © Moses Sawasawa for Fondation Carmignac
Health

Students Return to School as Pandemic Second Wave Eases

Schools and universities reopened this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a two-month hiatus due to the second...

byMoses Sawasawa
February 26, 2021
Bukavu, DRC, May 2020. Women do each other's hair in the eastern Congolese city of Bukavu during Coronavirus confinement. © Raissa Rwizibuka Karama for Fondation Carmignac
Economy

Congo Embraces Traditional Hairstyles Amid the Pandemic

In normal times, Alice Kasanani’s salon styles the hair of around ten women daily in the eastern Congolese city of...

byRaissa Karama Rwizibukaand1 others
December 21, 2020

The Weekly update

Get the weekly newsletter direct to your inbox, sign in new.
Subscribe

Follow #CongoInConversation

  • 📣 TALK - TODAY, April 15 at 10:00 AM EDT / 04:00 PM French time
 
Join us over on #VIIInsider with @finbarroreilly and @bernadettevivuya ⁠! They will join @ZiyahGafic to discuss their collaboration and the project
  • “It’s been 26 years since we came to venerate our Pope, and this is the only way to mourn, always chic, well groomed, well dressed, and well scented.” said Gael Basaula, who was born in Brazzaville and who was wearing a colored sequin jacket and dyed yellow hair.
 
Each year, on February 10, Sapeurs in Kinshasa return to their origins. On the official Day of the Sape, they gather in all their finery at a cemetery in city’s Gombe neighborhood to pay tribute at the grave of Stervos Niarcos, often considered the official founder of modern sapeurism. Also known as “the Pope,” Niarcos died in Paris in 1995.
 
📷  Kinshasa, DRC, February 2021 © @makangarajustin for @fondationcarmignac
 
🔗 Read full article “Congo’s Sapeurs Revisit Their Roots” online. Link in bio.
 
🇫🇷
 
« Il y a 26 ans que nous venons ici vénérer notre Pape, et c’est le seul moyen d’exprimer notre deuil, toujours chics, soignés, bien habillés et parfumés. » témoigne Gael Basaula, natif de Brazzaville arborant une veste pailletée multicolore et des cheveux teints en jaune.
 
Chaque année, le 10 février, les Sapeurs de Kinshasa retournent à leurs racines. Pour la date officielle du Jour de la Sape, ils se rassemblent vêtus de leurs plus beaux atours dans un cimetière du quartier de Gombe et y saluent la mémoire de Stervos Niarcos, souvent considéré comme le fondateur officiel de la Sape moderne. Baptisé le « Pape », Niarcos est mort à Paris en 1995.
 
📷 Kinshasa, RDC, 10 février 2021 © @makangarajustin pour la @fondationcarmignac
 
🔗 Découvrez l’article « Les Sapeurs du Congo revisitent leurs origines » dans son intégralité sur notre blog. Lien en bio.
 
#PrixCarmignacCongo
 
#SAPE #Fashion #Congolese #Congo #DRC #RDC #Kinshasa #CongoBrazzaville #Sapeurs #Photography #Photojournalism #Portrait #Photojournalisme #Reportage #Journalism #Sapeurism
  • FORESTS
 
In the continuity of the International Day of #Forests, we invite you this week to explore in images the vision of Tommaso Protti, 10th Carmignac Award laureate, on the Brazilian Amazon.
 
📷 Araribóia, Maranhão. Paulo Paulino Guajajara,
25 years old, a.k.a Lobo Mau (“bad wolf”), was a member of the Guajajara forest guard on patrol at the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão State. He was murdered on November 1, 2019, by illegal loggers. @tomprotti for @fondationcarmignac.
 
🇫🇷
 
Dans la continuité de la journée internationale des forêts, nous vous proposons cette semaine d
  • FORESTS

In the continuity of the International Day of #Forests, we invite you this week to explore in images the vision of Tommaso Protti, 10th Carmignac Award laureate, on the Brazilian Amazon.
 
🇫🇷

Dans la continuité de la journée internationale des forêts, nous vous proposons cette semaine d
  • FORESTS
 
In the continuity of the International Day of #Forests, we invite you this week to explore in images the vision of Tommaso Protti, 10th Carmignac Award laureate, on the Brazilian Amazon.
 
📷 Jamari National Forest, Rondônia, May 19, 2019. A military police officer stands in what was previously an illegal mining site in the Jamari National Forest. This protected forest area is constantly targeted by illegal miners and loggers and requires round-the-clock supervision. The police officers provide armed assistance to park rangers who refused to be photographed. Once the loggers have removed the wood from the forest, it is taken to nearby irregular sawmills. Using falsified documents, the wood is sent to Brazil’s industrialized South or abroad to Europe, China or the United States. In recent years, invasions and illegal logging of protected forest areas have increased. Almost 10% of Brazil’s national territory is made up of protected forest.
 
🇫🇷 
 
Dans la continuité de la journée internationale des forêts, nous vous proposons cette semaine d
  • Traditional Mai Mai militiamen ride on a motorcycle in the village of Mabuku in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, an area infested with armed groups. Some Mai Mai groups have attacked Ebola treatment centres and have threatened to kill Ebola responders. The effort to stamp out this Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, the second largest in recorded history, took nearly two years, as front-line health workers struggled against rising hostility and distrust.
 
Mabuku, DRC, 2019. @finbarroreilly
 
🇫🇷
 
Patrouille motorisée de miliciens Maï-Maï dans cette région infestée de groupes armés. Certains groupes Maï-Maï ont attaqué des centres de traitement Ebola et menacé de tuer leurs personnels. La lutte contre l’épidémie d’Ebola, la deuxième la plus importante de l’histoire, a mobilisé pendant plus de deux ans des personnels de santé confrontés à une vague d’hostilité et de défiance.
 
Mabuku, RDC, 2019. @finbarroreilly
 
#PrixCarmignacCongo
 
#RDC #DRCongo #DRC #Photojournalisme #Photographie #Photojournalism #EasternCongo #Photoreport
  • Contact
  • Privacy policy
  • Covid-19 guides for visual journalists
  • FrFr
  • Project
  • Congo (DRC)
  • Finbarr O’Reilly
  • Contributors
    • Arlette Bashizi
    • Bernadette Vivuya
    • Charly Kasereka
    • Dieudonne Dirole
    • Guerchom Ndebo
    • Guylain Balume
    • Justin Makangara
    • Ley Uwera
    • Moses Sawasawa
    • Pamela Tulizo
    • Raissa Karama Rwizibuka
  • Themes
    • Access to clean water
    • Economy
    • Electricity and Hydroelectric Plants
    • Environment
    • Gender-Based Violence and Rape
    • Health
    • Mineral Extraction
    • Obstacles to Progress
    • Politics and Insecurity
  • Carmignac Award
  • Fr

© 2020 Powered by Fondation Carmignac