Qualla: Katanga

Katanga: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Familents, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ask where the Congo's heart of mineral wealth lies, and any Congolese will answer without hesitation: Katanga. This is the southeastern cape of the country, the broad plateau that rolls down toward Zambia and nudges Lake Tanganyika on its eastern flank. It was de facto independent from 1960 to 1966 during the Katanga Crisis, and it has never quite stopped thinking of itself as its own place. Visitors who make it here - not many do - find a landscape of fertile ranchland, ore-rich hills, and a capital city that has a golf course older than most African nations.

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Image: Familents | CC BY-SA 3.0

Katanga: Lubumbashi, the Capital of the South

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alinda Friday, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lubumbashi is the Congo's second city and, for travelers, the practical gateway. Lubumbashi International Airport pulls flights from Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and all major Congolese centers. The city itself is wide and leafy, laid out on a grid inherited from the Belgi...

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Image: Alinda Friday | CC BY-SA 4.0

Katanga: Colonial Bones

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sumkol15, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Lubumbashi Golf Club on Route du Golf was laid out in 1934. The Cercle Wallon, the old Belgian social club at 2 Avenue de la Revolution, still keeps a tennis court going. The Saint Therese Church was built around 1925, the Saint-Albert Church is older still, and the Sacred He...

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Image: Sumkol15 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Katanga: Getting Around (the Honest Version)

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Opoku Akaadom Sympathy, CC0. Roads in Katanga range from bad to non-existent depending on the season. A railway connects Lubumbashi to Likasi, but trains run only once or twice a month and schedules are flexible in the way that 'flexible' has come to mean 'do not plan a trip around this.' Flying is simpler a...

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Image: Opoku Akaadom Sympathy | CC0

Katanga: Eating, Drinking, Sleeping

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Orrling, CC BY-SA 3.0. Lubumbashi has a handful of established restaurants: Le Boucher for grilled meat, Cercle Grec for a Greek-accented menu that reflects the old Mediterranean trading community, India Spice for Indian food, Restaurant OKAPI for Congolese cooking. The Park Hotel - the former Hotel Le...

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Image: Orrling | CC BY-SA 3.0

Katanga: Go Carefully

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oasisk., CC BY 2.5. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the poorest and most troubled countries in the world. Much of eastern Congo is unstable, and even Katanga has seen armed conflict - the Mai Mai Kata Katanga militia briefly took over part of Lubumbashi in 2013. Most visitors here com...

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Image: Oasisk. | CC BY 2.5