2421 CONGO-KINSHASA - The Pende people

The Pende or Phende (ethnonym: Bapende or Baphende; singular Mupende or Muphende) are an ethnic group found in the south-western Democratic Republic of the Congo also in the Kasai Occidental province around the diamond mines of Tshikapa. The Pende language is one of the Bantu languages. The approximate 250,000 Pende are mainly farmers who produce millet, maize, plantain, and peanuts. They are governed by family chiefs (djigo) who are sometimes assisted by various nobles.

1578 CONGO-KINSHASA - An oil painting postcard depicting huts

It seems that the handmade postcards are very common in Congo, be it of Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) or Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). I say this because I received previously two such postcards, a sandpainting one, and an oilpainting one, both from Congo-Brazzaville.

1500 CONGO-KINSHASA - Virunga National Park (UNESCO WHS)

Located in the centre of the Albertine Rift, of the Great Rift Valley, the Virunga National Park (formerly named Albert National Park) stretches from the Virunga Mountains in the South, to the Rwenzori Mountains in the North, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, bordering Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Rwenzori Mountains National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. It comprises an outstanding diversity of habitats, ranging from swamps and steppes to the snowfields of Rwenzori at an altitude of over 5,000 m, and from lava plains to the savannahs on the slopes of volcanoes. The wide diversity of habitats produces exceptional biodiversity, notably endemic species and rare and globally threatened species. Mountain gorillas are found in the park, some 20,000 hippopotamuses live in the rivers and birds from Siberia spend the winter there.