Moundou

Moundou is the second city of Chad, set on the Logone in the southwest where the rainfall is highest and the country greenest, and it grew as the centre of the cotton industry with the works and the labour that came with it. The brewery there produces Gala, the beer that is drunk across the country and is one of the few Chadian brands anyone outside the country has heard of. The Logone runs past the city towards its confluence with the Chari.

History

Moundou was founded on 8 November 1923 by the French administrator Joseph-François Reste, who liked the site as he travelled the Logone by whaleboat, and became the seat of its district in 1927; its administrator Robert Reverdy laid out the town and planted the flowers along its roads that gave it the colonial nickname Moundou-la-Rouge. In 1926 the Cotton Company of the Congo opened a ginning factory here, later Cotonfran from 1928 and CotonTchad from 1972, and the cotton works and the Gala brewery made Moundou the second city of Chad (Wikipedia, Moundou).

The main sights

• The Logone - the river running past the city towards the Chari.
• The cotton industry - the works that built the town.
• The brewery - the Gala works, the country's best-known brand.
• The green south - the wettest and most cultivated part of Chad.

When to go

November to February is the cool dry season. The rains from May are the heaviest in the country. March and April are hot.

Before you go

The city is a working commercial centre with little for visitors. Facilities are basic. The road from N'Djamena takes most of a day.

Nearby

Léré is northwest, and Sarh is east.

Key facts