Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi was founded in 1910 as Élisabethville to serve the copper mines, and it is laid out accordingly: a wide grid, avenues planted with jacaranda and flamboyant, and the slag heap of the old smelter standing over the whole city like a black hill. It is the second city of the country and the centre of the copper and cobalt industry. The national museum here holds one of the better ethnographic collections in the region, and the city has a working art and music scene.

History

The city was founded in 1910 as Élisabethville, named after Queen Elisabeth, consort of King Albert I of the Belgians, on a site chosen by Vice-Governor-General Emile Wangermée for its nearness to the Etoile du Congo copper mine and the smelter of Union Minière du Haut Katanga on the Lubumbashi River. The Comité Spécial du Katanga, a semi-private concession company founded in 1900, had its headquarters here throughout the colonial era. Heavy investment in mining and railways in the 1920s made Katanga one of the world's major copper producers, and the city grew from about 30,000 people in 1930 to 50,000 in 1943 and 180,000 in 1957, the second city of the Belgian Congo after Léopoldville; it attracted British, Italian and Greek communities as well as workers from across the region (Wikipedia, Lubumbashi).

What you'll find

• The grid and avenues - a colonial street plan with jacaranda and flamboyant along it.
• The slag heap - the black hill of smelter waste that dominates the skyline.
• The national museum - Katangan and wider Congolese ethnographic collections.
• The colonial buildings - the cathedral, the old post office and the station on the main axes.

When to go

May to September is the dry season and the most comfortable, with cool nights in June and July. The jacarandas flower around September and October. The wet season from November brings heavy afternoon storms.

Things to know

There is limited conventional sightseeing and the city is a working industrial centre. Mining areas around it are not open and photography near industrial sites is unwise. Facilities are better than elsewhere in the country but power and water supply are still unreliable.

Nearby

Kiubo falls and Kundelungu are north, and the Zambian border is south of the city.

Key facts