Lubumbashi: the copper of southern Congo

Mining heart of the Katanga region, Lubumbashi preserves surprisingly well-preserved Belgian colonial architecture amid the times.

The center is visited comfortably by car or on foot in central neighborhoods.

The National Museum of Lubumbashi displays masks, wooden sculptures, and traditional musical instruments of the Luba and Songye peoples of Katanga.

A short walk away, the tree-lined avenues of the colonial center, with well-preserved Belgian buildings from the 1920s, recount the city's origins as a mining hub.

Continuing toward the outskirts, one observes the open-pit copper mines that have made Katanga among Africa's richest mining regions.

Toward evening, local markets animate the bustling commerce of agricultural products and crafts from the surrounding region.

Lubumbashi, founded in nineteen ten by Belgian colonists as Élisabethville, owes its growth to the vast copper and cobalt deposits in Katanga, among the world's richest for these two strategic minerals.

The Katanga region, which produces a significant portion of world cobalt used in modern batteries for electric vehicles and electronic devices, remains a key economic engine for the entire Democratic Republic of the Congo.