Transport I: The Taxi-bus

Transportation in Kinshasa is usually an adventure. There is no system of public transport, and most people rely on makeshift “taxi-buses” which are a bit difficult to describe if you have never seen one. They are typically cargo vans converted with wooden benches for seats. Getting a seat often involves jumping on a moving vehicle. There are people standing on the bumpers, hanging out of the doors, and occasionally laying on the roofs of vehicles (including on top of payloads on trailers being hauled by 18-wheelers). People pile in or on, and you need to fight to get a seat at most of the traffic circles that function as depots. It is so difficult to get a seat that there are young men who fight through the crowd for you to claim a seat which they “hold” for you for 50fc (between $0.10 and $0.15). The trip between the campus, which is pretty isolated, and downtown (40 km) can easily take more than two hours by taxi-bus. On Wednesday, it was slightly quicker because we were able to take a direct route from Rond-point Ngaba, one of the city’s most notoriously chaotic depots, to downtown. We made it on two buses and the cost was 450fc ($1) total. The first leg of the trip was pretty straightforward--directly from the campus to Ngaba for 50fc. There we waited to get a place on a direct bus. The fare is typically 300fc for this leg, but we paid 400fc each, a 100fc premium to sit in the front seat as a way to avoid fighting for a seat.

I have relied on friends and colleagues for getting around, by vehicle or navigating the taxi-bus system. (I can walk from my residence to the campus in thirty minutes.) In the evenings, however, it is more difficult to get around and, on several occasions, people have been hesitant to invite me out at night. Many of the people I know here are protective of me, and, to a reasonable extent, I want to respect that. The experience of walking to the river with my camera in my pocket gave me a good lesson in humility as to what I can and can’t do. Keeping all of this mind, I decided to purchase a car so that I will be better equipped to move around and see Kinshasa.

(To Be Continued. Part II: Buying a Car in Kinshasa)