Republic of the Congo - République du Congo (CG)

"Congo-Brazzaville"

1. Language information / Données sur les langues

1.1 Languages spoken / Langues parlées

a) Official / Officielle(s) :

French, as stipulated in the constitution (Aménagement linguistique)

b) National, indigenous / Nationale(s), indigène(s) :

Lingala and Kituba have legal status in the constitution as "national vehicular languages" (Aménagement linguistique; Massoumou 2001)

Ethnologue lists 62 languages for Congo at http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=CG

c) Relevant pages in the Major Languages section of this report / Pages appropriées dans la section de ce rapport sur les Langues principales :

Lingala, Kongo (Kituba)

1.2 Language policy / Politique de langue

a) Laws/legislation / Lois/législation :

The site L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde has a page on Congo at http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/afrique/congo.htm

b) Agencies / Agences :

Three institutions "involved in or responsible for African Language research" in Congo (UNESCO 1985). Updated information is needed:

• Institut national de recherche & d'action pédagogique (INDRAP) B.P. 2128 - BRAZZAVILLE
• Département de linguistique et de littérature orale Université Marien Ngouabi - BRAZZAVILLE
• Institut supérieur des sciences de l'éducation (INSEED) B.P. 69 - BRAZZAVILLE

c) Languages in education/literacy / Langues dans l'éducation/l'alphabétisation :

"La langue française est l’unique langue d’enseignement dans tout le cursus scolaire et universitaire." (Massoumou 2001)

UNDP (2006) gives a literacy figure (without reference to which language[s]) of: 83%

1.3 Writing in national/indigenous languages / Ecriture en langues nationales/indigènes

a) Orthographies / Orthographes :

National languages of Congo are written in Latin script. At least one language, Lingala, uses modified letters (extended characters) - see http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/CONGO-B-table.htm - and diacritics.

b) Print publications / Editions imprimées :

1.4 Other comments / Autre commentaire

---

2. ICT situation / Situation des TIC

2.1 Infrastructure / Infrastructure

a) Telephones / Téléphones :

• Fixed lines:
  • Telephone mainlines: 13 per 1000 (APC)
  • Telephones - main lines in use:
    • 13,800 (2004) (CIA)
    • 21,000 (1995) (Wikipedia)
  • According to Wikipedia (5-2007), "services barely adequate for government use"
• Mobile subscriptions:
  • 330,000 (9.4 per 100 people) (ITU 2004 cited in Vodafone 2005)
  • Telephones - mobile cellular: 490,000 (2005) (CIA)
  • GSM companies & coverage : http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_cg.shtml

b) Radio stations / Stations de radio :

Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 3 (2001) (CIA)

c) Connectivity / Connectivité :

• International internet bandwidth / Bande passante internationale d'internet :
  • incoming 256 kbps (WikiEducator)
  • outgoing 128 kbps (WikiEducator)
• ISPs / FSI :
  • According to WikiEducator, there are 5 ISPs which are:
    • SOTELCO (Société des Télécommunications du Congo, historic operator) on the network CONGONET with a debit of 128 kbts
    • Afripa Telecom. net (512 kb) (http://www.afripatelecom.net/)
    • Celtel Plus with a debit of 1Mb (affiliate of CELTEL Congo)
    • Gam 7
    • Raga (http://www.raga.net/), which operates through VSAT from Kinshasa
• Internet hosts :
  • According to CIA, 46 (2004)
  • According to ISC, 0 on the .cg domain (2007)
• Geographic coverage / Couverture géographique : According to WikiEducator, 2 cities have POPs

2.2 Computer & internet access / Accès aux ordinateurs et à l'internet

a) Computers & points of access / Ordinateurs et lieux d'accès :

• Number of computers / Nombre d'ordinateurs:
  • 3.9 per 1000 people (APC)
  • estimated number of PCs was about 17,000 (WikiEducator)
• Cybercafés / Cybercafés:

According to WikiEducator, "Cybercafés have had rapid success, with low connection fees (between 0.75 and 2.30 Euros per hour)"

• Project telecentres / Télécentres de projets:

b) Internet / Internet :

• Dial-up subscribers / Abonnés par ligne téléphonique : 200 (WikiEducator)
• Internet users / Utilisateurs de l'internet : 36,000 Internet users as of Sept/05, 1.0% of the population, per ITU (Internet World Stats)

c) Other / Autre :

• Digital Opportunity Index (DOI): 0.15 (ITU 2006)

2.3 ICT policy / Politique de TIC

According to UNECA/AISI (2006?), "The National ICT Strategy of the Republic of Congo, "Stratégie Nationale pour le Développement des Technologies de l'information et de la Communication (TIC) en République du Congo," was finalized in December 2004." (no link available)

According to WikiEducator: "The Republic of Congo has recently developed an official ICT policy coordinated by the Committee for the Promotion of Information Technologies in Congo (COPTIC). One strategy for implementing the policy is to set up a national plan for information and communication infrastructure." [NB- that plan would be the NICI]

More information on Congo's NICI (National Information and Communications Infrastructure) policy is available at:

• NICI country page http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/congo/congo.htm
• NICI policy http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/country_profiles/Congo/congopol.htm
• NICI country profile/background (not recently updated; has links to other NICI pages) http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/country_profiles/Congo/congoab.htm

The APC page, "ICT Policy in Congo" has some information and links:

• In English: http://rights.apc.org/africa/index.shtml?apc=s21852e_1
• En français: http://afrique.droits.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=s21852e_1

2.4 ICT4D/E & ICT training / TIC pour le développement/éducation, et formation en TIC

WikiEducator has a page on ICTs and education, including table on enabling and constraining factors, at http://www.wikieducator.org/ICT4Africa/Country_Report_Republic_of_Congo

2.5 Resources / Ressources

Institutions:

• Institut Africain d'Informatique (IAI), Cameroon (also serves Congo)
• Congolese Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC)

Internet:

• "Informatique et langues des deux Congo" (list) http://groups.google.com/group/info-langues-congo
• "Info-langues-Congo" (wiki) http://info-langues-congo.1sd.org/Info-langues-Congo

---

3. Localisation situation / Situation de localisation

3.1 Country web content / Contenu web du pays

3.2 Web content in indigenous languages / Contenu web en langues indigènes

(See also specific language pages.)

3.3 Software localisation / Localisation de logiciel

(See also specific language pages.)

3.4 Projects & organisations / Projets et organisations

Congolese Languages Team https://launchpad.net/~congo.lang

3.5 Localisation policy / Politique de localisation

---

4. References / Références

APC, "ICT Policy in Congo," Africa ICT Policy Monitor, http://rights.apc.org/africa/index.shtml?apc=s21852e_1 ("Politiques de TIC en/au Congo," Observatoire des politiques des TIC en Afrique, http://afrique.droits.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=s21852e_1 )

International Telecommunications Union (ITU). 2006. World Information Society Report 2006. Geneva: ITU. http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2006/wisr-web.pdf

______. 2004. African Telecommunication Indicators 2004. Geneva: ITU.

Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), "Distribution of Top-Level Domain Names by Host Country, Jan 2007" http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/ops/ds/

Internet World Stats: Africa. 2006. http://internetworldstats.com/africa.htm

Leclerc, Jacques. L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, "Congo-Brazzaville (République du Congo)," http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/afrique/congo.htm

Leitch, Myles. 2005. "Aspects of Multilingualism in the Lingala Zone of Congo." (SIL Electronic Survey Reports) http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2005-010

Massoumou, Omer. 2001. "Des usages linguistiques actuels en République du Congo." Cahiers du Rifal, 22: 73-78. http://www.cfwb.be/franca/termin/charger/rifal22.pdf

SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Languages of Congo," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=CG

UNDP. 2006. ''Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis. Human Development Report 2006.'' New York: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). [Human development index Adult literacy rate (% ages 15 and older) (HDI) http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indicators/3.html ]

UNECA/AISI (2006?) "NICI Country Pages: Republic of Congo" http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/congo/congo.htm

UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa. 1985. African Community Languages and Their Use in Literacy and Education: A Regional Survey. Dakar: UNESCO.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), "The World Factbook: Congo, Republic of the," https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cf.html

Vodafone. 2005. "Africa: The Impact of Mobile Phones." The Vodafone Policy Paper Series, Number 3, March 2005. http://www.vodafone.com/assets/files/en/GPP%20SIM%20paper.pdf

WikiEducator, "ICT4Africa/Country Report Republic of Congo," http://www.wikieducator.org/ICT4Africa/Country_Report_Republic_of_Congo

Wikipedia, "Communications in the Republic of the Congo," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_the_Republic_of_the_Congo

______, "Republic of the Congo," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo

______, "République du Congo," http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/République_du_Congo

---

< Comoros | Countries | Congo, Dem. Rep. >