If projections are met, Kinshasa will become the largest city on the African continent by 2025, overtaking both Cairo and Lagos. The city is home to poor infrastructure, uncontrollable sprawl, overwhelming traffic, pollution, housing shortages, and extreme poverty. Within this context, La Cité du Fleuve proposes an incongruous landscape of glimmering skyscrapers and safe gated communities for local elites and Kinshasa’s growing population of expatriates. Modelled on Singapore and Dubai, its developers claim that “the concept behind Cité du Fleuve is to create a community that is autonomous from the rest of Kinshasa, a fragment of luxury on the Congo River, a counter to the country’s image of poverty and sickness.” The project aims to attract at least 250,000 residents and is located on two newly built islands in the Congo River. The main island will have commercial, retail, and residential properties, while the north island will include private homes and villas. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the image of the original master plan and associated renderings bears very little resemblance to the reality of what is currently under construction.
