Mayombe

4°15′14″S 13°29′44″E / 4.2538°S 13.4955°E / -4.2538; 13.4955

Mayombe (or Mayumbe) is a geographic area on the western coast of Africa occupied by low mountains extending from the mouth of the Congo River in the south to the Kouilou-Niari River to the north. The area includes parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola (Cabinda Province), the Republic of the Congo and Gabon. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mayombe is part of the north-western province of Kongo Central on the right bank of the River Congo, and contains the cities and towns of Lukula, Seke Banza, Kangu and Tshela.

Physical geography

Umbrella tree (*Musanga cecropioides*) in the Mayombe forest

Mayumbe is located in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It lies on the right bank of the Congo River (the world's second largest) just before it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Banana. It extends north from Boma into the Angolan enclave of Cabinda to the west and extends north to the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

Mayumbe is watered by many rivers with swift currents in its hilly and mountainous regions. The three largest are the Shiloango River and two of its main tributaries, the Lukula River and the Lubuzi River.

The main peaks are:

Climate and ecology

Mayumbe is south of the equator in the equatorial zone with oceanic influence and has two main seasons. The long dry season from June to September in the Mayumbe is not as intense as in the rest of the Lower Congo because of the altitude and the influence of the forest. Temperatures range from 17 to 22, but can drop to 8 ° at night. Nights can be quite cool. The long rainy season lasts from October to May, with temperatures of 28-33°. The climate is hot and humid, especially during the rainy season when the humidity is near to 100%. This feeling of constant humidity is further increased by the condensation of the vapors of the trade winds that cool the cliffs of the Coastal Range.

Flora vary from dense forest to savannah dotted with forest trees. The forests of Mayumbe are old. Some of the trees are valuable, especially the Limba. Palm trees are plentiful in the Elais Mayumbe and are found in forests and in the savanna. They form one of the great resources of this region for its inhabitants. The area's forests were estimated in 1950 to cover 500,000 hectares (1,200,000 acres). More recently they have declined to 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres), of which Limba account for over 40%.

People

Among the ethnic groups that inhabit this region the Yombe, a subset of the Kongo people, are the most numerous.

Mayombe is famous in Senegal because it is an important place of exile of the founder of Mouridism, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, during the French colonial administration. He remained there for five years.^{[citation needed]}

Railway

The Mayombe Railway linked Boma to Tshela, with a planned extension to the Republic of Congo.^{[citation needed]} It was dismantled under President Mobutu Sese Seko and the tracks were reused near Gbadolite. The Mayombe in Congo is covered by the Congo-Ocean Railway.

References

External sources

(in French) Léo Bittremieux, La société secrète des Bakhimba au Mayombe, G. van Campenhout, Bruxelles, 1936, 327 p.
(in French) H. de Foresta (et al.), « Un premier site de métallurgie de l'Age du Fer Ancien (2.110 BP) dans le Mayombe congolais et ses implications sur la dynamique des éco-systèmes », in Bulletin de liaison des archéologues du monde Bantu (Libreville), n° 7, 1990, p. 10-12
(in French) M. Fuchs, « Le Mayombe », in Bulletin de la Société Royale Belge de Géographie, 19 (1) 1895, p. 5-23
(in French) François Pellegrin, La flore du Mayombe : d'après les récoltes de M. Georges le Testu (2^e partie), Impr. E. Lanier, Caen, 1928, 83 p.
(in French) Dominique Schwartz (et al.), « Un site de fonte du fer récent (300 bp) et original dans le Mayombe congolais : Ganda-Kimpesse », in Bulletin de liaison des archéologues du monde Bantu (Libreville), 8/9, 1991, p. 33-40
(in French) Jacques Sénéchal, Matuka Kabala et Frédéric Fournier, Revue des connaissances sur le Mayombe : synthèse préparée pour le Projet PNUD/UNESCO, PRC/85/002 et PRC/88/003, UNESCO, 1989, 343 p.
(in Dutch) Léo Bittremieux, Mayombsche volkskunst, De Vlaamsche Boekenhalle, Louvain, 1924, 227 p.

v t e Regions of Africa
Central	Guinea region Gulf of Guinea Cape Lopez Mayombe Igboland Mbaise Pool Malebo Congo Basin Chad Basin Cameroonian Highlands forests East Sudanian savanna Congolian rainforests Ouaddaï highlands Ennedi Plateau
East	African Great Lakes Albertine Rift East African Rift Great Rift Valley Gregory Rift Rift Valley lakes Virunga Mountains Kavirondo Zanj East African montane forests Eastern Arc Mountains Serengeti Horn of Africa Afar Triangle Al-Habash Barbaria Danakil Alps Danakil Desert Ethiopian Highlands Dahlak Archipelago Hanish Islands Gulf of Aden Gulf of Tadjoura Red Sea Indian Ocean islands Comoro Islands Lamu Archipelago Madagascar Central Highlands Northern Highlands Zanzibar Archipelago Swahili coast
North	Eastern Desert Maghreb Ancient Libya Atlas Mountains Barbary Coast Gibraltar Arc Ifriqiya Nile Valley Nile Delta Bashmur Cataracts of the Nile Darfur Lower Egypt Lower Nubia Middle Egypt Nile Delta Nuba Mountains Nubia The Sudans Upper Egypt Tibesti Mountains Western Sahara
South	Rhodesia North South Thembuland Succulent Karoo Nama Karoo Bushveld Maputaland Highveld Fynbos Indian Ocean coastal belt Albany thickets Cape Floristic Region Skeleton Coast Kalahari Desert Okavango Delta Cape Peninsula False Bay
West	Pepper Coast Gold Coast Slave Coast Ivory Coast Cape Palmas Cape Mesurado Guinea region Guinean Forests of West Africa Upper Guinean forests Lower Guinean forests Guinean forest-savanna mosaic Guinea Highlands Gulf of Guinea Dahomey Gap Niger Basin Niger Delta Inner Niger Delta West Sudanian savanna Yorubaland
Macro-regions	Aethiopia Afromontane Arab world Commonwealth realm Equatorial Africa Françafrique Greater Middle East Guineo-Congolian region Islands of Africa List of countries where Arabic is an official language Mediterranean basin MENASA Middle East Middle East and North Africa Miombo woodlands Mittelafrika Negroland Northeast Africa Portuguese-speaking African countries Sahara Sahel Southeast Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Sudanian savanna Tropical Africa Zambezian region

Authority control databases
International	VIAF 2
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