Congo: A River Journey
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2018
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A journey in sound along the mighty Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This adventure transports you to the heart of the country on the eve of long-delayed elections. You’ll encounter busy ports, vibrant markets and rare gorillas. You’ll learn why this mineral-rich country the size of western Europe is so poor. You’ll ride on the river to the soundtrack of its music, meet its wrestlers, its acrobatic fishermen and explore how history has shaped what the Congo is today.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In this episode of the documentary we're going on a journey along the Congo River |
| 0:06.2 | and as an extra bonus there is also a special immersive binoral stereo version available |
| 0:12.2 | you can find it on our BBC World Service website |
| 0:15.8 | go to BBCworldservice.com slash documentaries. At our feet is the Atlantic Ocean. |
| 0:27.0 | At the end of this sliver of beach, this narrow peninsula known as Banana Point, the mighty Congo River ends its 4.5,000 |
| 0:37.9 | kilometer journey from the heart of Africa. A hazy red sun is setting behind distant clouds on the horizon and there's a lot of excitement |
| 0:48.8 | from the kids on the dunes. They're shouting at the fishermen who launch a little boat as they've done here for generations. |
| 1:00.0 | This... This short stretch of coastline is the Democratic Republic of the Congo's only access to the ocean. |
| 1:11.0 | And it's where we're starting our epic adventure up one of the world's |
| 1:15.6 | great rivers. |
| 1:19.6 | This is the documentary on the BBC World Service with me, Alistalithhead. |
| 1:28.0 | I'm taking you on a journey in Sound, up the Congo River. |
| 1:31.0 | As the country votes and much delayed elections, we set off to discover |
| 1:35.2 | its extraordinary diversity and history. We've come to Banana Point and have stumbled across the man who's the head of the mangrove |
| 1:54.8 | Conservancy here and he's offered to take us in his boat to show us where the |
| 1:59.2 | river meets the ocean. So I'm going to climb aboard here. We've got water, sun cream everything on. I'm not sure how long we're going to stay out for. |
| 2:06.0 | And see what this river looks like. |
| 2:10.0 | Yeah, whoops. |
| 2:12.0 | That wasn't very elegant. |
| 2:14.0 | Okay. |
| 2:17.0 | The idea. |
| 2:18.0 | So we are on the most of the Congo River. It's about 8 km. Inside 50,000 |
... |
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