Kandale, DR Congo
Nearest cities: Gungu (30 miles), Kikwit (150 miles). Kinshasa, the nation’s capital, is 500 miles.
Kandale is a collection of about 100 villages located 500 miles southeast of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, near the border with Angola.
Its estimated population of 70,000 inhabitants is mostly young and unemployed. Those relatively few who do work in salaried jobs, such as teachers, also tend subsistence farms to feed their families.
Kandale is home to a Mennonite mission station that is the center of community life. The station was founded in 1926 by an independent Canadian Baptist missionary. In 1954, the mission was transferred to the Mennonite church and is known by its French name, Communauté Mennonite au Congo (CMCO)
Kandale CMCO is the official home of REVE Kandale and its more than 100 dues-paying community members. It is 30 miles from Gungu (population 23,893) in Kwilu Province.
Geography
The climate is tropical with two main seasons: a prolonged rainy season from mid-August to mid-May (9 months) and a pronounced dry season from mid-May to mid-August (3 months).
Culture
The largest cultural group living in the Kandale community is the Bapende or Pende. The Pende people traditionally speak their own language, Kipende, which is part of the Central Bantu group of languages. The Pende are particularly known for their traditional dances and art, which is a complex art form and includes traditional masks called “Mingaji” with fully body suit made out of raffia. These dances are associated with initiation rituals.
The number of people who consider themselves to be ethnically Pende is estimated at more than 250,000. Their culture has survived since ancient times through periods of conquest by other tribes and through centuries of the slave trade and colonization by Belgium from 1887 to 1960. They have gone through long periods of hardship including war, hunger, and disease.
Land
The people of Kandale are rooted in a centuries-long relationship with their land. Kandale is considered one of the bread baskets in the Gungu District of Kwilu Province. Locally produced crops include cassava, millet, maize, rice, beans, palm oil, peanuts and a wide variety of fruits such as bananas, pineapples, mangoes and wild berries. However, poor farming and hunting practices, which engulf vast savannah land in fire every year, are threatening the areas with major environmental degradation and food security problems. Much of the indigenous wildlife that had been part of the local diet has steadily disappeared.
REVE Kandale has undertaken an ambitious tree-planting campaign and education program to encourage residents to protect the environment. In the early 2020s, caterpillars – an important source of dietary protein -- appeared for the first time in decades in the newly planted forest.
Center of Education
Kandale has been a center of education and training that has served students from the surrounding countryside those Baptist missionaries became established there in the 1920s. Kandale is home to several primary schools, a high school (Institut Gufwa-Gubila), and a secondary level school with sewing and business programs (Lycee Gin’a Gisanga). Due to the severe economic problems experienced by the country in recent years, only about 40 to 50 percent of children in the larger community surrounding Kandale attend school.
REVE Kandale aims to improve the quality of life for children and their families in Kandale. Our goal is to make Kandale a shining example to other communities in the region and eventually serve to spread the message of hope and economic and environmental improvement throughout the region.
TRAVEL AND ATTRACTIONS
USA-Kinshasa - 18-hour Flight (Airlines - Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, Air France, SN Brussels, Turkish Air)
Kinshasa-Kandale-13 hrs (4x4 Vehicle with overnight in Kikwit)
Lukuila canyons (10 miles away)
Kakobola Waterfalls (30 miles away)
