Kwango<\/a> to the south-west. Its southern boundary is the international border with Lunda Norte, Angola.<\/p>\nThe south is wooded savanna cut by sandy river valleys. The north, around Dekese, is closed rainforest draining into the Congo basin. Tshikapa stands at the confluence of the Tshikapa and Kasa\u00ef rivers, roughly 200 km west of Kananga by road.<\/p>\n
Demographics<\/h2>\n
Population density averages about 33 people per km², but almost everyone lives in the southern half. DR Congo has held no census since 1984, so all current numbers are projections; a 2024 estimate puts the province nearer 3,686,000. Tshiluba is the working language across most of the province, with Lingala common in trade and administration and French used in schools and government. The main peoples are the Kuba in Mweka and Ilebo, the Lele around Luebo, the Chokwe and Lunda near the Angolan border, the Pende in the west, and Luba-Kasa\u00ef communities throughout.<\/p>\n
Economy and Local Life<\/h2>\n
Diamonds built Tshikapa. The town was founded around 1910 by Formini\u00e8re after the company found alluvial stones in the Kasa\u00ef gravels, and buying counters still line its streets. Most production today is artisanal, worked by hand along the Kasa\u00ef, Tshikapa and Lulua river beds, and much of it crosses into Angola informally.<\/p>\n
Outside the diamond zone, life runs on farming and river trade: cassava, maize, groundnuts, palm oil and beans, with coffee and rubber left over from the plantation era. Ilebo’s port handles the boats coming up from Kinshasa, and Mweka and Luebo hold the weekly markets that feed the interior. The Kuba of Mweka territory are known for raffia cloth and carved wooden masks, which still move through the same markets.<\/p>\n
History<\/h2>\n
Kasa\u00ef was created in 2015 out of the former Kasa\u00ef-Occidental province, which was split into Kasa\u00ef and Kasa\u00ef-Central. The new province combined the old Kasa\u00ef district with the city of Tshikapa, which had been administered separately. Before that, the area was the heart of the Kuba kingdom, a centralised state that Belgian forces reached only in the 1890s. Ilebo, then called Port-Francqui, became the pivot of colonial transport once the railway from Katanga reached it.<\/p>\n
Getting There<\/h2>\n
Tshikapa Airport takes light domestic flights from Kinshasa and Kananga. The main surface route is National Road 1 (RN1), which runs east from Tshikapa to Kananga and Mbuji-Mayi and west toward Kikwit and Kinshasa; the RN1 bridge over the Kasa\u00ef at Tshikapa collapsed in April 2020, and a second bridge built in 2014 north of town carries the traffic. Ilebo is reached by boat from Kinshasa up the Kasa\u00ef River, a trip of several days, and by the railway that runs from Ilebo south-east to Kananga, Mwene-Ditu and Lubumbashi. Roads inside the province are earth and become difficult in the November-to-April rains.<\/p>\n
FAQ<\/h2>\nWhat is the capital of Kasa\u00ef province?<\/h3>\n
Tshikapa, a diamond town at the confluence of the Tshikapa and Kasa\u00ef rivers. It is also the province’s only statutory city.<\/p>\n
How many territories does Kasa\u00ef have?<\/h3>\n
Five: Dekese, Ilebo, Kamonia, Luebo and Mweka, plus the separately administered city of Tshikapa.<\/p>\n
What language is spoken in Kasa\u00ef?<\/h3>\n
Tshiluba is the everyday language of most of the province, alongside Lingala in trade and French in official use. Chokwe and Lunda are spoken near the Angolan border.<\/p>\n
Is Kasa\u00ef the same as Kasa\u00ef-Central?<\/h3>\n
No. Both were created in 2015 when the old Kasa\u00ef-Occidental province was divided. Kasa\u00ef’s capital is Tshikapa; Kasa\u00ef-Central’s is Kananga.<\/p>\n
How big is Kasa\u00ef province?<\/h3>\n
95,631 km², which makes it larger than Portugal. Its projected population was 3,165,000 in 2019.<\/p>\n
Which countries border Kasa\u00ef province?<\/h3>\n
Only Angola, along the south. The province touches the Angolan province of Lunda Norte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kasa\u00ef is a province in south-central Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the Angolan border, with its capital at Tshikapa. It covers 95,631 km² and holds a projected 3,165,000 people, making it one of the 26 provinces created when the country split its 11 old provinces in 2015. Capital Tshikapa Population 3,165,000 (2019 projection) Area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Kasa\u00ef: Towns, Cities & 5 Territories in DR Congo","_seopress_titles_desc":"Kasa\u00ef province, DR Congo: capital Tshikapa, 5 territories from Dekese to Mweka, population, area, diamond towns, the Ilebo river port and how to get there.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-dr-congo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/dr-congo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}