Kinshasa - Post Report Question and Answers
Is it easy to make friends with locals here? Are there any prejudices or any ethnic groups who might feel uncomfortable here?
We did not find it easy at all. They all want something from you and aren't looking for friends, just money. - May 2024
This is a country with serious ethnic conflicts. Congolese can be rude, some can be quite friendly and lovely, it all depends. - Aug 2022
It's not easy to make friends with locals. You'll need to know very good French, and most Americans don't. And you often need an "in" to know where to go to hang out with locals. The majority of social life for expats is in Gombe, the diplomatic neighborhood. It's full of bars and restaurants created by expats, catering to expats, and recommended by expats. It can be a challenge to break out of this bubble. - May 2022
Congolese are very friendly. It takes time to grow friendships, but I have found them to be open to it. - Aug 2019
Not really. I found Congolese to generally be very transactional about relationships; I never experienced friendship for the sake of friendship, there was always an angle being worked. The socioeconomic disparity also makes things difficult; there isn't much of a middle class in Congo. Most people are extremely poor, and the very, very top is obscenely rich (and most likely got there via....). People certainly treat westerners differently, both likely due to the aforementioned transactional attitudes and also as a legacy of colonialism. - Apr 2019
