Lubumbashi in 3 days

Musée du Chemin de Fer (Railway Museum — at the Lubumbashi railway station, the historic terminus of the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC — the Congolese National Railway)): the Benguela Railway (the CFB — Caminho de Ferro de Benguela: the most ambitious colonial railway project in sub-Saharan Africa: a 1,344km railway from the port of Benguela (Angola, on the Atlantic Ocean) across the entire width of Angola to the Congolese border at Dilolo (the DRC entry point), then connecting to the Katanga railway network and the Lubumbashi station; the railway was built between 1904 and 1931 by the British engineer and businessman Robert Williams (the Williams company was the contractor for both the Benguela Railway and the UMHK mine development); the purpose: to export Katanga copper from the landlocked DRC to the Atlantic Ocean port of Benguela (cutting 3,000km off the alternative route via Mozambique or South Africa)); the museum (steam locomotives, colonial-era railway equipment, maps of the Benguela Railway, and the social history of the Congolese railway workers)). Free.

Université de Lubumbashi (UNILU — the University of Lubumbashi; founded 1955 by the Belgian colonial administration as the Université Officielle du Congo et du Ruanda-Urundi (the first university in the Belgian Congo): the campus (the most beautiful campus in DRC: the UNILU campus (150 hectares in the upmarket Annexe district of Lubumbashi) was designed in the Belgian colonial modernist style (the 'Elisabethville modernism' of the 1950s — white-rendered concrete buildings with deep roof overhangs designed for the Katanga climate): the Faculty of Medicine building (1958 — the finest modernist building in Lubumbashi), the botanical garden (the university herbarium has one of the most complete collections of Katanga flora in the world)), the student life (UNILU has 30,000+ students; the campus is one of the most vibrant intellectual environments in DRC; the UNILU faculties of Mining Engineering and Geology are the most important in DRC (training the mining engineers and geologists who run the Katanga mining industry)). Free to walk campus.

The Lubumbashi Contemporary Arts Scene (Lubumbashi is the most important city in DRC for contemporary visual art (after Kinshasa)): the Picha (Image) International Biennale of Lubumbashi (the most important contemporary art biennale in central Africa; held every two years in Lubumbashi since 2008; the biennale brings international and Congolese artists to produce site-specific works in Lubumbashi public spaces and institutions): the Lubumbashi artists (the most important active artists: Sammy Baloji (born Lubumbashi 1978 — the most internationally recognised Congolese visual artist; his work layers colonial-era UMHK mining photographs with contemporary images of the same mining sites; he represents the continuity of colonial extraction in post-colonial DRC)); the copper wire tradition (the handmade wire sculpture workshops in the Commune de Kamalondo (the oldest Congolese residential quarter of Lubumbashi) — artisans who have been making wire toys and sculptures since the 1950s (the technique developed from the UMHK mine workshops where electrical copper wire scraps were the most available raw material for making handmade toys)). Free to browse.

Congolese Rumba (the most important music genre of the DRC: one of the great popular music traditions of the world; developed in the Congolese capital Léopoldville/Kinshasa in the 1940s–1950s from the fusion of Cuban son (Rumba Cubana) and Central African rhythms (the Congolese traditional music of the Bakongo, Luba, and Mongo peoples)): Lubumbashi rumba (the Lubumbashi variant of Congolese rumba developed in the UMHK mine compounds in the 1940s–1960s: the mine compounds (the 'cités' — the planned workers' settlements built by the Belgian UMHK around the mine sites) had mandatory cultural programmes designed to keep the mine workers entertained (and not organising politically): the guitar-based rumba music developed in these compounds as the primary entertainment; the Lubumbashi sound is slightly distinct from Kinshasa rumba — slower tempo, more guitar improvisation (the 'sebene' guitar passage that closes each song is more elongated in Lubumbashi style)); best live music: Club Mobutu (re-opened as Club Katanga), Salle de Fête du Gouvernorat. CDF 5,000–10,000 cover.

Gécamines Copper Mine (the Kamoto/Dikulushi open-pit mine operations of the Lubumbashi area — Gécamines tours (limited; require advance arrangement with Gécamines communications department at the UNILU campus liaison office)): the mine (the Katanga Copperbelt is the world's second-richest copper deposit zone (after the Chilean Atacama Copperbelt): the DRC Copperbelt produces: copper (approximately 1.8 million tonnes/year — DRC is the world's 5th largest copper producer), cobalt (DRC produces approximately 70% of the world's cobalt — the most important component of lithium-ion batteries; the global electric vehicle revolution is entirely dependent on Congolese cobalt); the mines are now predominantly operated by Chinese mining companies (CMOC, China Molybdenum — which bought the Tenke Fungurume mine (the world's largest cobalt mine) from Freeport-McMoRan in 2016 for USD 2.65 billion)): the scale (the Kamoto open-pit mine is 2km diameter, 400m deep — one of the largest excavations in Africa). Advance arrangement required; free if arranged.

Gorge de Lubudi (the Lubudi Gorge — 80km west of Lubumbashi by car or chartered minibus (CDF 50,000 return); the most spectacular natural landscape in the Katanga Province: the Lubudi River has cut a deep gorge through the Katanga limestone plateau — a canyon of 150m depth and 500m width; the gorge walls are exposed Precambrian limestone (600–800 million years old) with vivid bands of blue (malachite), green (chrysocolla), and orange (limonite) — the same copper and iron minerals that make the Copperbelt so economically important, visible here as pure geological spectacle): the viewpoint (the gorge rim viewpoint at the Lubudi village (the village of the Ba-Lubudi people — the traditional fishing community of the Lubudi River; their fishing technique: the traditional hand-woven basket traps (lusenga) set in the river rapids below the gorge)). CDF 50,000 chartered minibus return.

Likasi (formerly Jadotville — 120km northwest of Lubumbashi by the SNCC railway or road (2 hrs); the second-most important copper-mining city in Katanga Province): the Siege of Jadotville (the most famous military engagement in the Katanga Crisis: in September 1961, a company of 155 Irish UN peacekeepers ('A' Company, 35th Infantry Battalion (Ireland)) under Commandant Pat Quinlan was surrounded and besieged for 5 days by Katangese Gendarmerie (6,000 soldiers with air support) and fought a defensive action at the Jadotville mine compound — the Irish company inflicted approximately 300 Katangese casualties while suffering zero deaths, but was eventually forced to surrender due to lack of water and ammunition; the Irish government did not award medals for the Jadotville siege for 55 years (2016); the Netflix film 'The Siege of Jadotville' (2016) dramatised the battle); the Shituru copper smelter (the second-largest copper smelter in DRC; visible from the Likasi city approach). Day trip only; return to Lubumbashi by road/rail.

Saka-saka (the most important vegetable dish in the DRC and the favourite daily food of the Congolese people: cassava leaf stew (the 'pondu' (in Lingala) or 'saka-saka' (in Swahili — the word used in Lubumbashi (which is more Swahili-speaking than Kinshasa))); the preparation (the cassava leaves (the young leaves of the cassava (Manihot esculenta) plant (cassava is the most important food plant in DRC — both the root (the source of fufu) and the leaves are eaten)): the leaves are pounded in a mortar to break down the cellular structure, then cooked in palm oil with onion, garlic, and smoked fish or dried shrimp (for protein) for 2–3 hours until the leaves are completely soft and the palm oil has emulsified into the sauce; the saka-saka is a deep forest green colour with an intense, slightly bitter, earthy flavour (the bitterness comes from the residual cyanogenic glycosides in the cassava leaf that are reduced but not eliminated by cooking — cassava leaves must always be cooked; they are toxic raw)); with Primus beer (the most popular beer in DRC: Brasseries de Kinshasa SA (Bralima) — Primus (the 5.5% ABV lager; the national beer of DRC; 'Primus' means 'first' in Latin)). CDF 5,000–12,000 dinner.