Kinshasa

Proper noun.  The capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), in the western part of the country on the Congo River; founded in 1881 by the explorer Henry M. Stanley, who named it after his patron, Leopold II of Belgium, it became capital of the Belgian Congo in 1926 and was the scene of the revolt (June 1960) that led to Congo's independence; in 1966 its name was changed to Kinshasa, after the name of an early village that occupied the site.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.