Congo's ocean city — oil rigs on the horizon, the Côte Sauvage, and Loango National Park's surfing hippos
Pointe-Noire is the Republic of the Congo's economic engine and only major port — a city that runs on oil and fish, where Art Deco administrative buildings from the French colonial era mix with the noise of the Grand Marché. North of the city, Loango National Park — known as Africa's 'Last Eden' — is one of the few places on Earth where you can see gorillas, forest elephants, and hippos in the same coastal ecosystem, including the famous 'surfing hippos' that wade into Atlantic waves.
Pointe-Noire was established as a major port and railway terminus in 1934 when the Congo-Ocean Railway — built by an estimated 17,000 forced labourers, of whom 10,000–17,000 died from disease and exhaustion — connected the Atlantic coast to Brazzaville. The city grew rapidly after oil was discovered offshore in the 1970s and today handles 95% of Congo's oil exports. The French novelist Albert Londres documented the railway construction in his 1929 book 'Terre d'Ébène,' sparking a metropolitan scandal about colonial labour conditions.