Central African Republic - The remains of the Zinga train

The village of Zinga is located south of Bangui and is located at the confluence of Lobaye and Oubangui. It is a village about 1km long and 300m wide. The dwellings are traditional huts made of local materials (raffia palm roof and mud walls). Bordering the right bank of Ubangi, Zinga is distinguished by modern infrastructure inherited from its colonial past. Indeed, the Compagnie Générale de Transport in Equatorial Africa (CGTAE), a river transport company, had built a six-kilometer railway, linking the Zinga and Mongo villages in the 1920s and whose exploitation stopped in 1960 This railroad was a palliative to the problem of navigation on the Oubangui and the supply of the interior territory of the French colony, notably Oubangui-Chari and Chad. Also, it was a solution to the recurring problem of portage in Oubangui-Chari. A rupture of charges was carried out during the low water on the threshold of Zinga, imposing a transhipment coming from Congo or Bangui. Goods and passengers descended from the large steamers below the sill and boarded upstream in the smaller ones at Mongo village.