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S<\/span>elling vegetables was Dieudonn\u00e9 Bakarani\u2019s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark.<\/p>\n Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish again and reopen in February after a five-year hiatus. The design has already been recognised internationally; in December, the architects responsible for it won a Holcim Foundation award for sustainable design.<\/p>\n \u201cI started out getting vegetables from Goma and selling them in this market. I never expected to be the one rebuilding it decades later,\u201d says Bakarani.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have built a market with local people, especially our mothers and sisters, in mind. We have kept the concept of the old one but have enlarged it, and it is more functional.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a nightmare \u2026 imagine what it was like for our mothers or sisters selling there exposed to the sun from morning till eveningDieudonn\u00e9 Bakarani<\/p>\n Inaugurated in January 1944 under Belgian colonial rule, Zando was demolished and rebuilt in 1968, with space for 3,500 traders. By the time it was closed in January 2021, it was attracting about a million shoppers a day and there were issues around safety, overcrowding, sanitation and waste disposal.<\/p>\n <\/span>Kinshasa Central Market after reconstruction in 1968.<\/span> Photograph: Cavan Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n The closure affected approximately 20,000 vendors, who were relocated to surrounding markets, sparking protests in front of city hall.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was in a very bad state,\u201d says Bakarani. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t clean; it was overcrowded. There were nine toilets for the whole market.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Police try to stop market traders from marching in January 2021 after it was announced the market would close.<\/span> Photograph: Arsene Mpiana\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The market produced up to nine tonnes of waste a day, often amid searing temperatures.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a nightmare working there during the day,\u201d says Bakarani. \u201cIt was extremely hot. You can only imagine what it was like for our mothers or sisters selling there, exposed to the sun from morning till evening.\u201d<\/p>\n The new market feels like it has air conditioning, he says, as it was built with perforated brick facades to ensure ventilation and shade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really wanted to keep the quality and characteristics of the African market,\u201d says Marine de la Guerrande, part of the team from Think Tank Architecture Paysage Urbanisme, the Paris-based practice behind the market\u2019s redesign. \u201cThe market has been built with concrete and locally produced terracotta bricks, supporting regional craftsmanship and economies.\u201d<\/p>\n Spread across 92,000 sq metres (23 acres), the new market will house 10,000 stalls, 630 shops, 40 cold rooms, 272 toilets and 22 units for banks. There are two food courts, a fire station, CCTV, high-speed wifi and TV screens for advertising.<\/p>\n <\/span>The new market will feature rainwater harvesting and landscaped courtyards.<\/span> Photograph: Ville Kinshasa & SZTC\/Think Tank Architecture<\/p>\n The building will be accessible, while rainwater harvesting and landscaped courtyards with trees aim to boost biodiversity, improve fire safety and promote cleanliness.<\/p>\n So many solutions we get are always western imports because our education tells us this is the only way things can be doneTosin Oshinowo<\/p>\n Tosin Oshinowo, a Nigerian architect and judge for the Holcim Foundation awards, says the design is fascinating because it has recreated a traditional African market, and the way of life that goes with it, but modernised it.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many solutions we get on the continent are always western imports because our education also tells us that this is the only way things can be done,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Markets are vital across the continent, she says. \u201cMost people in Africa today will still go to the market because it\u2019s cheaper but it\u2019s also [interwoven into culture],\u201d says Oshinowo. \u201cWhat you have across the continent is a very specific way of trading \u2026 So these markets \u2013 economically, socially and politically \u2013 are very sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n The project has been made possible by a public-private partnership between city authorities and Bakarani\u2019s company, Sogema <\/strong>(Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de gestion des march\u00e9s Africains<\/em>). With French architects, construction was outsourced to the Chinese company SZTC, overseen by the French engineering firm Egis.<\/p>\n <\/span>Constructed from concrete and local terracotta bricks, the market\u2019s design has been recognised internationally.<\/span> Photograph: Martin Argyroglo\/Think Tank Architecture<\/p>\n The development has cost about \u00a356m and was financed by a loan from SofiBanque, based in the DRC. The operating contract grants Sogema control of the market for 25 years, after which the government will take over.<\/p>\n Bakarani says he faced accusations of corruption, and criticism, when people feared the design would be like a western shopping centre and not in keeping with local culture.<\/p>\n In May 2024, a report by <\/strong>two DRC anti-corruption organisations, the Public Expenditure Observatory (Odep) and the Congolese League Against Corruption (Licoco), said there were inconsistencies in the contract that \u201cstem, on the one hand, from the incompetence of public authorities \u2026 and on the other hand, from a lack of transparency justified by the culture of corruption and easy enrichment that has taken root in the mindset of the Congolese political class\u201d. Provincial authorities have defended the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying there won\u2019t be problems in the future. But at least the infrastructure is there,\u201d says Bakarani, who denies the allegations of corruption.<\/p>\n Bakarani hopes the market will be a blueprint for similar projects across the continent. \u201cIt has been built [to the highest standards], recognised internationally,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve respected the environment and improved what was there.\u201d<\/p>\n He also hopes the new market will help change the country\u2019s image. Referring to long-running armed conflicts with rebels, especially the Rwandan-backed M23, which have displaced huge numbers of people and fuelled human rights abuses, he says: \u201cI hope we can attract international partners to come and see that in DRC, regardless of the situation in the east, which I am not underestimating in any way, there are opportunities that can be explored.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are still dreaming here and as entrepreneurs, we are driven. It\u2019s not that we are not sensitive to what is happening, but it\u2019s our country. It\u2019s our duty to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Selling vegetables was Dieudonn\u00e9 Bakarani\u2019s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark. Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[131,918,13902,1123,1022,22198,15213,306,1305,4737,8321,6426],"class_list":{"0":"post-41843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-day","9":"tag-development","10":"tag-fiveyear","11":"tag-global","12":"tag-historic","13":"tag-kinshasa","14":"tag-makeover","15":"tag-market","16":"tag-million","17":"tag-ready","18":"tag-reopen","19":"tag-shoppers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}