50 years of Kinshasa

In 1959, demonstrators took to the streets of Leopoldville to call for Congolese independence and the end of Belgian colonial rule. There was a brutal crackdown and 40 people were killed. A further 250 were injured. Independence was finally achieved on June 30, 1960.

1955: An electric bus, powered by energy stored in a rotating flywheel, is charged up at a docking station in Leopoldville. The gyrobuses had a range of 3 kilometers (2 miles) and were imported by Belgian colonial administrators from Switzerland. Ten million people travelled on them during their first year in operation.

November 30, 1965: President Joseph Mobutu in parliament in Leopoldville. He had come to power five days earlier in a coup ousting President Joseph Kasavubu. One year later, Leopoldville was renamed Kinshasa. Mobutu's dictatorship lasted three decades until he was forced into exile in 1997.

1974: Security personnel accompanying US boxing legend Muhammad Ali as he leaves the training center in Kinshasa. Ali defeated George Foreman in the "Battle of the Titans" on October 30, 1974. 60,000 fans watched the historic spectacle in Kinshasa Stadium and were joined by millions of television viewers around the globe.

The late Muhammad Ali remains an inspiration to Kinshasa's youth to this day. There is a boxing club named "Muhammad Ali holds his head high" where boys and girls can learn to box. One girl told DW "I feel as if I'm Ali's granddaughter. I know so much about him."

Robots, not police, direct the traffic at the central Asosa junction in Kinshasa. The robots, equipped with four cameras, send data to a control center which analyzes the traffic flow. The project is run by a group of Congolese engineers from the Kinshasa Institute of Applied Technology.

Congolese designers scale the heights of fashion. Their creations are colorful, daring and elegant. This one was crafted by designer Papa Griffe and shown at the Kinshasa Fashion Week in July 2015. The annual fashion show was launched by Marie-France Idikayo in 2011 to promote African designers globally.

This is also Kinshasa. Children search through rubbish for plastic which can be recycled. They bring what they find to recycling plants like this one, run by a local NGO "Vie Montante." The children receive a small but regular income in exchange for the plastic they collect.

Under Mobutu's regime this would have been unthinkable. Performance artist Julie Djikey turned herself into a "human automobile" with her body dripping with oil and oil filters on her breasts to protest against pollution. Her message to the women of Kinshasa: "The measure of a woman's courage is the strength of her resolve when faced with difficulties and suffering."