Music is its biggest export

The country's top artists, like Koffi Olomide, Papa Wemba, and Werrason, can fill the biggest clubs from Johannesburg to Paris as quickly as Justin Bieber. The main musical forms, known as Congolese rumba, soukous, and ndombolo, are all accompanied by specific dances. Wendo Kolosoy, known as the "Father of Rumba," began his seven-decade career as a singer while laboring on the Congo River barges. His tunes, including the megahit "Marie-Louise," inspired millions of couples throughout the continent to dance. Nowadays, the younger generation prefers the more provocative, suggestive, and dynamic dances of ndombolo. It's raucous, some may say rude, and incredibly popular.

Those of the greatest names in the business areas are devoted as fans of European football clubs, and occasionally as violent, with fights breaking out during performances between competing fans. The artists have also given rise to a well-dressed subculture known as sapeurs. Even at night, sapeurs must wear the nicest European-cut suits, matching Italian leather shoes, and sunglasses. If you see a yellow Ferrari on the streets of Kinshasa, it is most certainly driven by a sapeur who has made it to the top.