Travel Guide Likasi

With a surface area of 245 km², Likasi, dikashi,(good smell of clay), is located on the Haut-Katanga plateau near the Mitumba and Kundelungu mountains. It is surrounded by many hills, beautiful valleys and numerous rivers. Its current population is estimated at 1,200,000. The agglomeration is made up of four communes: Panda, Shituru, Kikula and Likusa. Likasi lies at the heart of the Greater Katanga mining region, halfway between Lubumbashi (114 km) and Kolwezi (190 km), with which it forms the famous "copperbelt". As far back as the 16th century, excavations revealed the existence of the red metal, which was worked by craftsmen according to the rituals of the "copper-eating" brotherhood. Likasi was founded in 1917 after the opening of the Likasi mine, followed by the development of a major industrial complex. It became a town in 1931, and was named Jadotville after the Belgian engineer Jean Jadot. The town benefited from major urban planning and landscaping projects, earning it the nickname Coquetteville and making it one of the most charming towns in the colony.Indeed, the town's urban development was highly coherent, with quality architecture expressed in the opulent modernist villas set amidst the gardens, and in a number of public buildings (railway station, town hall, post office, banks, etc.). All of this testifies to the town's economic importance at the time, making it the quintessential planned mining town. Today, Likasi retains some of the vestiges of its former splendor, where a certain atmosphere and art de vivre still reign... Although Likasi is still an important copper-processing center and has undergone major rehabilitation work in recent years, mainly to modernize its roads, it still gives the impression of being a little slow-moving. With its wide, flower-decked avenues lined with colonnaded buildings, whose orange facades blend in with the color of the dust, it is vaguely reminiscent of Havana, which it resembles in an "old-fashioned chic" way... All this contributes to the city's special atmosphere. Likasi has two seasons: dry from May to September and rainy from October to April. Kiswahili is the language of communication.