Getting Around in Lingala: Taxis, Buses and Directions

In Kinshasa, finding your way and agreeing on a fare are part of everyday life. Moto-taxis weave through traffic jams, shared taxi-buses fill up to the last seat, and the big boulevards can be hard to read. A few Lingala phrases will save you time, and often money too. This article collects phrases recorded by a native teacher: asking whether a place is far, understanding "right" and "left", agreeing on a price for a wewa and describing your journey. Every Lingala word you read here comes from real lessons, so you can use it with confidence once you arrive.

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Getting around Kinshasa: the cultural context

Lingala is the language of the street in Kinshasa, so it is also the language of transport. French is everywhere in the city, but people talk to the driver, argue about the price and ask the shopkeeper on the corner for directions in Lingala. You will also notice that city Lingala borrows a lot from French. The phrases in this guide include "taxi", "feu rouge" (traffic light), "rond-point" (roundabout), "embouteillage" (traffic jam), "Boulevard" and "farmasi" (pharmacy). This isn't "bad Lingala". It's how people in Kinshasa, the Kinois, really talk, and recognizing these borrowed words helps you follow fast conversations.

You will come across several ways of getting around:

• The wewa: the motorbike taxi. You flag one down at the roadside, say where you're going and negotiate. It gets through traffic quickly, but the price has to be agreed every time.
• The taxi and the taxi-bus: shared taxis and minibuses run along well-known routes and stop at junctions and roundabouts. The driver is called the sofele.
• Minibuses, which our lessons also call esprit or ketch.
• The car (motuka) for longer trips, for example to Matadi, and the plane (mpepo) for long-distance travel.

Two things come up again and again in the recorded dialogues. The first is traffic jams, especially on the Boulevard du 30 Juin. The second is rain, which can make moto-taxis vanish from the streets. Addresses in Kinshasa also rely heavily on landmarks such as a junction, a traffic light, a pharmacy or a roundabout like the one at Ngaba. Being able to describe a route with landmarks is often more useful than knowing a street number.

Essential Lingala transport vocabulary

Here are the key words to learn, as reviewed in our lessons. The pronunciation guide shows you where the stress falls.

A few notes to help these words stick:

• Right and left are both built on "loboko", meaning hand. Literally, the right is "the man's hand" (mobali) and the left is "the woman's hand" (mwasi). Once you have that picture in mind, you won't mix them up.
• Alima means "straight ahead". You'll also hear Kende liboso., which our lessons translate as "Go straight ahead."
• Mobembo and voyage both mean "trip". The second one is borrowed from French and pronounced the Lingala way.
• Sofele becomes basofele in the plural. In Lingala the plural is often marked at the start of the word. You'll see the same thing with wewa, which becomes ba-wewa in one of our dialogues.

Asking for and giving directions: examples and dialogues

Asking where a place is

To ask for directions, start by saying what you're looking for:

• Nazo luka hotel Memling.: I'm looking for the Memling hotel.

Then comes the question everyone asks:

• Mosika?: Is it far?

And some possible answers:

• Te, minuti mitano ata.: No, five minutes at most.
• Ezali mosika te. Kende liboso.: It's not far. Go straight ahead.

Understanding directions

Directions in Kinshasa are built around landmarks. Here are three very typical examples:

• Kende liboso, sima feu rouge kamata loboko ya mobali.: Go straight ahead, and after the traffic light, turn right.
• Bulevaar 30 Juin, sima zamba kamata loboko ya mobali.: Boulevard du 30 Juin: after the junction, turn right.
• Kende alima tii na farmasi, sima baluka na loboko ya mwasi. Lopango na biso ezali ya misato, mpe ekuke na yango ezali ya ebende.: Go straight ahead as far as the pharmacy, then turn left. Our compound is the third one, and its gate is made of iron.

Notice the pattern that keeps coming back: go straight ahead, then after a landmark ("sima"), take or turn right or left. If you can pick out "loboko ya mobali" and "loboko ya mwasi" in a fast sentence, you already have the most important information.

Asking which way to turn

Say you've got out of the vehicle and you're not sure where to go. Here's a complete sentence that works well on the phone with the person waiting for you:

• Nakiti, nazali kotambola sikoyo. Nakobaluka wapi: na loboko ya mobali to na loboko ya mwasi?: I've got off and I'm walking now. Which way do I turn: right or left?

Talking about a trip

For longer journeys, the questions change:

• Okokende wapi?: Where are you going?
• Nakokende Kinshasa na mpepo.: I'm going to Kinshasa by plane.
• Tango nini okozonga?: When are you coming back?
• Na poso mibale.: In two weeks.

Here's a longer exchange between two friends:

A: Patrick, okosala nini na poso ekoya? Nayoki ete okokende na mobembo. Patrick, what are you doing next week? I heard you're going on a trip.

Patrick: Ee, nakokende Matadi na motuka mpo ete ndeko na ngai ya mobali akobala na mokolo ya poso. Yes, I'm driving to Matadi because my brother is getting married on Saturday.

A: Malamu. Kende malamu, mpe pesa ndeko na yo mbote! Great. Have a good trip, and say hi to your brother for me!

Notice the pattern na + means of transport: "na mpepo" (by plane), "na motuka" (by car). It comes up again below with "na makolo" (on foot).

Real-life scenario: haggling for a wewa and describing your trip

Agreeing a fare with a moto-taxi

You're standing at the roadside, you wave down a wewa and say where you want to go. Here's a complete exchange recorded by our teacher:

Passenger: Wewa, kende na Limete. Moto-taxi, take me to Limete.

Driver: Motuya: mbongo mitano. Price: five thousand (francs).

Passenger: Mingi! Misato. That's a lot! Three thousand.

Driver: Minei, motuya ya suka. Four thousand, final price.

Passenger: Malamu, tokende. OK, let's go.

This dialogue shows how haggling works. The driver names a price, you offer a lot less, and you meet somewhere in the middle. The phrase motuya ya suka ("final price") tells you the driver won't go any lower. At that point, Malamu, tokende. closes the deal.

Here's a second, shorter version for a ride to Gombe:

Passenger: Wewa, kende Gombe! Moto, to Gombe!

Passenger: Mbongo boni? How much?

Driver: Mille franc. A thousand francs.

Driver: Te, mille cinq cents. No, one thousand five hundred.

In this exchange, the prices are given as French numbers, which is very common in Kinshasa. So you'll need to understand numbers in French as well as in Lingala. Mbongo boni? is the one question you have to remember. You can use it with a wewa, with a taxi and at the market too.

A practical tip: always agree on the price before you get on. Once you're moving, you have much less power in the negotiation.

Describing a difficult journey

Sometimes you need to warn someone that you'll be late. This sentence describes a situation every Kinois knows well:

• Nalongwaki na Gombe na ngonga ya misato, kasi embouteillage ezalaki makasi na Boulevard ya 30 Juin. Sikoyo nazali na kati ya taxi-bus, tokomi na rond-point Ngaba.: I left Gombe at three o'clock, but the traffic was terrible on the Boulevard du 30 Juin. I'm on the taxi-bus now, and we've reached the Ngaba roundabout.

When the rain gets involved:

• Ya solo, kasi bango bazali na mituka. Ngai nazelaki wewa tii ngonga ya libwa, kasi ba-wewa bazalaki te mpo na mbula.: That's true, but they have cars. I waited for a moto-taxi until nine o'clock, but there weren't any because of the rain.

Or when there's no transport at all:

• Nalyaki kaka mwa mikate na mosala. Nasilisaki mosala na ngonga ya mitano ya mpokwa, mpe sima nazongaki na ndako na makolo mpo taxi ezalaki te.: I only had a few doughnuts at work. I finished work at five in the evening, then I walked home because there wasn't a taxi.

Working as a driver

The word sofele also comes up when people talk about work:

A: Mpe mobali na yo? Azali kaka sofele? And your husband? Is he still a driver?

B: Te, atikaki taxi. Sikoyo azali mobateli na banki moko na Gombe, mpe asalaka na butu. No, he gave up the taxi. He's a security guard at a bank in Gombe now, and he works nights.

Asking about ticket prices

For an event or any journey that needs a ticket, you'll need the word tike:

• Ya solo? Nalingi mingi! Kasi tike ezali ntalo boni? Sanza oyo nazali na mbongo mingi te.: Really? I'd love to! But how much is the ticket? I don't have much money this month.
• Ntalo ya tike ezali mingi te. Soki tokomi liboso ya ngonga ya libwa, tokofuta moke. Nakosomba batike mibale lobi.: The ticket isn't expensive. If we get there before nine, it's cheaper. I'll buy two tickets tomorrow.

Recap and common mistakes

The phrases to learn first

If you only have time to learn a few phrases before you arrive, choose these:

1. Nazo luka hotel Memling.: to say what you're looking for. Keep the structure and swap in the place you need.
2. Mosika?: Is it far?
3. Wewa, kende na Limete.: to tell a moto-taxi where you're going.
4. Mbongo boni?: How much?
5. Mingi!: That's a lot!
6. Malamu, tokende.: OK, let's go.
7. na loboko ya mobali / na loboko ya mwasi / alima: right, left, straight ahead.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up right and left. This is the number one mistake. Keep the picture in mind: mobali (man) for right, mwasi (woman) for left.
• Missing "sima". In directions, "sima" introduces the landmark, as in "sima feu rouge" and "sima zamba". If you miss it, you might turn too early.
• Getting on before agreeing the price. As the wewa dialogue shows, everything is settled before you set off. Ask Mbongo boni? right away.
• Worrying about the two words for "trip". Mobembo and voyage mean the same thing. There's no difference in meaning to learn, and you'll hear both.
• Being thrown by French words. "Feu rouge", "rond-point", "embouteillage" and "taxi-bus" are all part of Kinshasa Lingala. Recognizing them will help you keep up with fast conversations.
• Forgetting the "ba-" plural. One sofele, several basofele. One wewa, several ba-wewa. One tike, several batike.

Going further

Reading these phrases is a good start, but transport is all about speaking and listening. You need to understand a driver in a hurry and answer quickly, so listening practice makes all the difference. On Targumi, the Lingala courses include audio recorded by native-speaking teachers. You hear how wewa, na loboko ya mwasi and Malamu, tokende. really sound, at the pace of Kinshasa.

A few ways to keep improving:

• Act out the wewa dialogue out loud, switching between the passenger and the driver.
• Describe your own daily route in English, then find the Lingala phrases in this article that match it: "straight ahead", "after the traffic light", "on the right".
• Practice listening to long directions, like the one with the pharmacy and the iron gate, so you learn to catch the landmarks.
• Check your level to find out which lessons to take next.

To sum up, getting around in Lingala comes down to a small number of very useful patterns: saying where you're going, asking the price, haggling, and understanding right, left and straight ahead. With the phrases in this guide, all recorded by a native teacher, you can already wave down a wewa, follow directions and warn someone that traffic has made you late. Listen to them, repeat them, and you'll get around Kinshasa with a lot more confidence. Kende malamu!

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