No Passport, and a Beer Party in Zaire

During the mineral trading years I went to Bunagana, the border post between Uganda and Zaire in the far southwest. I had no passport and no identification on me. I walked across into Zaire anyway.

Not through a gap in a fence. I walked through the border post itself and got talking to the soldiers and officials on the Zairean side.

Primus beer, the big Congolese lager, brewed since the colonial era and drunk across Central Africa in quantities that would surprise anyone who has not been there. We drank plenty of it. The soldiers were friendly and asked for nothing: no money, no document, no fee for the informal crossing. They had decided to be perfect hosts.