A rivalry heard across the world: What DRC v Congo means

Both were francophone colonies, with French often spoken by the populations and governing elites. In the 19th century, the Bakongo kingdom became a pawn in one of Europe’s most shameful chapters: the Scramble for Africa, where European countries carved up Africa for their own ends and as parts of their own empires.

The Belgians beat France in sending out their explorers, and Henry Stanley Morton claimed what would later become the Democratic Republic of Congo for Belgium and its king, Leopold II. France’s own man, Pierre de Brazza, had to make do with what was left, a region which became known eventually as the Republic of Congo.

Both countries gained independence in 1960, and both have followed a similar path. Congo has seen decades of democracy blighted with corruption; power grabs and coups have underpinned the story of power and the progress of the nation. Likewise, DRC has seen two assassinations of its leaders, two coups and a civil war, which took place at the same time as the civil war in Congo, at the end of the 20th century. With a death toll of almost six million, the conflict in DRC is now the deadliest since World War Two, a fact that often goes unnoticed or wilfully unmentioned.

For all the similarities, there is a rivalry between the two nations, and at the heart of it are economic and cultural differences. In the DRC, they see those in Congo as arrogant, believing themselves superior, with a better quality of life, as they have largely resolved their violent conflict. Conversely, the DRC population believe it is they who are the more modern people in a more technologically advanced country.

The DRC is far larger than Congo, with a population of around 78 million being 16 times that of its smaller neighbour. DRC is blessed with natural resources like rare metals and diamonds that Congo cannot match, and yet because of the bloody fight over these resources, the two nations’ wealth remains roughly similar.

Right now, this rivalry and shared history gives the match on Saturday an importance loaded with centuries of meaning. The bragging rights mean more than just football, and when it comes to bragging, the Congolese of the DRC do it better than most.

“Congo-Brazza think they invented the Sap”, Herve Mpenza, who works for a company supplying fish to restaurants in DRC, tells me, talking of the Congolese haute couture (the Sapeurs) sartorial style famously used in the 2014 Guinness advert, “but it was us here in DRC. We showed THEM the way, and now they get all the praise! We need to show them we're better than them. At fashion, football, everything!”

Seros Thubusungu, a retired civil servant in DRC, was similarly forthright. “They must win. If they don't, it's going to be the first time Congo-Brazza beat DR Congo in a football match. We can't allow that.” The sense in DRC is that a little brother needs to be put in his place.

Both nations are a football loving people. Nobody knows that better than Claude Le Roy, Republic of Congo's current national manager and twice former manager of the Leopards. “In a country like DR Congo, 78 million people are completely crazy about football”, he told the BBC in an interview.

The game also represents the diaspora of players around Europe. For Congo, there’s Vitoria's Chris Malonga, and for DRC there is West Brom's Youssouf Mulumbu and Crystal Palace's Yannick Bolasie, further evidence of how European nations have influenced the movement of people away from their home counties. These players represent not just their home nations, but those with roots in these countries who now live in Europe. The rivalry will be heard not just in Africa, but across the world.

The match will be of extra significance to the Congolese of the DRC, whose country has seen violent clashes during the course of this AfCON tournament. Some 50 people around the country died as the youth of the nation took to the streets under the campaign Telema – the Lingala word meaning “stand up” - which was protesting current President Joseph Kabila's attempt to hold on to office by changing the constitution to require a nationwide census prior to the next election, scheduled to be in 2016.

In a country the size of western Europe, with a test census of a neighbourhood taking months to complete, this has been seen through with trouble erupting as a result. And yet the love of football, and its importance to the country, did not go unnoticed.

Indeed, the actual vote to reject this proposal was put on hold whilst the DRC played their match against Cape Verde. In Saturday's match, for all the trouble in DRC, for most of the population it will be a time to focus on a rivalry and relationship that goes back far longer than AfCON and longer even than professional football.