Kole, Democratic Republic of the Congo

The settlement consists of a few score stuccoed brick buildings, many of them left over from the now defunct cotton plantations of the area.

The people of Kole, and for tens of kilometers around the town, belong to a subtribe of the Nkutu (or Okutshu) known as the Elembe (also called Ohindu or Ohendo).

A barge from Kinshasa may land at Kole once or twice a year, after a 6- to 12-week journey up the Congo, Kwah (Kasai), Fimi, and Lukenie Rivers.

The nearest large town to Kole is Lodja, the administrative center of Sankuru District, about 6 hours drive to the east on very poor roads.

Although a government public health hospital, the facility has been operated since 1970 by a congregation of Roman Catholic nuns, the Sœurs Missionnaires du Christ Jésus, based in Spain since their founding in 1944.