Democratic Republic of the Congo · Kinshasa City · Kinshasa
Matete, Kinshasa — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Matete is a commune of Kinshasa, threaded by Boulevard Lumumba near the Tour de l'Échangeur de Limete.
About Matete
Where to stay in Matete
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Most visitors base themselves along Boulevard Lumumba, the arterial that stitches Matete to the rest of Kinshasa. The commune sits within reach of Limete, Lemba, and Bandalungwa, so a room here trades quiet residential streets for a short hop to any neighbour. Choose by errand.
Traders and transit passengers cluster near the corridor where the Tour de l'Échangeur de Limete marks the junction, while calmer stays lie back among the market lanes.
About Matete
What are the main landmarks in Matete?
One monument dominates the skyline read from Matete. The Tour de l'Échangeur de Limete, the slender interchange tower that rises where Boulevard Lumumba crosses into Limete, is the marker every direction sends you toward. Locals steer by it.
From the commune's streets the shaft stands clear above the low market roofs, a fixed point in a district otherwise built to human scale rather than height.
What is the history of Matete?
Matete grew as one of the planned communes that expanded Kinshasa outward from its colonial core. Laid out as worker housing on a grid of narrow parcels, the district filled in as the capital spread south and east toward Lemba and Limete. Matete filled in quickly.
The Boulevard Lumumba corridor later fixed its shape, drawing markets and movement toward the axis that the Tour de l'Échangeur de Limete would come to crown.
Where is Matete?
Matete covers about 4.88 square kilometres of low tropical ground within Kinshasa, bounded by Limete and Lemba and sloping toward the Congo River that edges Gombe downstream.
More areas in Kinshasa
Updated July 2026