Stamps Of The Two Congos

Hi

During 1961 to 1964 both countries issued stamps under "Republic of Congo".
Why was that? Were they debating which is the legitimate Congo? Did they refuse to acknowledge each other?

Is there a way to look at the stamp and know if it's Democratic Congo or northern Congo, or do we need to consult a catalogue for each "Republic of Congo" stamp?

Also, it seems that Democratic Congo stopped issuing definitives for over a decade, and all their stamps since seemed to be targeted for collectors. And no new stamps were issued since 2014. Did the people of Congo stop using stamps?

Ease of use
Popular republic (Brazzaville) ex French
Democratic Republic (Kinshasha) ex Belgian

I use Scott for quick ID

The larger of the two Congos is the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Congo-Kinshasa (Kinshasa is the capital and largest city). The DRC was formerly known as Zaire and earlier known as the Belgian Congo. The smaller of the two Congos, on the western edge of the DRC, is the Republic of the Congo, or Congo Brazzaville (Brazzaville similarly being this country's capital and largest city). It used to be the French territory Middle Congo.

The name Congo stems from the Bakongo, a Bantu tribe that populate the area. The two countries are separated not only by different colonial roots, but by the Congo River (or Zaire River), the second-longest river in Africa.

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-two-c...rica-3555011

Both Congos have seen unrest in recent years: In the Republic of the Congo, former Marxist President Denis Sassou-Nguesso returned to power after a brief civil war in 1997, derailing the democratic transition that took place five years beforehand. Internal conflict in the DRC has resulted in 3.5 million deaths from violence, disease and starvation since 1998, according to the CIA. Nowadays in the DRC, Tutsi rebels fight the government, which is accused of supporting Hutu refugees responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

To add to confusion, there is also the former Portuguese Congo, which has been discussed in a thread titled, I think, Cabinda. Portuguese Congo stamps were issued from 1894 to 1915; and the Cabinda enclave, north of the mouth of the Congo River, now uses stamps of Angola.

The postman is back in Kinshasa.!
http://www.africanews.com/2016/12/0...in-kinshasa/

Is this August 12th this year? Wow, speaking of timing.
So for the last few decades DRC issued stamps mainly for us collectors.
Anyhow, I still couldn't find a visible difference between the stamps of the two countries during 1961-1964, other than using a catalogue.

One difference is that any stamp denominated in cents, or francs and cents, will be from Congo (Kinshasa). No cents appear on Congo (Brazzaville) stamps.

So I'll still need a catalogue to pick the Congo (Kinshasa) stamps denominated in F.