Traveled: 110 km
Cumulative: 2898 km
There was a lot of hassling now that we were traveling alone. One of our biggest problems were the roadblocks manned by the PNC and Immigration (DGM). To be honest, it was nearly impossible to know if the people at the checkpoints were truly state agents. Mainly because 1) DGM agents often dress in civilian clothes, 2) Both PNC and DGM agents cannot recognize a Congolese visa in a passport and flip through your document very slowly rather than purposefully, 3) All real agents will pretend to charge you some strange tax no matter how well your documents are in order. These are all the types of behaviours you would expect to see in a civilian trying to impersonate an official for some extra cash, but no – not in Congo! These might actually be real officials.
There are only two ways around this. The first option is the safest one. You can stop and speak to the agent, while remaining polite, patient and friendly. Be sure to ask him for his ID badge to prove he truly is who he says he is. Then, when he tries to convince you that you owe him money for something, ask a lot of questions. Prove that you have good knowledge of Congolese laws and that you have paid your duly fees (license, registration, plates, insurance, Carnet de Passage, etc). Basically, try to talk him to death until he gets bored. If you run out of arguments against the fees he has listed, repeat yourself. Stay firm about the fact that you do not believe in paying when there is no service being rendered (eg. road taxes for no road work). As a very last resort and only if you have good knowledge of this, you can name their superiors to tell them that you know their hierarchy, without ever threatening that you will report them or get them fired. The Congolese work in passive aggression, not in open threats.
Your second option is less safe. This consists of driving around the roadblock whenever you can. These conditions are: the officers are not carrying any weapons, they do not have a vehicle nearby (motorbike or landcruiser) and there is no physical barrier on the road (metal bar, stones, crowd of people). Tom and I have avoided hours of negotiation by simply driving around a checkpoint and speeding away from angry, shouting agents who would try to run after us on foot. Usually after 5 meters, they would stop running. And after 1 km, they even stop looking and go back to their normal affairs. If you are unlucky and the agents have radio or cellphone communication with the next roadblock, then you could be in quite a pickle. I have heard stories of people being arrested at the subsequent roadblock, although this has never happened to us. More often than not, the agents have no credit on their cell phones and they are too much in the middle of nowhere to have walky-talkies.
The other hassle, aside from roadblocks, was that we were constantly discussing exchange rates. In 5 different places, they tried to charge us an exchange rate that only worked in their favour, telling us that it changes per area and then laughing and saying we would get used to it. There was nothing to get used to. They were just trying to rip us off as usual. Don’t give in to this, especially if you are changing large sums.
That day, after the long ride over, we got a late visit from a DGM representative at our hotel, telling us that we should have touristic visas if we are tourists, not resident visas. He was well-dressed and had the proper identification. He then asked for 20$ per person to open a file on us. At this point, all I was thinking was: “Are you fucking kidding me??” Luckily, Tom was the one talking because I would have bit his head off. How does anyone come to our hotel, bother us at night, only to tell us that we are at fault for some made-up reason, and then tries to earn 40$ citing paperwork fees? After Tom wiggled his way out of all the fees, citing the prices we were charged for our visas at the Goma DGM office (that were well over 700$) and the name of the person working there who seemed rather high up in the Congolese hierarchy, the man backed down. He then proposed that we buy him and all of his buddies a round of drinks in forgiveness. I then realized what he was insinuating. WE were the ones who needed to ask for some sort of forgiveness, not HIM. That was when I decided I hated every single state official in the DRC. Tom made it a point to remind them that when you are a guest in someone’s country, THEY are to buy the round of beers, not the other way around. I wanted to add: “That’s what we call hospitality. It’s very different from harassment, which you may be very familiar with”. But I held my tongue.
Sometimes I think this bloody country is going to drive me crazy.
Nomad Mari 
That officer is outrageous!