Also wondering: why does the headline say "African"? Africa is not a country. I don't think the WSJ says "European" when they mean "French" or "North American" when they write about somebody in Texas.
In some other African countries, building your own rocket is not such a big deal. South Africa, for instance, has its own amateur rocketry association [0], has shops specialising in rocket parts and once had a LEO space launcher and ICBM programme that was cancelled with the end of Apartheid. There are dozens of amateurs building serious rockets.
It's far more impressive to me that this guy is Congolese and operating without any of that supporting infrastructure or shared knowledge. The headline removes needed context and makes the story seem less interesting than it really is.
Not trying to be a jerk, let's say he's 45 years old, and lived all his life in Kinshasa (previously Leopoldville), then most of his life was lived in a country named Zaire. So then there are the why's of which countries were actually valid states, and whether this or that country counts more. So maybe language is the answer? If he speaks Kongo, is he Kongo or Congolese, or if he speaks Ligala or several languages, then what?
Maybe the reporter asked him which he prefered? Maybe the editor vetoed it. Maybe they all had similar discussions we're having in this thread.