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Leopoldville 1950s -- Hotel des Allies

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Hotels des Allies on Ave. Cambier
Another small hotel in Leopoldville in the 1950s (See Mar. 30, 2011) was the Hotel des Alliés, located a block south of the Memling (See Mar. 29, 2011)at the corner of Aves. Moulaert and Cambier (Tchad & Ebeya).  The property of a M. Duchesne, the earliest reference I have found was in a tourist guidebook from 1948.  What was far more interesting for a young boy in primary school was that Duchesne’s building also housed a toy store, Maison du Jouet, on the side facing Ave. Cambier.  An advert in 1958 announced “Jeux-Jouets-Articles Pour Bébés” (curiously translated into English as “Children’s games and fruit and slot machines”).  The shop was a treasure-trove of model cars and airplanes.  Other shops included, Kermesse des Jouets on Ave Hanssens, down a side street from the Memling towards the Boulevard (where Buromeca - Canon's photocopy shop is today) and Maison du Tennis on Ave. du Port.




Hotel des Allies from Ave. Cambier - Intersection with Ave. Moulaert  (Hotel Memling 1 block to the right)
Hotels des Allies & Maison du Jouet (R)





The building now is subdivided into several shops, including an LG electronics and appliance dealer.
The former Hotel des Allies et Maison du Jouet -- note the arcades at street level have been closed in.


Leopoldville 1930 – Governor General Tilkens moves to Kalina

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On July 1, 1923, the beginning of the Belgian fiscal year, Leopoldville was decreed the capital of the colony.  The town was to replace the current capital at Boma as soon as the requisite administrative and residential facilities could be constructed for the Governor General and his colonial civil servants. The chosen site was midway between Leopoldville and Kinshasa at Kalina Point.  Kalina was an officer in Henry Stanley’s employ who drowned when his launch capsized on a trip from Leopoldville to Kinshasa a few days before Christmas 1882.

A street in Kalina




An official residence for the Governor General was a first priority (See Sep. 12, 2011) and it was determined that the structure would occupy the triangle formed by the Point which juts into the River some 15 meters above the water, creating a strong current. In December 1925, Jean Colette, a colonial postal worker and amateur archeologist, began meticulous excavation of prehistoric sites identified on Kalina Point and in April 1927, organized an official excavation of the site employing the labor of six prisoners assigned to work with him by the provincial Vice-Governor.  His findings were published in 1933 and established his reputation as an archeologist.  He went on to head the Physical Anthropology department at the colonial museum at Tervuren in Belgium until his untimely death in 1936.

Colette at work on Kalina Point
Blueprint for housing in Kalina

Extensive plans for the development of Kalina were underway when Governor Tilkens moved the capital to Leopoldville in 1930. An architectural competition for the Governor General’s residence was held in 1928 and a monument to Leopold II was dedicated by King Albert in the square facing the future residence during his visit that year. 





Civil servant housing in Kalina
Sacre Coeur -- the Lycee

Queen Elisabeth also laid the cornerstone for a new day school run by the Sisters of Sacred Heart (Soeurs du Sacré Coeur).  An initial, non-denominational school for white children had opened in 1924 with 15 students.  Five Sacré Coeur sisters arrived in Leopoldville two years later to begin education work among the European community.  In June 1928, the Sisters were allocated a 5 hectare plot in Kalina where the Queen launched construction of the new school the following month.  A primary school for boys was opened by the Sisters in 1930.  






















The Sisters' Residence at Sacre Coeur  
The Comité Urbain approved plans for Sacré Coeur church in 1932, prompting a complaint from former Secretary of the Congo Protestant Council Arthur Stonelake about government subsidies provided to religious institutions. 
Sacre Coeur Church and Sisters' Residence
 

The slights and frustrations felt by the Protestant community were reinforced in October 1932 when plans were announced to build a “palace” for the first Papal envoy, Msgr. Dellepiane, adjacent to the Sacré Coeur complex.  The proposal came as Msgr. Dellepiane convened the first meeting of Ordinaries (Bishops) from the entire colony.

The Vatican Ambassador's Residence
Plans for the Clinique Reine Elisabeth complex

During King Albert and Queen Elizabeth’s visit in June 1928, as well, the Queen expressed concerns about the quality of health care facilities available to Europeans in the city (See Aug. 5, 2011). Colonial officials immediately began planning a new hospital to be located in the Kalina administrative district. Public Works architect Richard Lequy produced his art deco designs for the complex in March 1929.  By 1932 the first section of the new hospital, named Clinique Reine Elisabeth, was completed. The hospital opened officially in November 1933 under Dr. Bernard.  Srs.  However, the Provincial Bishop, Msgr. Georges Six expressed reservations about Dr. Bernard and he was replaced by Dr. Pauly in 1934. Dr. Pauly would continue to administer the hospital until the eve of Independence. A maternity ward was opened in 1935 and an Administrative bloc and the morgue were completed in 1936.

Clinique Reine Elisabeth shortly after completion
A contemporary view of the new hospital
In January 1933, Prince Leopold III and Princess Astrid visited the colony, passing through Leopoldville, where Gov. Tilkens organized a sumptuous reception in the Royal couple’s honor.  The popular Princess visited Sacré Coeur School as well as the African maternity ward and Catholic Schools for Congolese.

Shortly after the Prince’s visit, Governor General Tilkens introduced a range of administrative reforms, increasing the number of Provinces from 4 to 6, but effectively reducing the autonomy of provincial governors in favor of a stronger central authority in Leopoldville.  In October, Kasai Province was detached from Congo-Kasai Province, leaving Leopoldville to administer the capital city and contemporary Bas-Congo and Bandundu Provinces as Leopoldville Province.  Intended as a cost-saving measure during the Depression, the reforms were very unpopular within the Territorial Service.


King Albert was killed in a mountain-climbing accident in February 1934 and succeeded by his son Leopold.  In July, Governor Tilkens left the colony with little ceremony.  In September, the Council of Ministers proposed Pierre Ryckmans to the King as the new Governor General.  Ryckmans’ early career had been in the Mandated Territories of Ruanda-Urundi, but had recently served the Minister of Colonies as a trouble-shooter, investigating labor problems in Congo-Kasai.


In September 1935, two Jesuit priests, Joseph Mols and Jean Coméliau, arrived in Leopoldville and established themselves in a house on Ave. Lippens, the main street leading into Kalina from Kinshasa district.  Jesuit missionaries were established at Kisantu in Bas-Congo region and at Kimwenza, outside Leopoldville.  These priests, however, were delegated to develop a parochial school for European boys to complement Sacré Coeur.  Father Coméliau began teaching the boys at Sacré Coeur, while Father Mols focused on getting the new school off the ground.  In March 1937, the Society of Jesus approved the proposed College St. Albert.  The following May, the order obtained a 6-hectare parcel between Sacré Coeur and Ave. Valcke (Justice), the main road to Leopoldville.  To ensure the safety of the schoolchildren having to cross streets to access the school buildings, a change in the urbanization plan was required such that Ave. du Comité Urbain was terminated at Ave. Josephine Charlotte.

Kalina District as developed in the late 1950s
The new school opened October 4, 1937 in borrowed space provided by the Soeurs and at the priests’ residence on Ave. Lippens with 32 students in the first three primary grades, including Jean Pierre Ryckmans, the Governor’s son.  During the year College was renamed Albert 1er in honor of the late King.  The buildings of the new campus were designed by Public Works engineer, E. Popijn, who also designed buildings at the African hospital and the Medical Assistants (AMI) school (See Aug. 5, 2011).  In addition to the land grant and architectural services, the colonial government also contributed to the construction costs and provided subsidies for the salaries of the clerical faculty.

Architect's rendering of College Albert 1er
College Albert 1er as completed late 1950s
By 1939, there were 135 students from a population of 2,800 Europeans.  Insecurity in Europe prompted parents to bring their children back to the colony, so that when the new school year started in September, there were 200 enrolled. In October 1940, with war in Europe, the College was formally inaugurated.

College Albert 1er and Sacre Coeur (the street in background is Ave VanGele, now Justice)
The Jesuits had other plans for the city.  In 1936, they requested authorization to start a radio station.  There was no immediate response as colonial legislation only allowed for wireless telegraphy, which was the purview of the colonial government.  However, Radio Leo was launched in 1937 and in 1939 its capacity was increased to 250 watts.  In the same year, Radio Congolia was established by Jean Hourdebise to broadcast in the 4 African languages the Congolese population, since Radio Leo targeted the European population of the city.  During World War II, Radio Leo became Radio Congo Belge, the voice of occupied Belgium.  The US Office of War Information relayed the Voice of America to Central, North African and Europe via the transmitter at College Albert.

College Boboto in 2005
Entrance to the stadium on Ave. Justice, "Albert 1er" defaced in the 1970s when the College became Boboto
Sources:

·      deMaret, Pierre, 1990. “Phases and Facies in the Archeology of Central Africa”, in: Peter Robertshaw, A History of African Archeology, pp.109-34.

·      Kinshasa: Architecture et paysage urbains, 2010. Images du Patrimoine.

·      Kolonga Molei, 1974, Kinshasa, ce Village de Hier,

·      Stonelake, Arthur, 1937, Congo: Past and Present, World Dominion Press.











Leopoldville 1929 – US Consulate Opens on Place Leopold

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When I was preparing the piece on the US Consulate (See Jan. 29, 2011), I sought unsuccessfully to establish where it was located when the office first opened in 1929.  The Consulate closed the following year and did not reopen until 1934.  Recently I came across a better quality image from the 1930s of the Crédit Foncier Africain (CFA) building on Place Leopold that clearly displays the State Department seal on the side of the building along Ave. Cerckel.  Since posting the earlier piece, I found a reference to the Consulate having been located during WWII on Ave. Olsen (ex-Flambeau, now Kabasele Tshamala) near Ndolo airport under terms of the Lend-Lease agreement with the Colony.


The Credit Foncier Africain building along Ave. Cerckel -- US State Department Seal at corner on R.

The Crédit Foncier Africain was a real estate subsidiary created in July 1921 by the Banque de Bruxelles, a late arrival on the Congo corporate scene.  Early on it financed the public market in Leopoldville (See Aug. 5, 2011) as well as the Hotel Metropole in Matadi and the Hotel Mangrove at Moanda. A later photo of the CFA building shows additional tenants, but without the US Consulate seal. These included Lopes, LeCocq, and Diamantino. Alexandre LeCocq was a French jeweler who established himself in Leopoldville in 1927, opening “Au Coq d’Or” on Place Leopold.  Diamantino established his photo studio in Leopoldville in 1933 and produced many of the postcards of the era.  Lopes may have been a tailor.  I have not found any reference to La Parisienne located on the side of the building on Ave. Cerckel.

The CFA building in the mid-1930s -- Ave Cerckel to the left
In 2003, a construction fence was erected around the old CFA building.  The building was seriously deteriorated, but no rehabilitation or other reconstruction followed.  When I visited Kinshasa in June 2011, I entered the enclosure and asked the sentinel on duty if I could photograph the façade.  He declined, saying he would have to obtain approval from Mr. Achour first.  The Achour family has a vast array of investments in DRC including Sokin, a food import firm that also represents Chinese Great Wall vehicles (showroom on Ave Mondjiba at the Basoko Bridge); the Pain d’Or bakery; and Trans-Benz, a transport company.  The Achour Group also bought out the Sedec real estate arm in 2002.  I decided I might not reach Mr. Achour in the timeframe available to me and continued on.  A still undeveloped piece of such prime real estate in downtown Kin after eight years may indicate that a clear title to the property is still in question.

The CFA building in 2004 enclosed in a construction fence
Rear view of the CFA building in 2011 -- the roof has collapsed. Forescom Building in background.
Next to the CFA building on Ave. Cerckel was the headquarters of the Mampeza commercial firm and next to it, Synkin. Mampeza was a Portuguese company engaged in import and export trade which has since been taken over by Orgaman, the holding company which now represents the Damseaux interests (See Mar. 27, 2011).  Synkin was a construction supply firm.  Opposite Mampeza were NAHV and Socophar (See July 3, 2011).  The Socophar building (Société Colonial de Pharmacie et de Droguerie) was later taken over by the Jules Van Lancker cattle ranch for its butcher shop and still in operation in 2006. NAHV was profiled in the July 3rd posting.

The Mampeza headquarters on Ave. Cerckel.  The Synkin store on L.
The NAHV property in 1935, opposite Mampeza
The Socophar pharmacy prior to its acquisition by JVL
Across the circle from the CFA building was a bust of Leopold II, which anchored Ave. Van Gele, the main road to Leopoldville.  To the right was Ave. Douane (where the Forescom Building would rise in 1946, See May 28, 2011), which led to the port and included the Customs bureau and several buildings housing various services of Otraco, the transportation parastatal that succeeded Unatra in 1935 (See Oct. 31, 2011).

Ave. VanGele (Ave. Lukusa) heading west from Place Leopold to old Leopoldville -- 1932
Ave. Douane from Port looking toward Place Leopold -- 1935.  CFA building in background.
Place Leopold has experienced change over the years.  During the Mobutu era and the wholesale name changes of the Recours à l’authenticité, it was known as Place Nioki, the town in Bandundu Province where Forescom has its main logging and sawmill operation.  Across Ave. Douane from the Forescom, one of the colonial era buildings was Shanghaied into Le Paradis de Shanghai Chinese restaurant with an application of green paint and spirit catchers on the gable-ends.  Across the circle, a two-story shopping arcade was completed in the 2000s. Chez Patrick restaurant was demolished (See Mar. 29, 2011) and a high-rise building is being erected at the intersection with Ave. du Port.  Plus ça change n’est pas toujours la mème chose.
Le Paradis de Shanghai between Forescom (R) and Boutique Diana (L)
Shopping Arcade on Ave. Lukusa





Leopoldville 1930s – Leisure in a time of Depression

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One of the challenges in writing an illustrated history of Kinshasa’s architectural heritage of the 1930s is that not much was built during the Depression.  In addition, from the standpoint of this blog, many of the few relevant images have already been shared in previous postings. Consequently, this piece will attempt to tie earlier vignettes with new information and perspectives.

Roadster in Leopoldville in 1937




Much of the development that did take place was promoted by the public sector, either the municipal Comité Urbain or the colonial government.  This was a time of art deco designs that included Parc De Bock (1930-34) and the Zoo (1938) (See Feb. 6, 2011), as well as the Mediterranean-inspired public (covered market), which opened in 1930 (See Aug. 5, 2011). These facilities were part of the Neutral Zone, designed to separate the growing European town from the African settlements (cités).  

Parc DeBock -- 1937
Leo Marche Coupole -- 1930s
Institut Tropicale Princess Astrid

Other public art deco-inspired infrastructure included the Clinique Reine Elisabeth (See Jan. 17, 2012), the Institut de médecine Tropicale Princesse Astrid (See Aug. 5, 2011), the main railway station and the monument to the late King Albert 1er.  The Force Publique erected its main supply depot on Ave. Prince de Liege (Ave. du Camp Militaire, previously aka Haut Commandement and then Nelson Mandela), leading from Kalina to Camp Leopold II.



The Gare Centrale shortly after completion
The Force Publique Depot looking north up Ave. Prince de Liege towards Kalina
A welcome development for the European community in 1931 was the opening of the Funa Club sports complex on the south side of the new Ndolo airport (See May 23, 2011) in what would become the second Neutral Zone, further segregating the European city from the African townships.  Located on the Funa River, the Funa Club was a private undertaking along the lines of the Cercle de Léopoldville (See Mar. 19, 2011), and was eventually purchased by the Comité Urbain as a public facility in 1944.  The art deco complex included an Olympic size swimming pool, tennis and volley ball courts, petanque, a bowling alley and a restaurant.  The Funa remained popular after Independence but has since disappeared under encroachment from the adjacent cité.  Google Earth shows what appears to be an industrial building on the site.

The Funa Club Pool
Satellite view of the former Funa Club (lower left)
The Leopoldville airstrip was relocated from Kalina to Ndolo to make way for the new administrative district
In 1931, as well, Father (Tata) Raphael de la Kethulle (See Feb. 6, 2011) began to develop a sports ground for Africans at St. Pierre parish in the cite, using school children’s labor to clear the swampy ground.  Over the next several years, the site was further developed (along with St. Pierre church and school), culminating in Stade Reine Astrid in 1937 and the adjacent Parc Sports General Ermens in 1942.
A football team in Leopoldville -- 1930s
 

Another popular sport was cycling.  The first city-wide bicycle took place in December 1935 with Governor Ryckmans issuing the prize. The following March, a major biking event was organized at the new Velodrome in Kintambo. Promoted by the Vélo-Club de Léopoldville; other teams were supported by Kaiser, Orban, Nogueira, and Ollivant – the first two were bicycle dealerships, the last two major import houses selling bikes.  Curiously, the Vélo-Club was sponsored by the Singer sewing machine agency.  Joining in the marketing opportunity, the Chanic shipyards and Righini garage (See June 28, 2011) provided transport so Congolese could attend the race, while the Cohadon tire company (See Mar. 5, 2011) ensured that the racecourse was lit with electric lights. 

The bicycle team of the Association des Anciens Elèves des Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes (ASSANEF)
Kinshasa Velodrome in 2008 -- St. Francois Church on left
Cosmo-Kin edition Nov-Dec. 1933
 With an increasing European and African population, the range of media available began to expand.  Two competitive newspapers; l’Avenir Colonial Belge and the Courrier d’Afrique were on the scene in the 1930s.  l’Avenir had been published since 1920, while the Courrier d’Afrique appeared in January 1930 to provide a clerical counterpoint to the “liberal” tendencies of l’Avenir.  An insouciant upstart in this clash of the culture wars was Cosmo-Kin, a multi-lingual weekly that appeared in 1931 and chronicled the city’s jazz-filled nightlife and cultural offerings.  In July 1933, the catholic missionary establishment published the first edition of the Croix du Congo, a publication designed for the evolué (educated Congolese) community.  The paper was published by Sodimca, which produced and printed the Courrier d’Afrique.






The first edtion of La Croix du Congo
A public library opened for the European community in 1932, although a privately organized library had organized as early as 1925.  Once College Albert 1er opened in 1937 (See Jan. 17, 2012), its collection quickly surpassed the public library.  The Jesuits at College Albert also started the first radio station, which broadcast a limited program for the European community.  In 1939, Jean Hourdebise’s Radio Congolia began broadcasts targeted at the Congolese population in the cités. Radio access for Congolese was later enhanced by installing loudspeakers at public places in the cité to serve a wider audience, and effectively developing a wider market for radios, which were within the budgets of middle class Congolese.

Leopoldville Library -- note busts of Leopold III and Astrid
Leopoldville Library -- 1930s
Loudspeakers installed in the cite to broadcast radio programs
Movies were another popular pastime.  As early as 1910, the first films were shown in Leopoldville.  In 1916, Henri Legaert opened the first cinema, screening films from France and UK depicting WWI battlefield scenes.  A certain Fabré operated a cinema and ice-plant in the 1920s. This may have been Cinéma Apollo Palace (See Mar. 24, 2011).   In 1932, Robert Notterdam, a former employee of the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga opened the first cinema showing “talkies” in the capital, but returned to Katanga the following year to open the Ciné Palace in Elisabethville (Lubumbashi). The Ciné Central was another popular movie house of the 1930s, located on Ave. Rubbens near the port, in the Rhodius Frères’ store (See Feb. 6, 2011).  After WWII, Hourdebise of Radio Congolia opened the first cinema for Africans, obtaining a half-acre plot from the government for this purpose.  Hourdebise later opened the Albertum Cinema on Blvd. Albert and the Roxy in Kintambo, where Nando’s is now located (See July 10, 2011).

Cinema Central
Ave Rubbens looking south towards Place de la Poste -- Rhodius Freres building on right
No exposé on leisure in Kinshasa would be complete without some commentary on the bar scene. Earlier posts featured the range of hotels and restaurants operating in the city over the years (See June 28, 2011), which included most of the bars catering to the European community.  The Brasserie de Léopoldville (now Bralima, brewer of Primus) was created in October 1923 with capital from the Banque de Bruxelles.  Segregation precluded Europeans and Congolese sharing a beer; but there was another justification for the new brewery, to provide an alternative to locally distilled alcohol or “lotoko”. 

Brasserie de Leopoldville -- 1930s
Guitarist in Kinshasa -- 1930s

Part of the justification for the paternalist, colonial rule was that it made a postive improvement in the African’s social development.  Consequently, any European role in encouraging Congolese to engage in vices was discouraged.  On July 23, 1932, a Decree authorized Africans to sell alcohol, but only to other Africans, which paved the way for the establishment of legal bars in the cité. Still, it seems that traditional forms of alcohol continued to appeal to Kinois.  In 1935, Jules Van Lancker, a influential rancher and plantation owner (See Feb. 3, 2012), urged that a solution be found to the felling of palm trees to extract palm wine, which was destroying the palm groves around Leopoldville.   Other factors were beginning to appear which would have a profound effect on Kinshasa’s night-life.  On New Years Eve 1936, Antoine Roger Bolamba, an evolué with significant literary talent, hosted a party of the Cercle de l’amitié where the newly popular Rumba music from Cuba was played on a phonograph.  Congolese music -- “Congo jazz” -- was on its way, but that is another story.





Sources:

·      Abel, Richard. 2005, Encyclopedia of Early Cinema, Taylor and Francis.

·      Feuchaux, Laurent. 2000, Vie coloniale et faits divers à Léopoldville (1920-1940), in Itinéraires croisés de la modernité - Congo belge (1920-1950), Cahiers Africains.

·      Gondola, Charles Didier. 1996. Villes miroirs: Migrations et identités urbaines a Kinshasa et Brazzaville, 1930-1970, Collection Villes et entreprises.

·      Hunt, Nancy Rose. 2002. “Tintin and the interruptions of Congolese Comics” in, Landau, Paul S, Ed. Images and empires: visuality in colonial and postcolonial Africa, University of California Press.

·      Miracle, Marvin. 1969. Agricultural economics in Africa: trends in theory and method.
















Léopoldville 1924 – Monument des Aviateurs

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On July 1st, 1924, the entire European community of Kinshasa and Léopoldville turned out at the end of Ave. Militaire (See Mar. 12, 2011) near the port to inaugurate a monument commemorating three aviators killed three years’ previously when their flying boat crashed.  Beginning in April 1920, Belgian pilots and support crews had been trying to establish the Ligne Aérienne Roi Albert (LARA) to link Kinshasa and Stanleyville and provide a fortnightly service to connect with regular arrivals of ships from Belgium at the port of Boma. 
A Levy-Lepen flying boat on the river side
Monument des Aviateurs
 

The Levy-Lepen flying boats used were of marginal quality; turned out in great numbers during WWI for use by inexperienced pilots. The challenges of operating an airline in tropical Africa, including re-attaching the fabric of the fuselage after each flight, were daunting.  The line folded in June 1922 for lack of funds to purchase equipment that would be adequate to the conditions, but this experience would eventually lead in 1923 to the creation of Sabena, the Belgian Airline.  Part of Sabena’s capital was provided by the colony and the first flight connecting Léopoldville to Belgium took place in 1925.  It appears likely that Ave. Militaire became known as Ave. des Aviateurs after the inauguration of the aviators’ monument.















Monument des Aviateurs viewed from Ave. Astrid (Lumpungu)
The monument, a stone obelisk topped with a bronze statue of a stylized flyer, was the work of Belgian sculptor, Arsène Matton.  Matton had significant experience in Congo, having made a trip to the colony in 1911 at the behest of the Colonial Ministy to collect samples of “representative” ethnic types for a set of 4 allegorical statues commissioned for the main rotunda of the new Colonial museum in Tervuren.  He set up an atelier in Kinshasa and in September was taking photos and making plaster castings of the family of one of the Congolese port supervisors.  Afterwards, the man’s wife refused to return, as (she said) she did not want to be placed on a pedestal like the Stanley Monument in old Léopoldville (See Feb. 20, 2011).   At that time, the main port was still where the Chanic shipyards are located today and the structure in question was the first monument erected in Léopoldville, created in 1898 in cement by a Swedish Captain in the Force Publique, von Ingesberg, to commemorate the arrival of the railway from Matadi.

Monument de Liberte with Leopold II bust at the base
Two other monuments, both bronze busts, were placed in prominent locations in Kinshasa at the beginning of the 1920s.  These were the work of royal favorite Thomas de Vincotte.  A bust of Léopold II by Vincotte was placed on Place Léopold II (See Feb. 3, 2012).  Another to King Albert 1er was inaugurated at the beginning of the 1920s on the Place de la Poste.  It appears to predate the Monument des Aviateurs as period photographs do not show the latter in the background of the Albert statue.  Vincotte’s bust presents Albert in his role as defender of Belgium against the German invasion in 1914, wearing his helmet and an expression of determined calm before the onslaught.  This same bust appeared on pedestals in Matadi and Jadotville (Likasi) in Katanga.  It appears that the Albert bust was relocated after the main monument was erected in front of the Gare Centrale in 1939 (See Aug. 28, 2011) but the Léopold II bust remained on Place Léopold until the colonial statues were taken down in 1971.  The Léopold II bronze is in storage at the National Museum in Kinshasa.



Leopold II statue on Place Leopold
Bust of Leopold II at the National Museum in Kinshasa
Inauguration of the Albert 1er statue on Ave. Militaire (Aviateurs)
Albert 1er statue -- Monument des Aviateurs was later erected at the end of the street
Vincotte also obtained a commission for the Monument to the Pioneers of the Belgian Congo in Brussels in 1921 and later an equestrian statue of Léopold II; inaugurated in Brussels in 1926 and in Léopoldville by King Albert in 1928 (See Sep. 12, 2011).  After Léopold’s statue was removed in 1971 and consigned to the public works garage in Kingabwa, the site in front of the first Parliament remained vacant until 2001 when the late President Kabila’s mausoleum was placed there and a statue erected on the first anniversary of his assassination in January 2002.

Leopold II statue at inauguration
L.D. Kabila monument and mausoleum in front of the President's Offices
Paul Panda Farnana

Another monument, “Monument du Souvenir”, was inaugurated in July 1927 at the intersection of Avenues Lippens and Valcke in Kalina.  This war memorial was the result of the effort by Mfumu Paul Panda Farnana, considered to be the first Congolese nationalist.  Panda Farnana was born the son of a chief near Moanda on the coast in 1888.  At 12, he was taken to Belgium by Lieutenant Derscheid, one of the first Belgian explorers of Katanga.  He enrolled in the Athenée de Bruxelles, excelled and eventually received a post-secondary degree in agronomy.  He returned to Congo in 1909 and was assigned to the Botanical Gardens at Eala at Coquilhatville (Mbandaka).  Later, he was named Chef de District ad interim of his home region of Bas-Fleuve.  On leave in Belgium in August 1914, Panda volunteered in the Belgian Army for the defense of Namur. Captured by the Germans, he spent the remaining four years of the war as a prisoner.



After the war, Panda became involved in the Panafrican movement in Europe, a collaborator of W.E.B. Dubois and others.  In January 1923, he wrote to Maj. Vervloet, an influential ex-colonial, advocating for a monument to the unknown Congolese soldier, to be dedicated either on Armistice Day or September 19, the date in 1916 of the Belgian Congo victory over the Germans at Tabora in contemporary Tanzania.  Panda’s efforts paid off and sculptor Jacques Marin was commissioned for the memorial (See July 5, 2011). General Charles Tombeur, ennobled the previous December and allowed to add “de Tabora” to his name, inaugurated the monument.  One of Marin’s last commissions was a bust of General Tombeur, erected in Brussels in 1951 after his death in 1950 (Tombeur died in 1947).


Monument du Souvenir
Monument du Souvenir -- note steam roller on Ave. Lippens (R)
Monument du Souvenir at the National Museum
La Pleureuse

The statue became the site of regular visits by senior Belgian and other officials, including King Baudouin in 1955, who came to pay homage to the heroes of Belgian colonial military effort in two world wars.  In 1971, the statue was removed and later replaced with a moving bronze statue of a weeping Congolese woman, “La Pleureuse”, by Wuma Mbambila Ndombasi. Wuma studied at the Academie des Beaux Arts.

























"La Pleureuse" in front of the Supreme Court
Sources:

  •       Dillien, André. 2010. “LARA:ligne aérienne Roi Albert”, VTB-Magazine, Juillet-Septembre 2010.
  •       Mudimbe, V.Y. 1980. La Dépendance de l'Afrique et les moyens d'y remédier: Africa's dependence and the remedies, Agence de coopération culturelle et technique.
  •       Musée de Louvain-la-Neuve, 2008. Miettes d’archives, Octobre 2008. (muse.ucl.ac.be/medias/docs)


Leopoldville 1920s – Yankee Traders on the Congo

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When I lived in Kinshasa in the mid-2000s, this building at the corner of Ave. Ebeya (Cambier) and Equateur (Beernaert) was intriguing.  It was clearly a colonial structure of some significance, but now without signage, its street level fenestration and main entrance plastered over, and with agents and vehicles from the security company DSA parked outside, there was no clue what it might once have been.

The building is across Ave. Equateur from the former covered market (now African Lux).  It predated the market, built in 1925, as described in the post on architects (See Aug. 5, 2011).  A view looking east on Ave. Cambier from the early 20’s provides a view of the building beyond the Office du Travail, which later became City Hall.

L.C. Gillespie & Sons beyond the Office du Travail 
A recent photo cleared up the mystery.  It was the original headquarters of L.C. Gillespie & Sons, a New Jersey based dealer in tropical resins used in the manufacture of varnish and shellac.  Gillespie was already established in Asia -- China, India, Java and New Zealand in particular -- since the 19th Century, but after World War One the company took an interest in the Congo.   It was good timing.  The War in Europe had created new opportunities for American exports to Africa, displacing Germany and other colonial powers to take second place position after Great Britain.   

L.C. Gillespie & Sons, Ave. Cambier (R) and Beernaert (L)

US consular officials saw an opportunity for the establishment of American companies in each port along the coast to carry out bilateral trade; selling American made goods and shipping colonial produce back to the States.  However, there was no direct shipping line from the US to West African ports.  In February 1918, the Gillespie firm chartered the 4-masted schooner “Purnell T. White” on its maiden voyage to Boma, assigning its agent to purchase 5000 pounds of ivory.  The “Purnell T. White” returned in July with a cargo of copal, a gum found in the rainforests of Equateur region and used to produce varnish.  Gillespie subsequently established a trading center for copal at Inganda near Coquilhatville (Mbandaka) while opening shop in Kinshasa as the representative of the Ford Motor Company in Congo.  Later, L.C. Gillespie became the agents in Kinshasa for the Bull Line, a US shipping company that began service from New York to West Africa via the UK in 1920 and carried regular cargos of Gillespie copal back to the US.


As one of the few “Yankee” firms operating in Congo in the 1920s prior to the establishment of the U.S. Consulate in 1929 (See Feb. 3, 2012), Gillespie & Sons were often called upon to serve as defacto commercial representative of U.S. interests.  For example, the Harvard African Expedition to Congo in 1926 acknowledged the “many courtesies and great assistance in Kinshasa” provided by Gillespie’s Director Robert N. Kennedy.  Similarly, the firm could be expected to support the American community in Congo.  When the Congo Protestant Council, whose membership included many American missions, held its Jubilee in Leopoldville in 1928, Gillespie provided vehicles to assist with logistics.  Another early employee was Paul Kirst, who joined the company in Kinshasa in 1922 and remained in the automotive business in Leopoldville after the parent company went bankrupt on the eve of the Depression (See Mar. 5, 2011).  The Congo operation continued for a few years as Ets. Congolais Gillespie.  Kirst left the firm in 1930 to become the local representative of Texaco.



L.C. Gillespie & Sons at the parade during King Albert's visit in1928 (Model T Ford and 2 Fordson tractors)
Sources:

·      Anet, Henri. 1929. Message of the Congo Jubilee and West Africa Conference, Conseil Protestant du Congo.

·      Boyce, William Dickson. 1925. Illustrated Africa, Rand McNally & Co.

·      Burgess, Robert H. 1970. Sea, sails, and shipwreck: career of the four-masted schooner Purnell T. White, Cambridge, MD: Tidewater Publishers.

·      “The Commercial Outlook in West Africa”, 1921, The American Review of Reviews, pp.102-103.

·      Harvard African Expedition, 1969. The African Republic of Liberia and the Belgian Congo: based on the observations made and material collected during the Harvard African Expedition, 1926-1927, Greenwood Press.

Leopoldville 1934 – The Salvation Army Marches In

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In September 1934, Adjutant Henri Becquet of the Belgian Salvation Army and his wife Paula arrived in Leopoldville to establish the missionary work of this Protestant church in the capital.  The Salvation Army traditionally had a vocation to work in urban areas, but the arrival of a Belgian Protestant mission would have heartened the other Protestants in Leopoldville, the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) and the British Baptist Mission Society (BMS), which had been working here since the founding of Leopoldville at the beginning of the 1880s (See Jan. 6, 2011).


Becquet had earlier visited Leopoldville in March and negotiated with Texaf for a building on Ave. Telegraphie (now Commercants) near the current Marché in the Cité in Kinshasa to use for church services.  The Becquets moved into the former L.C. Gillespie headquarters on Ave. Cambier, which had gone out of business at the start of the Depression (See Mar. 13, 2012).  While Becquet was thorough in his preparations, there was no shortage of buildings available in Kinshasa at the time; there were 333 vacant structures in Leopoldville-Est alone.  The Salvation Army’s arrival in theCitécoincided with both Catholic Scheut and BMS missions establishing churches in the Cité to serve the growing African urban population (See Aug. 5, 2011).
The L.C. Gillespie store on Ave. Cambier - "Mogul" was the firm's telegraphic address

The first open air service was held at the Zando ya Imbwa market near Ndolo on October 14.  The impact of these missionaries in their white uniforms was electrifying.  The response from the Congolese was so enthusiastic and overwhelming that by Christmas Becquet had to suspend further proselytizing in the African neighborhoods out of concern that the burgeoning church would upset the colonial status quo.  There was another factor to explain the growing number of adherents and worry the colonial authorities.  The Salvationist “S” on the collar of their uniforms was interpreted to herald the return of Simon Kimbangu, a former BMS catechist who established an indigenous Congolese church in 1921 and was subsequently arrested and transferred to life imprisonment in Elisabethville in Katanga Province.

On the anniversary of the first service in October 1935, 2000 Congolese attended.  The Colonial authorities urged the Becquets to move their work outside the city. Instead, the Salvationists opened a second church in Binza, built entirely by the Congolese themselves, on the heights above old Leopoldville.  By 1936, there were 9 European missionaries in Leopoldville and the church began to expand into the eastern villages of the city along the rail line to Matadi: Kimbanseke, Kimwenza, Maluku, Yolo and Kasangulu.  A military school to train cadets was established in Barumbu in September 1938. 
The original church on Ave. Telegraphie -- 2010
The rear of the church -- 2010


In May 1937, Becquet was assisted at a “matondo” thanksgiving service in Yolo by Simon Mpadi, a former ABFMS catechist sacked by that mission at Sona Bata for adultery. But in September 1939, Mpadi broke with Becquet and set out to establish his own church.  Subsequently, Governor General Ryckmans received a petition signed by Chiefs in 151 villages in Madimba and Inkisi Territories outside of Leopoldville to establish a “Mission des Noirs” along the lines of the Salvation Army.  As precedent, the letter cited the “Mission Musulmane” serving the Senegalese community in Leopoldville.  Mpadi was arrested in December and exiled to a Belgian concentration camp at Befale in Equator Province.  But the Salvation Army had suffered a setback.  When the mission applied to join the Congo Protestant Council in October 1939, its acceptance was predicated on adherence to CPC principles, to only work in urban areas and break with Kimbangu, Ngounzists and kindokism (the latter two were other Congolese millenarian sects).  The mission focused its work on education, including vocational training, with over 1000 students enrolled in its schools in Leopoldville on the eve of World War II.
Salvation Army students parade around Monument Albert 1er -- 1944
A church was built on Ave. Telegraphie and the headquarters of the Church moved from the Gillespie property down Ave. Cambier to the corner of Ave. Plateau, a block from the Hotel Memling (See Mar. 29, 2011).  During the riots in January 1959, the church’s facilities in the Cité were damaged but rebuilt in the following year with grants from the Salvation Army’s International Headquarters and the Belgian authorities. New schools were built at Ndjili Brasserie, Kimbanseke & Kinzambi.

The Salvation Army Headquarters on Ave. Ebeya -- 2006
In May 2002, President Kabila named David Nku Imbie as Governor of Kinshasa.  A Teke Humbu born in Makala Commune in 1952, Nku Imbie was a medical doctor heading up the Salvation Army’s medical services in DRC and the first Governor of Kinshasa chosen from among the original settlers of the town.  In September 2003, plans were announced to build a new $40,000 health center in Barumbu Commune, to be managed by the Salvation Army.

Sources:
·         Etambala, Mathieu Zana, 2005. “L’Armee du Salut et la Naissance de la ‘Mission des Noirs” au Congo Belge, 1934-1940” Anales Aequatoria 26.
·         www.wikinshasa.com

Leopoldville 1913 - SYNKIN Begins Operations

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As Kinshasa began to supplant Leopoldville as the economic center of the future capital, local authorities developed plans to relocate the port upstream to Kinshasa (See Mar. 13, 2011).  A new company, the Syndicat d’Etudes et d’Entreprises au Congo, known as Synkin, was established in February 1913 in hopes of securing the contract to construct the port.  The Ministry of Colonies decided not to go forward with the port project at that time, so Synkin opted to extend its reach into the construction industry; selling construction materials, equipment and tools of all kinds, establishing a sawmill and carpentry shop, operating a shipyard, and securing a forest concession at Lukolela some 200 kilometers up the Congo River to supply its operations in the city.
The SYNKIN store viewd from Ave. Cerckel (Ave. de la Paix)

Synkin established its offices at the corner of Ave. Beernaert (Equateur) and Cerckel (Paix) in a Romanesque arcaded building that wrapped around the street corner with a curious tower structure in the center. An early director was Joseph Rhodius, a former rail superintendent on the Matadi-Leopolville line, who joined the firm after building the Hotel A.B.C. in 1914 (See Mar. 27, 2011).  Under his direction Synkin built many houses in the town as well as the offices of the Intertropical-Comfina trading firm.  After World War I, Rhodius left Synkin to found the Texaf textile factory and build the Sanga hydro-power station that would later become part of today’s SNEL (Jan. 9, 2011). He was succeeded at Synkin by Leon Biron who played an important role in municipal affairs and directed the company’s activities for 25 years, before retiring as Director General in 1946. 
The SYNKIN store from Ave. Cerckel (R) and Beernaert (L)

In 1920 Synkin carried out a feasibility study to provide potable water to the town.  At this point, the ABC Hotel was sending a truck to Leopoldville every day to bring water in dame-jeanne jugs.  By 1923, the water plant was providing 800 cubic meters of treated water daily, drawn from the Congo River.

The water tower on Ave. VanGele (Lukusa) - House in foreground approximate location of Citibank today

In October 1923, a journalist for the Nation Belge, Roger de Chatelux – known by his nom de plume Chalux -- visited Kinshasa.  Taking into account the decision the previous year to name Kinshasa as the future capital (See Sep. 12, 2011), Chalux was impressed by the significant construction activity under way in Kinshasa and adjacent Kalina.  He found Synkin to be in the middle of it all.  When he got off the train from Matadi, he had to detour around an “army” of Congolese placing the mauve cobble stones which can still be found in parts of downtown.  Chalux noted that Synkin was involved in water supply, ship building, sale of construction materials, construction of most housing in Leopoldville and Kinshasa, and a range of public works projects.
SYNKIN store looking down Ave. Cerckel -- Note Texaco gas pump on corner
When Oscar Chinn first arrived in Kinshasa in 1930, he initially began his ship-building operation at the Synkin yard in Ndolo (See.Oct. 31, 2011).  Synkin was also the representative of Texaco, with a gas pump on the corner of Aves. Beernaert and Cerckel.
SYNKIN -- 1930s
After WWII, Otraco acquired the Synkin shipyard at Ndolo in order to expand its shipyard from 2.6 hectares to 10 ha and gain 350 meters of river frontage.  In the 1950s, Synkin rebuilt its store on Ave. Cerckel with a modern brick façade not often seen in commercial structures in Leopoldville.
The SYNKIN store prior to reconstruction
The SYNKIN store undergoing reconstruction
The completed SYNKIN store
The new store viewed from Ave. Cerckel
The old store from Ave. de la Paix
When foreign businesses were nationalized under Mobutu’s Zairianization program in 1973, Synkin became Zamat.  Its first Congolese Director General was Jean Bolikango (See Sep. 30, 2011), a contender for Prime Minister in 1960 and later Minister of Information.  Like many Zairianized businesses, when Mobutu offered the firms back to the original owners in 1976, there were no takers.  Most recently, the building housed a furniture store which did a slow business selling imported Italian furniture.
The SYNKIN store in 2004
Sources:
·         Chalux, 1925. Un an au Congo Belge. Librairie Albert Dewitt.
·         Lederer, 1965. Histoire de la Navigation au Congo, Musée Royale de l’Afrique Centrale.
·         Moulaert, Georges. 1948. Souvenirs d’Afrique 1902-1912. Eds. C. Dessart.
 

Kinshasa 2012 – Plus ça change…

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I had an opportunity to return to Kinshasa last week and see how things have evolved since I attended the TASOK Reunion in June 2011 (July 3, 2011).  There is a bit of “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose” about Kinshasa, but there is definitely change.  I stayed at the Memling Hotel (Mar. 29, 2011).  The constant passage of shoe shiners clicking their boxes on the street below sounded like horse-drawn carts on cobbled streets, of which the latter can still be found in this part of Kinshasa (June 18, 2012).
Ave. Plateau, looking towards the Boulevard
First, an update on Boulevard du 30e Juin (Jan.23, 2011).  The eight-lane highway handles a huge volume of traffic as the primary east-west artery serving the downtown.  It can be congested at peak times in the day, but traffic moves smoothly for the most part.  The placement of brick-colored sidewalk tiles being laid last year is largely completed from Socimat intersection to the Gare Centrale, providing a boon to Kinshasa’s majority pedestrian population.  The square emplacements for trees placed at regular intervals along the sidewalk, however, remain empty and have become targets for tossing trash.  I hope the municipal authorities will take advantage of the upcoming rainy season to plant trees along the Boulevard to restore the stately lines of the Limba trees planted in the mid-1950s when the Boulevard was first constructed.

Boulevard du 30e Juin -- sidewalks


There are stop lights on the Boulevard.  High tech affairs which show direction permitted and time remaining before the light changes, as well as time for pedestrian crossing.  There appear to be two schools of thought on this development among Kinois.  One group, by no means minority, behaves as if these directions should be complied with.  A second faction, holdouts from a different era, still run lights or dash across the road against the light.  I heard numerous critical observations of such behavior by pedestrians as we stood waiting patiently for our light.  Even where there are no stoplights, drivers will stop for pedestrians as they venture across the zebra crossings.




Blvd. 30e Juin & Ave. Port

Does this blog have any influence in Kinshasa’s development or is it just a nostalgia buff’s preoccupation with Lipopoand Kin-la-belle?  In the series on hotels in March last year (Mar. 27, 2011), I looked at the second Hotel Stanley, which served as the French Embassy for 50 years until it relocated to UtexAfrica last year (July 3, 2011).  Since its construction in the late 1950s, the hotel presented an unadorned back-side to the Boulevard.  Now, an investor is completing an engaging 4-story “flat-iron” office building in the triangle converging on 30e Juin.

New construction on Blvd. 30e Juin & Ave. Plateau - former French Embassy in background
In March this year, I featured the dilapidated and featureless former office of the L.C. Gillespie company on Ave. Ebeya (Mar.14, 2012).  In the 1920s, Gillespie was the local representative of the Ford Motor Company.  Recently, AMC opened a Ford showroom there. Plus ca change…

The Ford dealership on Ave. Ebeya
Returning to the Boulevard, the building on the site of the former Albertum Cinema (and later Cinemax), which I found suspended last year, is now rising above the Boulevard in an engaging, semi-circular structure, said to be a hotel built by former President of the Federation des Entreprises Congolaises (the Chamber of Commerce), Kinduelo.  The structure presents a new face on the Boulevard while at the same time maintaining scale with its neighbors and the Hotel de Postes across the street.

Cinema Cinemax, ex-Albertum on the Boulevard
New building on Blvd. 30e Juin
Down the street from the Kinduelo project, in front of the Police office occupying the old Cercle de Kinshasa (Mar. 19, 2011), a sign promotes the “Hub d’Affaires du Leopoard Volant”.  Given the location, I declined to pull out my camera, but it appears to be the resurrection of the Claude Laurens’ Hotel Aviamar complex (Aug. 15, 2011).  The “Leopard Volant” refers to Lignes Aeriennes Congolaises (Air Congo) and the proposed project promises a 7-star hotel, 300 offices, 1500 parking spaces, an Olympic swimming pool, as well as residential and commercial space.  I was not able to find anything about the project on an initial search of the web, however.



Congolese music, Congo Jazz, is experiencing a return to its roots.  Contempoary musician Koffi Olomide recently organized a concert to recognize veteran musician Tabu Ley.  He now has a concert planned to interpret and commemorate the late Franco Luambo Makiadi’s music.





On this trip, I made a point of visiting the Botanical Garden a few blocks from downtown (Feb. 6, 2011).  Created in 1933, the park experienced a decline as a haven for street children and prostitutes until its rehabilitation in June 2010 as part of the 50thIndependence Anniversary celebration.  I paid my Fr.2000 ex-pat entrance fee and entered an urban oasis of greenery and calm on the edges of Kinshasa’s frenetic urban scene.  The garden continues to be well-maintained and workers were watering and tending to the plants.  It also attracts impassioned believers who audibly and earnestly profess their faith among the shrubbery. I found the same phenomenon at the National Arboretum in Nairobi where I lived before moving back to Congo this year.

Botanical Garden -- rear entrance




Leopoldville 1902 – First Hospital for Congolese

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The first hospital for African - Hopital de la Rive
The first hospital for Congolese opened in Leopoldville in 1902, built by Cdt. Mahieu along a strip of land downstream from the port between Mount Leopold and the rapids (See Mar. 5,2011). Considering the fact that the colonial settlement on Ngaliema Bay had been already been established for 20 years and the first hospital for Europeans was only created a decade earlier, it is important to understand that concern for the health of Congolese was closely linked to awareness that sick Africans could transmit their illnesses to the vulnerable European population.  This perceived (though erroneous) threat represented the justification for the creation of “neutral zones” between the two communities (See July 31, 2011). 

The two medical services continued to be closely linked, notwithstanding the segregation inherent in their respective operations, and played exemplary roles in delivering health care to the growing city.  Dr. Gustave Dryepondt established the hospital for Europeans in 1891, in a paillote near the river.  Six years later, the Association Congolaise et Africaine de la Croix Rouge (a charity founded by Leopold II in 1887), opened a hospital at the top of Mount Leopold on the Caravan Road. 

The Red Cross Hospital
This was followed in 1899 by a Laboratoire Médicale established by Dr. Van Campenhout. (replaced the following year by Alphonse Broden). This complex became the foundation for medical services in Leopoldville and the wider urban area until the 1930s.  The original laboratory was built on swampy ground near the Baptist Mission (SeeApr. 30, 2011)but was temporarily relocated to Boma while a new facility was being built adjacent to the hospital on the hill.
The Bacteriological Laboratory - now Commune de Ngaliema

Malaria among Europeans was an initial preoccupation, but sleeping sickness affecting Congolese necessitated particular attention as the spread of the disease affected the workforce.  When the Dutton-Todd expedition arrived in Leopoldville in November 1903 to study Trypanosomiasis (the scientific name for sleeping sickness) the doctors worked with Dr. Broden for seven months at the Hôpital des Noirs, as it was called, even sending several patients to Liverpool for treatment.  A contemporary observer noted that Leopoldville’s population had declined to only 100 African residents due to the disease.  Thousands of local Teke people were reported to have succumbed to the sickness.

Serious progress was made in expanding the hospital during 1906.  US Consul Smith visited Leopoldville from Boma in August 1907, reporting, “decently constructed buildings” on the river below town.  The patients were well-treated by a “skillful” physician interested in the work. In the same year, Dr. Jerome Rhodain joined Broden and took over the hospital and Lazaret.  A new Lazaret was built on the Kilimani plateau above the river and connected to the town’s water supply.
The Sleeping Sickness Lazaret
Interior of a lazaret

In 1907 as well, the Catholic order of the Soeurs Franciscains de Marie came to Leopoldville to work in the Red Cross hospital and Lazaret, and establish an orphanage. During 1911-13, a new Provincial doctor, René Mouchet, continued research into trypanosomiasis.  Queen Elisabeth provided funds to build a model Lazaret and establish a training school for African Medical Assistants.

Tuberculosis camp

As Kinshasa began to grow in importance and rival the original settlement at Leopoldville (Mar. 13, 2011), a Dispensary for Africans was established in Kinshasa in 1912 on the site of the current Hôpital Général de Réference (formerly Mama Yemo).  Three years later, the Soeurs Franciscaines were assigned to work at this hospital, as well.

Entrance to the Hopital des Noirs in Kinshasa
In 1920, Louise Pearce, an American researcher assigned by the Rockefeller Foundation arrived in Leopoldville to test tryparsamide as a treatment for sleeping sickness.  She observed that the 3-room ground floor of the Laboratory was nearly finished; the equipment was fairly good, though there was no electricity.  By 1922, the Laboratory was completed, although space was limited and plans were underway to move the facility to Kinshasa.  A new doctor at the hospital in Kinshasa allowed Dr. Van Hoof to devote full time to the Laboratory.  The following year, three new medical pavilions were opened next to the dispensary in Kinshasa.
New wings in the Hopital de Noirs -- 1920s
Another view of the Hopital des Noirs -- 1920s
The Kinshasa hospital was expanded in 1925 and modern radiology equipment was ordered.  By 1926, the hospital had 192 beds for men and 48 for women and children.  The following year, when a yellow fever epidemic threatened the city, the first cases of typhoid were also reported, suspected to have been transmitted by the opening of SABENA’s new air link to Elisabethville in Katanga. 

The dining hall
During King Albert and Queen Elisabeth’s visit to the city in July 1928, the Queen urged that a more commodious medical facility be constructed for the European population.  This led to a decision to construct a modern hospital in Kalina District, which became the Clinique Reine Elisabeth (August 5, 2011).  At this point as well, plans were finalized to move the Laboratory to Kinshasa while the original Congolese hospital by the river became a facility treating lepers.  The hospital in Kinshasa became the primary facility providing treatment to Congolese until the Kintambo hospital opened in 1958 (April 30, 2011). 
Queen Elisabeth visits the hospital -- 1928
Hopital de la Rive -- 2010
Commune de Ngaliema, formerly the Red Cross Hospital -- 2009
Commune de Ngaliema, former Bacteriological Laboratory -- 2006
Hopital General de Kinshasa, formerly Hopital des Noirs -- 2010

 
Sources:


·         Foreign Relations of the United States, 1907, Vol.II.


·         Janssens, Edouard, 1912. Les Belges au Congo, Vol III.


·         Moulaert, Georges, 1948.  Souvenirs d’Afrique.


·         www.wikinshasa.com

Leopoldville 1925 – First Flight from Belgium

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At 11:00 on the morning of April 3, 1925, a three-motor biplane droned into the skies over Kinshasa. The cream of colonial society was waiting and a band struck up strains of the Belgian national anthem, “La Brabanconne”.  The aircraft, a Handley-Page, nicknamed “Princesse Marie-Josée” left Brussels in mid-February and completed its journey under the command of Lt. Thieffry in 75 hours of flying time (over 50 days).  This audacious effort was the beginning of SABENA’s colonial service (the colony had contributed 25% of the capital when the new Belgian airline was created in 1923).  Three other aircraft were shipped by sea.  Over the next two years, SABENA would establish 80 air links within the colony.
The Handley Page "Princesse Marie Jose" in Kinshasa - April 3, 1925
The SABENA fleet at Ndolo
SABENA was created two years earlier out of a consortium that had tried to launch air service from Leopoldville to Stanleyville (Kisangani) using World War One-era flying boats (See. Feb. 24 2012).   Three weeks after the “Marie Josée’s” arrival, SABENA launched service to Luebo in Kasai as part of a planned route linking the capital at Boma with Elisabethville in Katanga province.  The flight took 6 hours and 45 minutes and carried 5 passengers and 195 kilos of mail.

Kinshasa 1925 - Spectators at the airfield
Kinshasa 1926 - Ceremony commemorating Thieffry's Flight
The aerodrome was located on 100 hectares at Ndolo, “a few miles out of Leopoldville”, with a 33 by 40 square meter hangar, brick buildings with an office, staff quarters, and fuel storage.  On the first anniversary of Thieffry’s flight, a commemorative plaque was installed at the Sabena building at the airport.


The airport restaurant - early 1920s
In 1926, service to Boma began and the following year the connection with Elisabethville was completed.  Emergency landing strips had to be built every 30 kilometers along the route.  Regular flights to Coquilhatville on the Congo River were inaugurated in 1928.  During King Albert’s visit to the colony in July 1928, he flew in the “Marie Josée” to visit the diamond mines at Tshikapa.


The King and Queen board a Handley Page for their flight to Kasai in 1928
The next challenge was to bring Congo within flying distance of Europe.  On December 15, 1930, aviators Vander Linden and Fabry landed at Ndolo in a Breguet-19 bi-plane.  In contrast to Thieffry’s six-week odyssey, Fabry and VanderLinden’s flight took only 8 days.  The flyers returned the next day to Brussels, having proved the feasibility of the link.

The Breuget-19 at Ndolo
I reported previously (See. Jan. 6, 2011)that the airfield was relocated from Kalina to Ndolo at this time, based on Marc Pain’s comprehensive study of Kinshasa.  This would be consistent with the need to develop Kalina as the new colonial administrative center, but subsequent research has confirmed that an airstrip was in use at Ndolo as early as 1925.  If both are correct, it would suggest that landing strips could be laid out here and there without constituting an airport.

The next transcontinental flights were more of a record-setting nature as further development of air travel between Congo and Europe was limited by the Depression and Sabena was actually cutting back service rather than expanding.  In March 1934, aviator G. Hansez and his wife made a mail run to Congo from Antwerp in five days, but this was not expected to become a regular service, as Sabena held the mail contract.  In December 1934, Waller and Franchomme delivered the Christmas mail in less than four days in a DeHavilland DH-88 Comet race plane named for Queen Astrid.

Local officials pose in front of the DeHavilland Comet in the hangar at Ndolo

SABENA inaugurated regular passenger service from Europe in February 1935 with the arrival of the Fokker F-VII tri-motor. The plane, named “Edmond Thieffry”, carried a crew of three and a passenger, Tony Orta, SABENA’s director of operations in Africa.  Orta had served in the colonial air force as a young aviator in the campaign against the Germans on Lake Tanganika during World War I.   By 1937, with operations well established, SABENA built a Guest House between the airport and downtown to serve its transit passengers (See March 29, 2011).  By November 1938, Sabena had completed 100 flights between Belgium and Leopoldville.  In December of that year, the Council of Ministers discussed acquiring new aircraft for SABENA, considering the relative merits of the Junkers JU-52 and the American Douglas DC-3.  The German-made Junkers was cheaper, and while outdated, it could be used effectively in Congo.  The Council opted to order two DC-3s for use in Europe.
The crew of the Fokker F-VII "Edmond Thieffry"
The F-VII crew and admirers before leaving Belgium

The German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 cut the colony off from regular air service with Europe. SABENA, considering war in Europe inevitable and with Belgium surrounded by belligerents, had already transferred the European terminus of its African service to Marseille during the “phoney war”. At the same time, unable to continue service to Europe, SABENA joined in the war effort, ferrying personnel and supplies along the West Africa-Cairo route established by the Allies, as well as service to Johannesburg and Cape Town via Elisabethville. Serving domestic and international flights, Ndolo airport was a key hub in the African air network. In March 1941, Tony Orta and Gaston Perier transferred the remainder of the SABENA fleet from Marseille to Leopoldville, establishing the airline’s headquarters in Congo.  The airline operated three types of tri-motor planes; the Fokker V-II, Junkers 52 and Italian-made Savoia-Marchetti 73. By the end of the year, SABENA was consolidating its operation, obtaining a building permit to rehabilitate four houses near the airport to accommodate its staff. 
A Savoia-Marchetti at Ndolo -- Fokker F-VII behind it

The arrival of the Pan American Clipper flying-boat in December 1941 (See. Feb. 20, 2011), suggested a water-based landing mode might predominate (BOAC flying boats were also serving Leopoldville between West Africa and Egypt), but the importance of a landing field was critical for new aircraft designs coming into production and plans to use Leopoldville as a refueling stop on the ferry route for fighters to the Middle East.  Initially, the Allies considered the airfield at Pointe Noire in French Equatorial Africa (now Congo Brazzaville) as key to the West Africa–Egypt route, given the ease of delivering fuel at the ocean port.  In April 1942, the US obtained access to the Pointe Noire airfield in exchange for 8 Lockheed bombers.  At the same time, the US Government agreed to open a Consulate in Brazzaville, which was previously served by Leopoldville (See. Jan. 29, 2011).  



A British Overseas Airways flying boat off Leopoldville
By July, the French were still holding out for more benefits, claiming the US base would make it a target for Axis retaliation.  Exasperated by the vacillating attitudes of the French, the US Army decided to establish its Central African base, including hospital, post office and other support facilities at Leopoldville. At the end of the month, frustrated with French intransigence and impediments over unloading, US Army Engineer Capt. Vann ordered the SS “Calhoun” carrying the US expeditionary force from Pointe Noire to Matadi.  Pointe Noire would only be a refueling station (See May 23, 2011). The U.S. engineers completed the construction of Ndolo airport in record time.  The runway was extended to a length of 2,300 meters and 30 meters wide.

A Sabena Lockheed at Ndolo - Junkers JU-52 rear left

Throughout the war, Sabena’s domestic service expanded significantly to meet war needs.  In addition, the company contracted with the British Air Ministry of to operate air service between Takoradi in Ghana and Juba in southern Sudan.  This line primarily transited to the north of the colony through Coquilhatville and Stanleyville rather than Leopoldville, but a Leopoldville-Lagos link established July 1940 across French Equatorial Africa was an important Allied service. By the end of 1943, the Belgian Council of Ministers began to look at reopening service to Europe.  Since Belgium was still occupied by Germany, the flights would have to go through Britain. Congo was concerned not to ruffle US feathers (which also operated the flying boat line to Congo), as the US had done so much to improve Ndolo airport and was Sabena’s main supplier of aircraft.  During 1944, Sabena received 5 Lockheed Lodestar aircraft for its Africa service and ordered 4 Douglas DC-4 airliners. On September 13, 1944 a Sabena Lockheed Lodestar reopened service to Europe via Lagos, Casablanca and Lisbon.  In February 1945, Sabena began flights to Paris, and passengers could continue to Brussels by train.  Finally, on July 8, the first direct flight to Brussels left Ndolo airport.  The Lodestar carried 15 passengers, including Sabena’s Vice President, Gaston Perier. 

The Lockheed Lodestar (OO-CAV) which made the first flight to Europe at the end of WWII

But the era of the Lockheeds, Junkers and Fokker F-VII was passing.  On January 16, 1946 the first Pan American DC-4 arrived at Ndolo (See May 23, 2011), followed the next month by SABENA’s first DC-4. In July, Air France inaugurated Paris-Leopoldville DC-4 service until the Brazzaville airport could be upgraded to handle the larger aircraft.  Sabena introduced the Douglas DC-6 in 1947 and Pan American and KLM began using Lockheed Constellations.  Construction of control new tower was launched in September 1949.  The same year, the Force Publique established an air base for its Aviation Militaire at Ndolo.
New Control Tower at Ndolo, completed in November 1950
Busy day at Ndolo in the late 40s – Air Congo Avro Anson (foreground), Air France DC-4,
Sabena DC-4, Lockheed Lodestar, at right the striped tail section of a Pan Am Constellation
The big passenger planes required a longer runway, and the impracticality of extending the existing Ndolo strip into the cité led planners to look for a new site.  Initially, plans were developed to build a new airport at Lemba, approximately where the Lumumba monument and FIKIN are now located (See Aug. 20, 2011).  Costing 7 million pounds, it was to be the largest airport in the world.  There were concerns that the new airport would constrain the growth of the city while others felt that Ndolo airport could adequately handle the traffic.  Eventually, a site for a new airport was identified at Ndjili and work commenced on a facility that would have the longest runway in the world.

Planners' depiction of the challenges of extending the Ndolo runway towards the west

In preparation of King Baudouin’s visit in 1955, however, a major upgrade of Ndolo airport was completed including construction of a large hangar and technical block, new pavement, offices and storage facilities. 
King Baudouin arrives at Ndolo May 16, 1955
Ndolo airport apron mid-1950s -- The Congo River visible at the east end of the runway
Construction of the new airport at Ndjili began in 1954. When the first Sabena Douglas DC-7 landed at Ndolo in January 1957, it had to fly to Ndjili to refuel for its return flight to Belgium because the aircraft would have been too heavy for the short runway.  In February 1959, the new International Airport opened at Ndjili. Sabena and Pan American were the primary carriers.  Our family marked this transition, flying out of Ndolo aboard a Pan Am DC-7 Clipper in 1958 and returning to Leopoldville in 1959 to land at Ndjili.

The Sabena terminal at Ndolo Airport - 1957

A SABENA DC-7 in front of the new control tower at Ndjili Airport
Sources:
·         www.belgian-wings.be
·         Ferry, Vital, 2005. Ciels Imperiaux Africains, 1911-1940, Le Gerfaut.
·         Flight, Nov. 26, 1925.
·         Foreign Relations of the United States.1942, Vol-II, p.570-84.
·         Pain, Marc. 1984. Kinshasa: La Ville et la Cite. Eds. de l’ORSTOM.
·         www.rva-rdc.com



Kinshasa 1989 – The Mad Baron’s Castle Demolished

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Things learned while looking for other things…


While researching Ndolo Airport, I came across a reminiscence by Denis Le Jeune in “Memoires du Congo” (http//www.memoiresducongo.org) about the house where his family lived on the Grande Corniche above the Kinsuka rapids.  In my post on World War Two (See: May 23, 2011), I featured the house as well as the curious incident of Baron Allard’s attempted coup.  I did not realize they were part of the same story.


Charles LeJeune, an insurance broker in Antwerp, underwrote the first insured maritime shipment to Congo in 1886 – 42 cases of beer shipped from Bremen to the then capital of Boma.  In 1929, Charles’ son, Alick, toured Congo extensively and subsequently created the Société d’Assurances Congolaise in Leopoldville.


By WWII the firm was doing sufficiently well that Alick was able to invest in a prime property on the Grande Corniche, the promontory of Mont Leopold that offered sweeping views of Stanley Pool, the Kinsuka rapids and Brazzaville and AEF across the river.  Several others, including Ch. Vleeschouwers of the Fish and Game service and Baron Antoine Allard acquired plots in there 1942.

View of the Kinsuka rapids from the Grande Corniche


Allard, an artist and estranged from his banking family in Belgium, had come to Congo at the beginning of the war.  He first sought to join the Belgian Congo Force Publique, then the Free French to support the allied cause. Governor General Ryckmans sought instead to involve Allard in less active support of the troops and Allard was induced to use his artistic talent to support the war effort.


On June 11, 1942, Ryckmans was informed by the Sureté, the colonial intelligence service, of a plot against himself and the government planned for the weekend of June 20.  The Sureté launched an investigation and three days later, while attending a Fancy Fair for the war effort at Sacre Coeur Church (See. Jan. 17, 2012),Ryckmans was informed of the details of the plot, which included use of the new mechanized brigade equipped by the Americans and led by Emile Janssens (whose later intransigence as commander of the Force Publique at Independence in 1960 led to the army mutiny which plunged Congo into chaos).  The plot was Royalist in sentiment and intended to maintain Colonial Minister de Vleeschauwer over Ryckmans.


Many of the named co-conspirators were probably not aware they were part of Allard’s plot. Allard was detained, and after a brief stay in the mental ward of Clinique Reine Elisabeth (See.Jan. 17, 2012), was released to house arrest in his aerie on the Corniche (the ladder was pulled away after his meals were passed up). Ryckmans apparently did not consider him a serious threat because in August Allard was credited with the decoration of the Welcome Center for Belgian and Allied Military personnel and in November, he obtained a building permit for the tower that would provide him panoramic views of the river for his art.  Allard eventually left the colony and went on to found Oxfam Belgium.


After the war, Charles and Alick obtained the Allard property and began to develop the single tower into a rambling homestead that would eventually accommodate three families.  To help ensure electricity, he financed an electrical line to the Hôpital du Rive below his house (See Nov. 26, 2012) Lejeune hired Muta and his sons Maurice and Celestin Mayola from French Congo to carve all the woodwork in the house – doors, windows, stairs, balustrades and rafter tails.  The Mayolas worked for seven years at the house carving the woodwork with the most elementary tools.   A visitor in 1952 compared their work with Romanesque sculpture:


They draw the designs for their relief straight on to the wood with astonishing speed, and their flair for composition is really remarkable; human, animal, floral and more rarely geometrical motifs are combined with extraordinary felicity. The evident spontaneity of their inspiration makes the resemblance between their work and that of European medieval craftsmen all the more remarkable.”


Denis first visited Congo in 1950 on holiday from his studies in Belgium.  After Independence he took over the family insurance business.  The creation of a national insurance company, SONAS, by Mobutu in 1966 was a setback, but Assurances Le Jeune was able to find a niche to continue its work.


The Le Jeune complex in the mid 1950s
A view of the rapids from the swimming pool
The house was on the edge of Camp Tshatshi, where Mobutu lived, and in 1973 the Le Jeunes were given 48 hours to vacate the house for security reasons.  The tower remained vacant until 1989, when in advance of an international conference, Mobutu ordered the tower demolished – it spoiled the view from the Presidential Gardens on Mont Ngaliema. 
 A view of the rapids from Camp Tshatshi

After Mobutu was ousted in 1997, Denis returned to Kinshasa and visited the site, finding only a few ruins overgrown with vegetation.

Faint circular outline in center of image is the approximate location of Le Jeune home

Sources:

  •         “Le Courrier d’Afrique”, Leopoldville, 1942
  •         Johnson, Marion, 1952.Congolese and Romanesque Sculpture, A Comparison”, The Studio.
  •         www.lejeunesprl.com
  •         LeJeune, Denis, 2012, “La Tour du Baron Allard à Kinsuka”, Memoires du Congo, Août 2012, pp.10-11.
  •        VanderLinden, Jacques, 1994. Pierre Ryckmans 1891-1959: Coloniser dans l'honneur, DeBoeck Superieur.






Léopoldville 1959 – A Tale of Two Airports

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In February 1959, the new International Airport at Ndjili opened to much fanfare. Replacing the original Ndolo airport (See Apr. 27, 2013), the new facility was celebrated as one of 14 in the world capable of handling jet aircraft and offering, at 4700 meters, the longest civilian runway in the world.  The product of a decade of work, it was designed by Leon Marcel Chapeaux, who also produced buildings at Brussels airport as well as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.  The extensive complex, which cost $17 million, was connected to Leopoldville by a 4-lane superhighway named for King Leopold III (now Blvd. Lumumba), which served also in its extension as the gateway to eastern Congo.  In addition to its practical purpose as an updated transportation hub, the airport was intended to demonstrate Belgium’s accomplishments in its African colony.

Ndjili Airport Terminal
Ndjili Airport Tower from rear
The site was located on a sandy plateau five kilometers long parallel to the Congo River, requiring minimal grading and with small streams at either end to facilitate drainage.  Notwithstanding its distance at 20 kilometers from Leopoldville, it was a perfect site.  Land was available for future residential development on the low hills to the south.  During the construction in 1955-56, a small village of Teke-Humbu residents was relocated to a new site at Mikonga to make way for the airport.   As for the old Ndolo airport, the planners intended to close it and extend the Boulevard into downtown.

Minister of the Colonies, Van Hemelrijk, visits June 1959
Ndjili International Airport is actually in Nsele Commune, Ndjili Commune being some 5 kilometers to the west on Boulevard Lumumba.  This anomaly derives from the fact that the unincorporated area east of the city was called “TerritoireSuburbain de Ndjili” when the airport was built.  When Nsele Commune was established in 1967, the new authorities staked their claim, but the airport continued to be run as an enclave of Ndjili Commune until 1982.


The new airport served as a splendid showcase for foreign dignitaries attending Congo’s Independence ceremonies in June 1960.  On the eve of Independence, June 29, King Baudouin arrived and was received by President-designate Joseph Kasavubu and Prime-Minister designate Patrice Lumumba.  Other delegates arrived by air from all over the world, including a low-level Soviet mission that sought to establish diplomatic relations with the new nation. 

King Baudouin and President Joseph Kasavubu leave the airport June 29, 1960
Within days of Independence, the Congolese army, the Force Publique (FP), mutinied, provoking a massive exodus of expatriates from the country.  The Belgian airline, Sabena, pulled all of its aircraft from regular service around the world, organizing a massive airlift from the former colony.  Between July 9-28, Sabena evacuated 25,000 people.  When the FP tried to secure the airport, Belgian paratroops intervened and evicted the Congolese troops. Close-quarter combat saw grenades tossed in the stairwell leading up to the restaurant (whose ceiling tiles remained damaged and un-replaced for several years).  At the same time, the United Nations, invited by the Congolese government to intervene in the crisis, began flying in troops from around the world.  The first 700 Ghanaian soldiers arrived July 15, on British aircraft, while successive flights of USAF C-130 Hercules delivered 600 Tunisians.  With the arrival of UN troops, the Belgian forces withdrew on July 21.

People awaiting evacuation - July 1960
Belgian paratrooper securing the restaurant terrace - July 1960
The United Nations initially established its air operation at Ndolo, with 40 pilots and mechanics under the command of the Swedish Air Force and using spares and equipment left behind by the Belgians.  But by September, given security concerns, the Indian and Italian C-119 Flying Boxcar squadron was transferred to Ndjili while overall air operations were based out of the massive Kamina airbase in Katanga.  Ndjili had two large hangars located about 1 kilometer on either side of the terminal.  The west hangar housed civil aviation and the east terminal was taken over by the US military mission.


Prime Minister Lumumba was frustrated by the limitations on his travel around the country the conflict engendered. He had initially used the Governor General’s Force Publique DeHavilland Heron, but it was transferred to Kamina along with other aircraft controlled by Belgians, and eventually formed the basis of secessionist Katanga’s air force.   In mid August, the Soviet Union gave the Congo an Ilyushin-14 piston-engine aircraft for executive use.  At the end of the month, as Lumumba made plans to put down the secession of South Kasai, the Soviets provided another 12 Ilyushins for troop transport, the first of which arrived at Ndjili September 2.  Four days later, the UN closed all airports in the country, effectively grounding Lumumba’s planes. 

The Soviet-donated Ilyushin-14 on the Ndjili airport apron
Ndolo continued to serve as a general aviation airport. When the Force Publique Aviation was relocated to Ndjili in 1955, a local carrier, called Air Brousse, was created by 3 pilots in reaction to Sabena’s steep, monopolistic fares -- the highest in Central Africa.  On the eve of Independence Air Brousse had a fleet of 4 DeHavilland “Dragon Rapide” biplanes and 4 Piper Tri-pacers.  It was an Air Brousse “Dragon Rapide” that the Congolese government hired in January 1961 to fly Patrice Lumumba from Thysville (Mbanza Ngungu) to Moanda to avoid the UN flight restrictions and from there to his death in Katanga.

Air Brousse De Havilland "Dragon Rapide" at a provincial airport
In January 1961, the Congolese government reached agreement with Sabena to create a national carrier, Air Congo.  In June the new airline was launched, with the Congo government holding a 65% share, Sabena (which ensured management) 30% and Air Brousse and Belgian charter airline Sobelair holding the remaining shares.  On international flights the Boeing 707 aircraft sported “Air Congo” on the fuselage with a white Sabena “S” on the tail.

Postage stamp series commemorating the creation of Air Congo
Air Congo Boeing 707 on the tarmac at Ndjili
In January 1962, the Congo constituted its first Air Force unit at Ndolo (given that secessionist Katanga had acquired the FP planes). The fleet, including a DC-4 and 3 DC-3s purchased in France, was presented in a ceremony attended by Mobutu, Prime Minister Adoula, the US Ambassador and US and UK military attaches. A training school for Congolese pilots was started, but Congo’s western allies remained concerned about the urgency of rapidly upgrading the vast country’s air capability. After a western proposal to retrain the Congolese armed forces using technical assistance from NATO countries was quashed by the UN, the CIA put together an “instant air force” staffed by anti-Castro Cubans (many were Bay of Pigs veterans) and others. By November 1962, the first 6 Cuban pilots sourced from Caribbean Aeromarine (a subsidiary of Air Panama, incidentally a contractor to the UN’s civilian air wing) arrived to fly T-6 trainers provided by the US.  These assets were used to support the Congolese Army in operations against rebels in Kwilu province in early 1964.  The Italian government also began training the Congolese air force (See Feb. 20, 2011).  With rebels moving on multiple fronts towards the capital, the government in August created a paratroop training base at Ndjili (Centre d’Entrainement des Troupes Aéroportées, CETA) trained by Israelis.  The base was also intended to protect the airport as well as the eastern approaches of the city.

Early Congolese Air Force crew 
Caribbean Aeromarine fighter pilots at Ndolo
Maintenance and operation of the Congolese air force was now ostensibly under contract to the World International Ground Maintenance Organization (WIGMO), registered in Lichtenstein in 1964.  This was a CIA front company, managed by an American.  It hired mercenary pilots and ground crews.  This succeeded the earlier Caribbean Aeromarine and shared the military hangar at Ndjili with the US Congo Military Mission (Comish).

WIGMO C-46 transport at Ndolo
In November 1964, Ndjili airport was again the focus of intensive air operations as aircraft delivering hostages rescued from rebels in Stanleyville and northeastern Congo arrived.  The USAF C-130 fleet which transported the Belgian paratroopers used in the operation on Stanleyville brought in numerous evacuees. In a rare lapse of the hyper security that usually maintained at the airport, access to the apron was open to the general public.
A USAF C-130 delivers evacuees from Stanleyville (note Congolese Red Cross stretcher bearers on right) 
A civil aviation training institute was established under United Nations auspices at Ndolo in August 1965.  This would become the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Appliquées - ISTA (See.Aug. 20, 2011).  In January 1966, Ndjili was once again the heart of an airlift operation, this time as the base for fuel deliveries to Zambia after Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence cut off Zambia’s fuel supplies.  The US contracted with Pan Am and TWA for two Boeing 707s each to operate twice daily flights to Lubumbashi from where the fuel was delivered to Zambia by road.  Canada also provided Canadair Yukon aircraft in support of the airlift.  The planes carried cargos of sixty 55 gallon drums on pallets, and the airlift was expected to deliver 6000 tons of fuel during January and February.

ISTA campus at Ndolo Airport
Otraco opened commuter rail service to Ndjili in 1968, using a locomotive purchased from France and five cars obtained in the UK.  In 1975, the civil aviation agency, the Regie des Voies Aeriennes (RVA) determined that Ndolo would be reserved for light aviation and business aircraft, while Ndjili would service domestic, as well as international flights until a new international airport was built.  Ndolo was also the site of the military airport, Camp Mbaki. That same year, Commissaire Urbain Sakombi Inongo transferred, temporarily, the established market at Pont Cabu (Pont Kasa Vubu, (see Sep. 12, 2011) to Ave. Lukolela where it became known as “Somba Zikida”. The Pont Kasavubu market was originally a temporary location while the Central Market was under construction in 1968, but the sellers didn’t want to lose their clientele (See. Feb. 6, 2011).

Ndjili Airport Tower 1983 - Air Zaire Boeing 737 on right
Ndjili Airport Terminal entrance 1986
On January 8, 1996, an overloaded Antonov-32 leased by African Air failed to gain altitude on take-off from Ndolo and crashed into the Somba Zikida market, killing 237 and injuring another 253 people on the ground when its full load of fuel exploded.  It remains the highest number of non-passenger casualties of any plane crash anywhere in the world.  The aircraft was leased from “Mobutu’s banker”, Bemba Saolana’s SCIBE Airlift, and was carrying arms to UNITA in Angola.

The crash scene of the African Air AN-32 at Somba Zikida Market
A year previously, another Antonov-32 belonging to Miabi Air had crashed on landing at Ndolo, killing 34 passengers and crew, and in January 1993 an overloaded Trans Service Airlift Nord 262 overran the runway on take-off, killing 6 on the ground. Concerned about safety of the airport in the center of an urban area and reacting to world-wide revulsion at the Somba Zikida crash, the government closed Ndolo airport and civil aviation was transferred to Ndjili. 

Congolese artist Cheri Cherin's deption of the Somba Zikida crash
In September 1996, the Belgian Besix construction firm reportedly obtained a contract to rehabilitate Ndjili, but this work foundered with the collapse of the Mobutu Regime the following year.  Under Laurent Kabila’s government, Sterling-IGF submitted a proposal in November 1997 to rehabilitate Ndjili.  Any progress on upgrading Ndjili was put on hold following the Rwandan-led invasion of Congo in August 1998.  After an audacious flight across the country from Kigali to capture the military airport of Kitona on the Atlantic coast, the Rwandans moved up towards Kinshasa along the railway line from Matadi.  They attacked Njdili from Kasangulu on August 26 and were only repulsed after three days by Congolese and Zimbabwe Defense Force allies.  As the war continued, Ndjili was a key link in support to operations across a range of military fronts.  In April 2000, a fire broke out in a warehouse facing the tarmac where ammunition was being loaded.  Four aircraft were destroyed and over 100 killed.  A huge section of the terminal building was destroyed.


Laurent Kabila’s assassination in January 2001 is generally acknowledged as the nadir of the new regime.  At Ndjili, the airport facilities were decrepit.  The check-in area under the graceful shallow dome was crammed with fences and make-shift counters. South African Airways pilots regularly warned arriving passengers from Johannesburg that the rumbling they were about to experience was due to cracks in the deteriorating runway, not their flying skills.  Luggage belts did not function and travelers were subjected to such harassment from officials and hangers-on that the hazards of negotiating the Ndjili gantlet was one of the most common posting about Kinshasa on on-line sites.  In 2002, the Italian firm Gestari opened an office in Kinshasa with the expressed interest in rehabilitating Ndjili airport.


With the establishment of the transitional coalition government in 2003, pressure mounted to reopen Ndolo airport.  The apron at Ndjili was crammed with planes of all sizes, many of which would often have to be towed aside to allow a new arrival to park close to the terminal. Transport Minister Olenghankoy announced in September that Ndolo airport would soon be reopened with support from Belgian Technical Cooperation.

The new air terminal at Ndolo Airport
Meanwhile, it was reported that South African investors were proposing to build a new $254 million airport on RVA land across the Boulevard opposite Ndjili.  Considering South Africa’s own pressing development needs, this proposal did not play will there and subsequently faded from view.  In February 2004, the press reported that a Belgian-based firm had signed an accord with RVA to rehabilitate the international airport – notably 50 years after Belgium began construction of the original facility (See Apr. 27, 2013).  Reaching back with equal proclivity, a delegation of Teke and Humbu chiefs approached RVA in April for renegotiation of the original 1948 concession on the airport site.

Aircraft crowd the apron at Ndjili
In May 2004, the Council of Ministers approved reopening Ndolo airport to reduce congestion at Ndjili and in July Minister Olenghanoy formally reopened the airport. During the national Elections in June 2006, a contingent of 750 European Union forces (Eufor), deployed to supplement the Monuc force, established their base at Ndolo.  The contingent was supplied with drone aircraft to facilitate monitoring conditions on the ground.

EUFOR drones at Ndolo airport
Disaster once again scarred Congo’s skies on October 4, 2007 when an Antonov 26 leased from Malila Airlift by Africa One crashed on take off from Ndjili into Kingasani Commune killing 28 people on the ground and 21 passengers and crew.  “This happened before”, lamented the media, recalling the Somba Zikida disaster.  The government’s response was to proscribe use of the outdated and unregistered aircraft that comprised the domestic airline and charter fleet (all Congolese airlines were already forbidden to fly to the European Union).

Ndjili Terminal Entrance - 2007
Initiatives to upgrade Ndjili airport continued apace.  In May 2009, President Kabila presided over a ceremony to upgrade and modernize the airport. A “Go Pass” departure fee was assessed on both domestic and international departures, paid directly to a bank that had advanced the funds for the rehab work.  The improvements targeted the runway as well as a new tower and terminal.  An immediate priority was preparations for the June 2010 50th anniversary observance of Independence from Belgium.  A VIP lounge was built in the first phase.  In 2012, the terminal was further upgraded to prepare for the Francophonie meetings in December.  The colonial era terminal received a bronze glass façade treatment.

Ndjili Airport Terminal makeover
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon visits (the new VIP lounge built for Congo's 50th Anniversary in background)
At the end of 2012, RVA awarded a contract to Alpha Airport to put up a temporary terminal and in February 2013, gave a contract to ADPI-SYSTRA to conduct a feasibility study for a new terminal, expected to cost $600 million. In June, Prime Minister Matata Ponyo announced the construction of a $22 million temporary terminal to be put up and operational while the new terminal is under construction.  The rotonde of the main terminal will continue to be used for domestic flights. During 2014, a resurfaced runway and a new control tower and attendant fire brigade installations meeting OACI standards will be put in service.  These have been constructed with Chinese and African Development Bank funding and built by a Chinese company.

An architectural rendering of the new terminal
Proposal for the control tower (under construction)
Ndolo Airport remains an outdated anomaly.  Its location in the town center and its history of catastrophic air disasters makes it a prime candidate for closure.  The vast acreage of prime developable land in proximity to downtown could provide space for a mixed-use district providing governmental, commercial, educational (the ISTA campus could be expanded) facilities and a range of housing options as well as adding much needed public space. Lelo Nzuzi offers a plan for this. Boulevard Lumumba could be extended into downtown across two or three connectors to spread the traffic into key intersections with Boulevard du 30 Juin.  At the same time, one of the last vestiges of the colonial Neutral Zone would be removed from the urban fabric Kinshasa (Camp Kokolo is another anachronism to be addressed in this equation).  Properly and transparently managed, the sale of this real estate could go a long way in funding the costs of new airport facilities at Ndjili.

The old Sabena building at Ndolo - 2010
Sources:

·      Fumunzanza Muketa, Jacques, 2011. Kinshasa d’un quartier à l’autre, l’Harmattan.

·      Hellstrom, Leif, 2006. The Instant Airforce, The Creation of the CIA’s Air Unit in the Congo, 1962.

·      Institut de Transport Aerien, 1955. « Le Nouvel Aeroport de Leopoldville »

·      Lelo Nzuzi, Francis, 2011. Kinshasa Planification & Aménagement, l’Harmattan.

·      Sonck, Jean Pierre, 1999. « La Force Aerienne Congolaise », Vielles Tiges Belges

Leopoldville 1924 – The Red Cross Returns

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In an earlier post (See Nov. 26, 2012), I described how King Leopold II engaged the Association Congolaise et Africaine de la Croix Rouge to provide medical services in Leopoldville.  This led to the extension of medical services for both Africans and Europeans.  In April 1909, with the advent of the Belgian Congo setting a new framework for colonial development, Minister of the Colonies Renkin terminated the “Association” and created a Service de l’Hygiène, consistent with the position of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva that only National Societies should work in their respective colonies.

The original Red Cross hospital on Mt.Ngaliema
In 1924, the Red Cross returned to Congo as a chapter of the Belgian Red Cross.  Rather than provide general medical services as had it predecessor, the Red Cross opted instead to focus on specific diseases.  This included research and treatment of leprosy in Orientale Province and venereal disease in Leopoldville.  This latter focus was crucial, given the 5 to 1 male-female ratio among Africans attracted to work in the colonial town.

The original Red Cross building on Ave. Justice
Subsequently the Leopoldville Committee of the Red Cross, in collaboration with the Provincial government and the Leopoldville Municipality, opened a dispensary on July 25, 1929 treating venereal disease.  The clinic was adjacent to the Ruwet Club for Congolese in the Cite in Leopoldville Est (Alphonse Ruwet was a former District Commissioner and then Director of the Chanic Shipyards).  This facility serving males proved so popular that the Red Cross decided to open a similar clinic for women.


On October 10, 1934, the Red Cross inaugurated a four-building complex on a street in the Cite that would become “Avenue de la Croix Rouge”.  The facility was named the Centre de Médecine Sociale to mitigate the negative connotation of a clinic serving people with sexually transmitted disease.  In his remarks, Jean Ghilain, Representative of the Red Cross and Director of Unatra (See.Oct. 31, 2011), harked back to King Leopold II’s role in initially inviting the Red Cross to Congo and its evolution since then.  Vice Governor Ermens observed succinctly, that the “success, welfare and health of a colonial enterprise derives from the success, welfare and health of the colonized people”.  The following year, the Red Cross opened a similar clinic in Kintambo.  The Society also explored the feasibility of partnering with the Aero-Club of Leopoldville to arrange emergency medical evacuations from the interior.

The Red Cross buildings
Red Cross Clinic Interior
Red Cross Clinic Architectural drawings
After the Second World War the Red Cross decided to expand its focus to maternal child care and in 1947 opened a pediatric hospital in St. Jean (now Lingwala Commune) on Ave. Kalembe Lembe.  In the same year, Ave de la Croix Rouge was paved.  The Red Cross facilities in Leopoldville continued to be managed by the Belgian Red Cross until Independence in 1960, when the Congolese Red Cross was established under the Presidency of Joseph Davier Tala Ngai a prominent local businessman, whose son Fernand Tala Ngai was the architect of several public buildings in Kinshasa (See Aug. 20, 2011).


The Kalembe-Lembe Pediatric Hospital today
Sources:

  •       Ghilain, J. 1943. “Considérations sur l'entr'aide et la solidarité coloniale”, ARSOM.
  •       International Committee of the Red Cross, 1936. Revue International.
  •       Schneider, William. 2013, The History of Blood Transfusion in Sub-Saharan Africa.




Léopoldville 1928 – First Public Transport on the Streets

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When I was preparing the post on public transportation in Kinshasa (See. October 24, 2011), I used a 100 Fr. share document to illustrate the Société Industries et Transports Automobiles au Congo (ITAC), which operated the first bus system in the capital in February 1928.  Recently, I came across a photo of the original bus.




The buses offered 22 places, of which 18 were reserved for whites.  Notwithstanding well-connected colonial luminaries on its board, including Colonel Georges Moulaert (who created the first Cité in Kintambo in 1911, See April 30, 2011, and contender for Governor General in 1933), Albert Paulis (who built the Katanga railways), and General Alphonse Cabra (who surveyed the frontier with Angola), the service didn’t catch on.  The company was liquidated in October 1932, a victim of the Depression, apparently because downtown Kinshasa didn’t grow as had been expected.


Leopoldville 1924 – Photo Zagourski Opens Shop

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Many of the images used in this blog originated as post cards.  These were a popular means for colonials to share their African experience with friends and family back home.  The images can largely be grouped in two categories; those of an ethnographic nature that showed Congolese in traditional settings or ones displaying the architectural achievements and built environment of the colonial endeavor.  It is from these latter that we gain a view of Kinshasa as it was “then”.  Initially, the cards were commissioned and produced in Belgium (Nels, Thils, Peter Freres) but as the technology improved, postcards began to be produced by local photographers in Kinshasa and other urban centers of Congo.
An early photographer
Perhaps the most celebrated and prolific of these was a 40-year old Polish nobleman named Casimir Zagourski who arrived in Leopoldville in December 1924.  A former pilot in the Tsar’s air force and later a Lieutenant Colonel in the Polish army’s fight with the Bolsheviks, his motivation for opening a photo studio is unclear, as he never attempted to trade on his military experience in Congo. But he soon became a leading photographer in the colony.
Casimir Zagourski in his studio in Kinshasa - 1925
Zagourski opened his first store on Ave. de la Douane (which was renamed in 1938 for the late Minister Rubbens and is now “Ave. de la Nation”), in the building currently occupied by the Caf’ Conc restaurant (See 6/28/11). The local agent for Agfa film products, Zagourski produced a series of post-card images of Leopoldville in the 1920s and was invited to cover the visit of King Albert and Queen Elisabeth to the colony in 1928.
Zagourski's studio on Ave de la Douane
A young girl presents King Albert and Queen Elisabeth a bouquet of flowers on their arrival in Kinshasa in 1928
Zagourski was not the first photographer in the town to chronicle the development of Kinshasa and was, in fact, competing with a number of other photographers established in the burgeoning commercial center that was Kinshasa in the 1920s. 

“Andre” produced a series of architectural views old Kinshasa marketed by the Portuguese commercial firm Nogueira. His photographs included the “Righini”, later “Hardy”, bar on Ave. de la Douane (See June 28, 2011)as well as a view of Ave. Renkin, the cross street on Ave. Aviateurs where Monusco has its headquarters.  As late as 1933, Andre’s  services were being promoted in the Cosmo-Kin newspaper  (Feb. 12, 2012)
Andre's photo of Garage Mayo across Ave de la Douane from Righini Bar.  Note Zagourski's studio behind it.
Andre's photo of Ave. Renkin looking towards the river
Em. Bessières was French and worked in both Kinshasa and Brazzaville.  A number of his photos depict Kinshasa at the creation of the Kalina administrative district destined to accommodate the civil servants and government offices of the new colonial capital (as shown in the Jan.17, 2012 post, and July 31, 2011).   Bessières was still in business at the beginning of the Depression, recorded as operating a bookstore and stationers in a provincial business directory in “Congo Revue”, 1931.
Bessiere's photo of Ave Ghilain (Ave. Okito) at the rail crossing (Blvd 30e Juin).
The building on the right was the Peruche Bleu night club in the late 1960s 
Bessiere's Hotel A.B.C. 
C. DeBruyne also produced images in the 1920s of Kinshasa on the eve of its development as the colonial capital.  Views of the Banque du Congo Belge, the Poste, the water tower on Ave Van Gele, the District Building on Ave. Crespel (Bandundu), the Portuguese Club (Gremio Portugalia) on Ave Beernaert and the Aviators Monument.
The Post Office by Cl. DeBruyne

DeBruyne's photo of the King Albert bust on the Place de la Poste
In 1935, Zagourski moved to a new place on the prestigious Ave. Beernaert (Ave. Equateur) next to the PEK store (Nov. 9 2011).  Over time, Zagourski became increasingly interested in capturing the ethnographic heritage of Congo and travelled around the colony and adjacent French Equatorial Africa to produce a series called “l’Afrique qui Disparait”. Yale University has an extensive collection of these images. In 1937 his photographs were featured at the Colonial Exhibition in Paris.
Zagourski's new shop was in the Mercure Building, 3 Ave. Beernaert next to PEK (R)
The Mercure Building (minus turrets) in the late 1970s
Zagourski was visiting his brother in Poland when the German Army invaded in September 1939, precluding his freedom to return to Congo.  Through the intervention of Agfa, he obtained an exit permit from the Germans and moved to Belgium.  There he developed a kidney disorder, but while under treatment relocated successively to the south of France and Portugal as the war spread into Western Europe.  In 1941 he was able book passage on a book to Congo.  He never fully recovered and died in Queen Elisabeth Hospital (See Jan. 17, 2012)at 4:30 pm on January 10, 1944 and was buried in Kalina cemetery (Cimetière de la Gombe).
A censored letter on Zagourski's letterhead mail after his return to Congo from Europe in 1941
Zagourski’s nephew Marian reopened the shop in 1946 and continued to operate the business.  By the 1970s the business was located on Ave. Cerckel (Ave. de la Paix) until the Zairianization of foreign-owned businesses in 1974 and Marian’s ultimate departure in 1976.  

A Portuguese resident, Diamantino, came to prominence in the early 1930s.  By some accounts a protégé of Zagourski, an advert in 1939 claims he learned his trade at the finest studios in Lisbon.  He opened a shop on Place Leopold, a prime location (See Feb. 3,2012).
Diamantino photo of staff and students at College Albert (Institut Boboto)
A street scene in Leopoldville by Diamantino
After WWII, the Colonial Ministry established the Centre d’Information et de Documentation du Congo Belge et Ruanda Urundi (CID) to publicize the accomplishments of the colonial regime.  This agency was succeeded in 1955 by the Office de l’Information et des Relations Publiques pour le Congo Belge et le Ruanda-Urundi, better known as Inforcongo.  A whole stable of photographers, including Henri Goldstein, Costa, Carlo Lamotte, and John Mulders, extensively documented the achievements of the colonial state. As recently as two years ago, I was able to obtain a number of these images from the vendor at the entrance to Centre Culturel Boboto in Kinshasa.  He probably still has some behind his table, as my enthusiasm may have communicated a market that isn’t there.
An apartment building on Ave. des Aviateurs photographed by Goldstein in the late 1950s.
It is now the Embassy of the People's Republic of China
Joseph Makula was the unique Congolese photographer attached to Inforcongo.  Henry Goldstein, who arrived in Leopoldville in 1947, began mentoring Makula in 1956. A former soldier in the Force Publique, Makula had been assigned to the military newspaper, Sango ya Biso. In contrast to his European colleagues who travelled extensively throughout the colony, much of Makula’s work focused on the “évolué” community of Leopoldville, showcasing interiors that demonstrated Congolese achievements as peers of the Europeans.
The Service de l'Hygiene building in Leopoldville by Joseph Makula
Makula's view of a Congolese family in OCA housing in Bandalungwa
The first technical school for girls in Leopoldville by Makula - 1957
After independence and the departure of the Belgians at Inforcongo, Makula continued to work for the information service, training a whole generation of Congolese photographers, including a woman, Mpate Sulia.  In semi-retirement, he operated Studio Mak in Lemba Commune from 1981-1991.
Female store clerks in 1958 by Joseph Makula
Another Congolese photographer was Jean Depara, who focused more on the night club scene than the architectural aspects of Kinshasa. Born in Angola, Depara was exiled to Bas-Congo in 1943 and in 1950, the year he married, bought an Adox camera in Matadi.  He subsequently moved to Leopoldville and opened a photo studio on Ave. Kato in 1956.  Depara enjoyed a steady clientele of Congolese seeking to formally record their social achievements against the backdrop of his studio.  Around 1957 his photographs caught the eye a young musician, Franco Luambo Makiadi of OK Jazz who invited him to the band’s gigs.  His work documents the embryonic Congolese middle class culture of city on the eve of Independence and in the early 1960s.
Depara's portrait of Franco Luambo Makiadi
A young woman outside the Afro Negro Night Club by Depara
Woman and Solex by Depara
A final photographer with a lens focused on Kinshasa was Eliot Elisofon, who worked for LIFE magazine from 1942-1964.  Although not a resident like the others portrayed here, he made several trips to Congo during his career and the images he produced provided a sensitive depiction of Africa in contrast to the Tarzan and safari films of the post-war era.  Before his death in 1973, Elisofon donated his extensive collection to the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington DC.  A number of these photos are featured in this blog, including the view of Café de la Paix on the Boulevard and the parade there in the 1970s (See Mar. 19,2011)

Elisofon (or a member of his team) in Leopoldville in 1951 on Ave. Rubbens.
Place de la Poste is at the end of the street.
The view across the street, Zagourski's original studio (now the Caf' Conc' restaurant)
Sources:

Kinshasa 1914 – World War I comes to Congo

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On the morning of August 3, 1914, the German community of Kinshasa, as well as several hundred specially-recruited able-bodied Congolese, left port for the Sangha River, the main artery serving eastern Kamerun, then a German colony.  The mission of the “Dongo”, a steamer of the Kamerun Schiffahrt Gesellschaft company, was to link up with German forces and ships located on the Sangha and return in force to seize Kinshasa and Brazzaville.  Unfortunately for German aspirations, French troops out of Brazzaville aboard the “Albert Dolisie” were on their heels and by August 6 the “Dongo” was captured and German plans to control the upper Congo and Ubangi Rivers were dreams.  The Great War had come to Leopoldville.

The “Albert Dolisie” at Ouesso on the Cameroun border
Authorities in Leopoldville and the colonial capital at Boma did not learn of the formal declaration of war in Europe until August 5th.  The Belgian government authorized aggressive action against the Germans and on August 28, Georges Moulaert, District Commissioner in Leopoldville, seized the German commercial vessels “Congo” and “Lobaye” (renamed Liege and Haelen, respectively).

The "Liege" in port
The first German attack against the colony, however, took place in the east on Lake Tanganika when an armed German steamer out of Kigoma attacked the “Alexandre Delcommune” operating from Mtoa north of contemporary Kalemie.  District Commissioner Moulaert dispatched the “Netta”, a fast riverboat (18 knots) that had just been delivered to Leopoldville for service on the upper river.  Equipped with heavy weapons when launched on the Lake, the “Netta” would help turn the tide against the Germans and ultimately secure a victory for the Force Publique at Tabora in contemporary central Tanzania.  The epic story of the naval battle on the Lake is generally accepted as the inspiration for the novel and movie The African Queen though there is some academic disagreement.

The "Netta" on Lake Tanganika
German firms had been present at Stanley-Pool since the turn of the century, assuring the port-rail link between up-river commerce and the ships of the Hamburg-based Woermann Line, which called regularly at the seaports of Boma and Matadi.  The Belgian Société Anonyme Belge du Haut-Congo (S.A.B.) invested in the Sud-Kamerun company and allowed the new firm use of its facilities at Kinshasa (See Mar. 13, 2011).  After 1912, when Germany extended its colonial holdings in Cameroun to reach the Sangha, the Kamerun Schiffahrtwas created, absorbing the Sud-Kamerun fleet.  The following year, the French, Belgians and Germans formed a cartel in which the Germans obtained a monopoly on traffic between Kinshasa and the Sangha, the French on the Ubangi River and the Belgians the Congo and its tributaries.

View of the Citas installations at Kinshasa around 1914 – Note Hotel ABC in background
At the end of September 1914, the French authorities in Brazzaville requested Belgian assistance in putting down the remaining German positions on the Sangha.  The Belgians armed one of its newest steamers, the SS “Luxembourg”, with machine guns and a 47 mm Nordenfelt canon, and dispatched it to the front with a detachment of 60 Congolese troops under Lt. Bal.  The Luxembourgreturned to Kinshasa with wounded at the beginning of November, and then in December led a 6-vessel fleet back up to the Sangha where the German troops were vanquished in the last days before Christmas. The focus of the War in Belgian Africa now turned to Lake Tanganika.

The SS "Luxembourg"
The “Netta” was delivered to Kinshasa by Robert Goldschmidt, a Belgian engineer who was something of a techie of his era.  In 1908, he had prepared designs for wood-burning steam vehicles for transport in the Congo and in 1912 began construction of a wireless telegraph network linking the major cities of the Colony. On his trip to Congo at the end of June 1914, he brought the first Ford Model T ever introduced to Congo.  The car was a sensation!  Leopoldville was only 10 minutes from Kinshasa.  After the War, when the Protestant missions were planning the Union Mission Hostel (UMH, now CAP) in 1920 (See Mar. 27, 2011), the necessity of a Ford was written into the terms of reference for the new facility.

Ford truck on Ave. de la Douane. Note the Cominex building later occupied by Photo Zagourski.
On the eve of the War, the Belgian government decided against Commissioner Moulaert’s recommendation to transfer the colonial capital from Boma to Leopoldville (See Jan. 23, 2011).  However, there were other changes in the administrative structure of the colony.  Leopoldville was named the capital of a new province, Congo-Kasai, while Kinshasa became the seat of the Territoire in the new District du Moyen Congo.  In March 1919 Kinshasa became the seat of this District.

The District Building on Ave Crespel (Bandundu)
Kinshasa was beginning to grow and outpace Leopoldville.  American ornithologist, James Chapin, returning to Kinshasa in December 1914 after 4 years on an expedition for the American Museum of Natural History observed,


Kinshassa has grown amazingly.  Where formerly there was almost nothing but a state post and a depot of the SAB there is now a large and important town, with hotels, a bank, quantities of magazines, steamboats and a European barber.  To the north side are the very extensive installations of the “Compagnie Mbila” (Lever Bros) and back inland, a little further away, the wireless station.  Leopoldville shows but slight signs of growth in comparison.


Lever Brothers, known informally as Compagnie Mbila (for the oil palm), was bringing its palm oil operation on line, with Kinshasa as the base for five huge palm oil plantations established on the Congo River and its tributaries.  The palm oil storage facilities of the Huileries du Congo Belge and attendant installations were built on land purchased from the Baptist Mission Society and NAHV to the west of downtown where Marsavco is today.

The installations of the Huileries du Congo Belge. 
This is where the TASOK 2011 Reunion river cruise started
During the war, the grand Hotel A.B.C.opened, construction began on the Post Officeand the BMS Protestant chapel as well as the Catholic Church of Ste. Annewere built.

The Post Office under construction, looking down Ave. Militaire (now Aviateurs)
The Banque du Congo Belge opened its new colonial headquarters in Kinshasa during the War, as well. The relocation acknowledged the increasing importance of the Leopoldville-Kinshasa-Ndolo agglomeration over the colonial capital at Boma.  The bank was a private firm that also served as the central bank of the colony.  Founded in 1909, it opened its first branch in Kinshasa in August 1910 opposite the train station (Place Braconnier).  In 1911 when Albert Thys visited Kinshasa to select a site for the Hotel ABC, he also reserved a one-hectare site across Ave. Baobabs (later Hauzeur, now Wagenia) for the new Bank.  The land claim was approved in May 1912 and construction of the Mediterranean-style building would have commenced about the same time as did the ABC.

The Banque du Congo Belge.  The building is currently occupied by Monusco on Ave. Wagenia
An oil pipeline was completed from Matadi in 1914. The idea was to reduce dependence on fuel wood to power the steamer fleet, but the cost of the imported fuel, notwithstanding the inconvenience of frequent stops to resupply the steamers with wood, limited the utility of fuel powered engines until after Second World War.  Petro-Congo’s depot was located upstream from the Citas landing (where Ave. des Industries begins today).

Kinshasa had already displaced Leopoldville as the main river port and construction of an expanded port was approved in 1913.  But in March 1914, the Colonial Ministry decided not to proceed with construction, though it awarded prizes to the designers. Some minor, additional assessments were conducted and most of the commerce continued to be handled by private landings such as Citas and NAHV.  However, by early 1917 after the steamer “Elisabethville” was sunk off the French coast, it became necessary to stockpile 30,000 tons of colonial exports in Kinshasa to avoid overwhelming Matadi.  Clearly upgraded port facilities at Kinshasa would be a post-war priority.

A view of the port of Kinshasa

Kinshasa Then and Now - The District Building

The District Building shortly after completion
The District Building in 2005
The District Building in 2006
The District Building in 2009
2013 - Gone


Sources:


Leopoldville 1917 – The Grémio Portugalia Established

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In the 2000s, this building on Ave. de l’Equateur across from the Patisserie Nouvelle was occupied by the French petroleum company ELF.  When I returned to Kinshasa in 2011 for the TASOK Reunion, it was vacant (SeeJuly 3, 2011). Such a prime location in the heart of Kinshasa’s original business district must have housed something important.  It turns out it was the original Portuguese Club, the “Grémio Portugalia”.

The Gremio building in 2006 -- Ave. de l'Equateur
Portuguese traders were an early fixture in Kinshasa.  The Portuguese had been established along the Atlantic coast since the 15th Century. Portuguese mariner Diogo Cao reached the mouth of the Congo River in 1482 and Portuguese missionaries who followed entered into what was initially an egalitarian relationship with the Kingdom of the Congo.  At Berlin in 1885, the wedge of the Congo River was granted to King Leopold to give the Congo Free State access to the sea, separating Cabinda from Angola.  In 1887, Portuguese still outnumbered Belgians in the Congo by 570 to 46.

Diogo Cao erects a monument at Shark's Point, Banana
After the railway from Matadi reached Leopoldville in 1898 (See Jan. 23, 2011), Portuguese shopkeepers became the predominant commercial operators, buying African produce and selling imported goods to Europeans and Congolese alike.  In 1900, a Congo Free State postal agent, Leon Tondeur, recorded the presence in Leopoldville (Ngaliema) of the Mampeza company (Comptoir Commercial du Bas-Congo) and Freitas and Barreira.  As Kinshasa (Gombe) began to develop as the commercial heart of the city  (See Mar. 12, 2011),Portuguese commercants set up shop in increasing numbers, including Nogueira (1902), Madail (1906), Amaro & Diniz (1906), and Pereira, etc.


The growing Portuguese business community founded a chamber of commerce, the Grémio Portugalia (Portuguese Guild) in 1917 under the leadership of David Diniz and Barosso Araujo. In November 1921 the Grémio was legally registered at Kinshasa.  The previous July, on his way through Kinshasa from Katanga, Sylvain Danse recorded the founding of the Portuguese “cercle” on July 8, 1920 in a building constructed of galvanized roofing.  In his published book, he reported information that the club had moved into a more substantial building.

The Gremio building under construction
During his visit to Kinshasa In October 1922, (See Sept. 12, 2011) Belgian Minister Carton de Wiart described a soirée held in his honor at the Grémio. The following year, journalist Chalux attended an event honoring the anniversary of the Portuguese Republic, recording the performance of a brilliant concert, followed by a ball.  But the most fulsome witness was Gabrielle Vassal, the spouse of the Red Cross doctor in Brazzaville.  She enthused,“a few months ago they opened their club”


“A big well-constructed building in the centre of the town.  On the ground floor is a tea-room and billiard-rooms, on the first floor a hall with a platform at one end and great open doors on three sides giving access to a broad veranda.  It has an excellent floor and is as cool as can be hoped for in this climate…Many enjoyable evenings have been spent here…We go to the Grémio for the apéritif, dine with friends, and dance the whole evening.”


The Gremio looking south from the Place de la Poste

 

The Gremio on Ave. Beernaert

In 1922, as well, the Luso Sporting Club was formed, and the team competed in matches against Belgian and UK (mostly employees of Lever Brothers) teams, including one in February 1922 played against a Belgian team during the visit of Angolan Governor General Norton de Mattos.  Some Luso Sporting players were subsequently recruited by the other teams and only in 1926 was the Amicale Sportive Portugaise established, which soon became known as the Amicale Sportive de Kinshasa. Portuguese players were aggressive, considered unsportsmanlike and were sometimes subjected to such epithets from the sidelines as “sale nègre” or “macaque”, terms normally reserved for Congolese.

A football match in the 1920s - the pitch was in front of Ste. Anne Church
In the 1930s the group opened a Portuguese language school on the grounds of the Grémio.  Thirty students received instruction in the first three grades of primary school.  Presumably classes were held in the Gremio facilities, which would have been mostly vacant during the day.  The Gremio provided housing for a teacher and was hoping for financial support from the Portuguese Government, which the Director of the Banco de Angola had promised to seek.

The Gremio in the 1930s - Note the site of Patisserie Nouvelle is vacant
The Banco de Angola was the successor in 1926 to the Banco Nacional Ultramar, established in 1919 -- the second bank in Kinshasa after the Banque du Congo Belge opened in 1909 (See Aug. 3, 2014). It was located on Place Braconnier across from the original railroad station where the Gallerie Albert building is today (See. Mar. 29, 2011)

The Banco Nacional Ultramarino facing Place Braconnier
The building on Ave. Beernaert also housed commercial space on the street level, including the Au Modern store.  The shop sold fabric, notions and clothing, as well as a incorporating a grocery and a small restaurant.  A menu in 1932 offered light meals as well as beverages from the Brasserie de Leopoldville.

The Gremio and Au Modern on ground floor
During World War II Portugal’s status a neutral country created issues in the colony.  Portugal was a major conduit for Belgians escaping occupied Europe to join Belgium’s lone allied outpost.  In addition, the Benguela Railroad in Angola provided a critical link in ensuring imports of fuel and exports of strategic minerals from Katanga.  However, the same flexibility allowed German agents access to Congo, and the diamonds of Kasai, in particular.  After the war, business as usual resumed.  In 1947, the Casa Portuguese was founded and in 1949 the Casa de Portugal formally replaced the Grémio.  

In January 1956, the association solicited bids for construction of the Casa Portuguese on Ave. Kasai south of Ave. de Gaulle (now Ave. du Commerce).
In 1938, the Portuguese Consulate was located on Ave. Tombeur (Tombalbaye) in the heart of the Portuguese commercial district.  In 1957, a new Consulate opened on Ave des Aviateurs next to the new US Consulate (See Jan. 29,2011).

The Portuguese Embassy in 2006 -- Ave. des Aviateurs
After Independence in 1960, the Portuguese community created a school that assured Portuguese language instruction and curriculum for its expatriate members. The Colégio dos Portugueses opened in 1965 off Ave. Kasai, south of Ave. du Commerce, about the time the new TASOK campus (1966) and the Belgian School (1968) opened.

Inauguration of the Colegio de Kinshasa
The Colegio de Kinshasa - Ave. Kasai
The Amicale Sportive Kinoise (successor to ASK) was created in March 1968 and obtained “personalité civile” in 1972.  The Association’s legal address was 27 Ave. Stanley, the headquarters of the Nogueira firm, one of the leading Portuguese companies in Congo.

Amicale Sportive Kinoise letterhead - 1980s
The ASK Pool 1980s
The acquisition of foreign-owned businesses resulting from the “Zairianization” campaign in 1973 and the “pillages” of 1992 and 1993 significantly reduced the presence of Portuguese business people in Kinshasa.  Nonetheless, in 1996, the Portuguese community reopened the Colégio (closed since 1992) and incrementally began to upgrade the ASK facility located in Joli Parc in Commune Ngaliema.

The ASK pool today (photo from ASK facebook site)
The restaurant
Sources:


  • Chalux, 1925,  Un An au Congo Belge, Librairie Albert Dewit
  • Danse, Sylvain, 1923. Carnet de route d'Elisabethville à Boma: par le Lomami, le Kasai et le Bas-Congo, Avril-Juillet 1920, Imprimerie L’Etoile du Congo.
  • Guerreiro, Vasco, 1992. Os Portugueses no Zaire: integração e tragédia, Rosa.
  • Van Peel, Benedicte, 2001. “Au debuts du Football Congolais” in “Itineraires croises de la modernite: Congo belge, 1920-1950”, Institut Africain CEDAF.
  • Vassal, Gabrielle M., 1925. Life in French Congo, T.F. Unwin, Ltd.
  • Vellut, Jean-Luc, 1991. “La Présence Portugaise au Congo du XVe Siècle à la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale”, Revue générale.

Leopoldville 1930 – Belgian Centenary Observed

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I came across this photo today and was intrigued to learn more about the Grémio Portugalia so soon after my recent post on the subject (See Nov. 1, 2014).  The setting is similar to an image I found a few months ago that appears to be a fair celebrating the Centennial of Belgium’s Independence in July 1930.

The Grémio Portugalia booth at the fair
Local authorities organized a “Kermesse”, or festival, on the sports grounds in front of Ste. Anne church where the U.S. and Portuguese Embassies face Ave. des Aviateurs today (See Feb. 6, 2011). In addition to the Grémio, “Chez Thomas Cocktail Bar” catered the beer garden while SEDEC Motors (See Jan. 9, 2011) displayed the latest Chevrolet cars.  A tree was planted at Place Braconnier (originally Place de la Gare) to commemorate the event (See Jan. 23, 2011).

The "Chez Thomas" booth.  Note Ste. Anne steeple in background (photo attributed to Zagourski)
The official transfer of the colonial capital from Boma to Kinshasa had been completed in April with the arrival of Governor Tilkens’ Secretariat staff.  1930 was also the 45thanniversary of the founding of the Congo Free State in 1885, and a commemorative “Te Deum” service was held at Ste. Anne’s in June.  At the local government level, District Commissioner De Bock was preparing plans to relocate and segregate the African townships (See July 31, 2011) some 3 kilometers south of the burgeoning commercial center that Kinshasa (Gombe) had become (See Mar. 13, 2011).

Place Braconnier in the mid-1950s looking towards the Cité in the distance
Congolese were not invited to join the festivities in Kinshasa, but were expected to be patriotic about being Belgian subjects.  Separate sports events to this effect were organized in the African quarter.  The following year, Father de la Kethulle (Tata Raphael) and students from St. Joseph school began to drain the marsh in the new African township to create a football pitch for African players. This site, adjacent St. Pierre Parish (built in 1932), was later to become Kinshasa’s first stadium, Stade Reine Astrid (now Stade Cardinal Malula) in 1937 (See. Feb. 12, 2012).

Sports events for Congolese at the Belgian Centennial in Leopoldville - July 21, 1930

Leopoldville 1924 - Party at the Café Central

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In an earlier post on Kinshasa’s lost architectural heritage in March 2011, I shared a photo of the Café Central (See Mar. 24, 2011), suggesting it could have been on Ave. Stanley (now Ave. du Bas-Congo in old Kinshasa, Commune de la Gombe).  I have still not been able to locate the Café, but will exercise the blogger’s prerogative and depart from my usual effort be authoritative into the speculative.  

The Cafe as depicted in the March 2011 post
The earliest reference to the Café Central, owned by Victor Dorginaux, is a post card dated July 1, 1924, which shows the premises decked out with paper garlands and Chinese lanterns and tables set up in front beer-garden style.  July 1st was the anniversary of the founding of the Congo Free State in 1885 and remained a holiday even after Belgium took over the colony from Leopold II in 1908.  That same year in September, Dorignaux offered a self-named winners Cup for the European football league playoffs (See Nov. 1, 2014).

Ready for the party - the tables appear to be arranged to create a dance floor
The Café Central likely pre-dated 1924, as an earlier photo exists without the “V. Dorginaux” sign on the roof or the mounted flagpoles. Dorignaux was probably involved, however, even if not the proprietor, as a banner on an adjacent shed proclaims, “Friture Victor”. 
A later photo shows the “Friture” building with a new façade of the “Garage Central”.  There is scaffolding on the main building and the "V. Dorignaux" sign has been erected, a low masonry wall now separates the beer garden from the street and young trees have been planted at the corners of the lot.
This photo dates from the same period as the one above
and the posture of the man in the doorway suggests a proud new proprietor.
The décor and ambiance of the café and restaurant appear intended to provide customers with a respite from daily life in a tropical river port with the comforts of a European club.  The dark, interior bar appointed with heavy wooden furniture was called the “Bar Américain”.
The club room
The Bar Americain - heavy imported furniture, no wicker or potted palms
The last record of the Café Central I have found is in the 1927 “Congo: Revue General”, in which the establishment is listed as a “Grand café-restaurant & dancing”.  Other photos with more lush and filled out vegetation match the photo at the beginning of this post.  Large potted tropical plants now stand on the verandah wall.
Dining on the verandah in the heat of the day
The trees have now nearly doubled in height
I have revised my hunch on the location of the Café Central.  It would have made sense to be closer to the old Gare and the Hotel A.B.C. (See Mar. 27, 2011) and the architecture resembles other buildings north of the railway line (now Blvd du 30e Juin) built in the 1920s, such as the Gremio Portugalia or the Unatra headquarters on Ave. Rubbens, for example (See Nov. 1, 2014, Feb. 2, 2012).  But after looking over several aerial photos of downtown of the inter-war years, I am unable to identify any building that fits the Café’s silhouette.  For now, it will have to remain an enigma.


Sources:
  • Congo: Revue Général de la Colonie Belge, 1927.  Association pour le perfectionnement du matériel colonial.
  • VanPeel, Bénédicte, 2001, “Au Débuts du Football Congolais”, inVellut, Jean-Luc, Itinéraires croisés de la modernité: Congo belge, 1920-1950, Institut Africain CEDAF.


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