Leopoldville 1949 – Speakerine Pauline Lisanga

This International Women’s Day we remember Congolese women who pushed the boundaries of traditional roles in the years before Independence in 1960. 

At twenty-three, Pauline Lisanga in 1949 became the first female announcer for Radio Congo Belge’s (RCB) new service for Africans. Born in Leopoldville of a family from Lisala, she attended primary school and two years of Ecole Menagère, then taught primary school in the city. Along with Marie-Louise Mombila and Marie-Josee Angebi, who joined RCB in 1951 and 1955 respectively, they were “top of the charts”. At Independence in 1960, Pauline was Vice President of the Mouvement des Femmes du Congo and in 1961 named Director of Radio Services in the Ministry of Information. Mamas Mombila and Angebi remained with RTNC and in 1966 created and co-hosted an oldies request show called “Tango ya ba Wendo”.

Pauline at the microphones

Other women contributed the female voice to RCB’s programming. Here Anne Kitambala, Anne Marie Matasu and Marguerite Elanga plan a radio sketch in the 1950s with Albert Mongita, who also joined the radio in 1949.

Planning the radio sketch in the studio

Victorine Ndjoli Elonga was the first woman in Kinshasa to obtain a driver’s license in 1955. Also a graduate of the Franciscan Sisters Ecole Menagère, she tired of making baby clothes and hats at the foyer social and did some modeling for advertisements – bicycles and powdered milk among others. At 21, against the wishes of the male members of her family, she enrolled in the driver’s education school. She told David Van Reybrouck in 2008 that afterwards, he father was proud of her. After Independence, “Mama Vicky” went into politics and remained a figure in women’s empowerment until her death in 2015.

Victorine at the wheel the day of her driver test

The dents in the car body were made by her male predecessors

Other women may be anonymous in the photographic record but their ambition and accomplishments merit recognition.

Nursing students at the Ecole des Assistants Medicaux in the 1950s

Sales clerks in a Leopoldville store

Shoe sellers at Bata

Women marching in support of political candidate Albert Kalonji in June 1960

Congolese nuns on Blvd. Albert opposite Hotel Regina in 1961

Red Cross volunteers prepare for a smallpox vaccination campaign in February 1962

Educate a woman and you educate a nation.
Parents enroll their daughters in school in Matete Commune.

Students at the Ecole Professionnelle des Filles in 1957

Into the future.
School girls parade on Independence Day, June 30, 1960

Leopoldville 1945 - President Roosevelt's Memorial Service

Just before midnight on Thursday April 12, 1945, US Consul General Buell received a visit from George Housiaux, the Director of Radio Congo Belge, who informed him that President Roosevelt had died in Warm Springs, Georgia a few hours earlier. Housiaux’s radio received news bulletins from the US and regularly rebroadcast US Office of War Information programming, but the station had already gone off the air for the day.

Radio Congo Belge in Leopoldville - 1943 (Ph. "News from Belgium and Belgian Congo" 1943

The next morning, Buell ordered the Consulate flag raised at half-mast and informed all official Americans. Shortly afterwards, George Carpenter, an American Baptist missionary who was acting General Secretary of the Congo Protestant Council (CPC, now Eglise du Christ au Congo), called offering to organize a memorial service at the British Baptist (BMS) chapel, which served the Protestant community of Leopoldville. Buell accepted and prepared press releases in French and English for the local papers, advising of the Sunday service. Senior Belgian officials came to the Consulate to express condolences, as did members of the Consular Corps. That evening, Vice Governor General Ermens, acting Governor General in Ryckmans’ absence, broadcast a tribute to FDR on the radio. US and Belgian flags hung at half-mast in front of government buildings, public squares and many private residences. US petroleum suppliers Socony Vacuum and Texaco closed their offices on Saturday. Official and individual letters of condolence flooded in, occupying the staff with drafting responses despite the closure of the Consulate.

The BMS Chapel in the 1940s (Ph. author coll.)

Sunday, the BMS Chapel was overflowing. With seating for only 300, senior officials were seated at the front, while many junior officials and civilians found seats in the back or gathered outside. Rev. Carpenter read his English remarks slowly to facilitate comprehension for non-English speakers. For his part, Buell drew upon the recent broadcast of President Truman’s remarks to frame his tribute. This emotional moment reflected a high-point in American-Belgian Congo relations during the war, which had seen an expansion of US military and commercial presence (May 23, 2011).

Rev. Carpenter leading the services (Ph. author coll., courtesy NARA)

Consul Buell conferring with VG Ermens after the service
(Ph. author coll,, courtesy of NARA)

At the time, George Carpenter was working on a major project. Since 1938, the American Baptists seconded him to CPC as Educational Advisor. Trained as an engineer before attending divinity school and entering missionary service in 1926, at his last assignment at Nsona Mpangu, near Matadi, he installed a micro-hydro system to provide electricity to the mission. Now he wanted to expand the availability of otherwise imported educational materials for mission schools with a full-service print shop. In August 1945, the Leopoldville Comité Urbain authorized construction of a two-story, 25,000 SF (2322M2) building near the BMS chapel on Ave Banning (Ave Kalemie) to house a book store, production facilities and a printing press. The new facility would replace the old bookstore of the Librairie Evangelique du Congo (LECO), established in 1935, which operated out of a room in the adjacent Union Mission Hostel (UMH) (Mar. 27, 2011). Fourteen mission groups and two Bible societies subscribed to the capital requirements. Construction began in 1946 and the facility opened in July 1948.

The LECO building in 1949 (Ph. flickr)

When Mobutu renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo the Republic of Zaire in 1972, LECO was renamed the Centre d’Editions et Diffusion (CEDI). The print shop was still producing documents in the 2000s, but a visit to the bookstore in 2004 only offered a few Bibles for sale and some school materials. Recent years have not been kind to the facility, but the building got a face-lift in 2016.

CEDI in 2011 (Ph. author coll.)

CEDI in 2017 (Ph. author coll.)