Leopoldville 1943 – Leisure on the River at Kinsuka

Kinsuka is a Quartier in Ngaliema Commune, situated on the rapids four kilometers downstream from the Chanic shipyards. Tradition holds that Kinsuka means, “end of town”, the furthest extension of colonial Leopoldville. Opposite the site, a narrow rocky channel runs between the bank and Ile Mimosa. The land around Mont Ngaliema, along the river and into Binza was part of a 300 hectare concession granted to Joseph Rhodius, founder of the Texaf textile mill in 1936 (Feb. 27, 2020).

The rapids at Kinsuka (Ph. author coll.)

Leopoldville’s Hygiene Service began clearing weeds along the river at Kinsuka in March 1943 to reduce the prevalence of mosquitos. Four hundred Congolese were employed in the work. Force Publique Engineers erected a 135-meter footbridge of rattan and lianas to provide access to Mimosa Island. Paths were laid out on the island, which was covered with all kinds of vegetation including wild Mimosa. At the downstream end of Mimosa, the current between the channel and main river deposited sand to create a beach which, noted the Courrier d’Afrique newspaper, “should attract Kinois”. In July, enthusiastic patrons appealed to the Public Works Department to resurface the gravel road leading to Kinsuka.

Ile Mimosa 1946 (Ph. author coll.)

Bridge to Ile Mimosa (Ph. author coll.)

When entrepreneur Trenteseaux began building the Forescom building in 1944 (May 28, 2011), he built a narrow bridge to the island and opened a quarry to mine the purplish red sandstone. The elevated bridge on stone pillars had only two tracks for the vehicle wheels and no guard rails. In 1950 a company affiliated with the Texaf textile interests opened an industrial quarry called Carrigrès on the mainland in the Rhodius concession. At the same time, an industrial brick-making factory called Bricongo acquired land from Imafor (Rhodius group). In 1954, the Chemin de Fer Matadi-Leopoldville laid 6 kilometers of track from Kintambo gare to Kinsuka to improve speed of delivery and reduce the cost of handling output from the quarries. The riverside area remained a major vector of mosquito borne malaria and yellow fever for the growing European suburbs of Ngaliema and Binza and a program of spraying by helicopter began in 1951.

The bridge to the Ile Mimosa rock quarry - 1946 (Ph. author coll)

Mimosa island continued to be an attraction for some residents of Leopoldville Ouest. Mwana Mboka and neighbors would either walk or ride bikes to the island. Guards on the mainland side usually did not prevent expatriate visitors crossing the bridge to the island if they stayed away from the quarry operations.

The bridge to Mimosa Quarry - 1961 (Ph. flickr)

In 1970 President Mobutu asked Doctor Bill Close, his personal physician, to upgrade services at the main hospital in Kinshasa, named for the President’s mother, Mama Yemo (Nov. 26, 2012). Close envisioned a state-of-the-art medical facility with international specialists to complement the Congolese personnel. The President ordered construction of an expansive residential complex for expatriate medical personnel, called “Mimosa”, on the slopes of Mont Ngaliema opposite the island. Prefabricated units imported from Belgium were installed on concrete foundations.

The housing at Camp Mimosa (Ph. facebook)

The Camp Mimosa compound (Ph. facebook)

After the demise of Mobutu, in 1999 the new Ministry of Tourism sought to promote Mimosa Island as a tourist site. In addition to recreation seekers, however, the river front attracted residential settlers, as Kinois sought new land to build homes on. The Ministry of Transport opened a transit line to Mimosa on the old line from Kintambo Magasins that originally served the quarry. However, this service was terminated in 2002. 

 

One problem for the riverain community was seasonal flooding and erosion from the former Presidential compound and Camp Tshatshi on Mont Ngaliema. There were only two paved roads serving Kinsuka, the river road from Chanic along the base of Mont Ngaliema called Avenue du Rive, and Avenue de l’Ecole from the Matadi road above TASOK and the Cercle Hippique. A major storm in March 1998 washed away a one kilometer section of Ave. Ecole cutting off 100,000 residents. In March 2004, the Kuweit Fund provided funds to repair the critical roadway. 

Another landslide at the end of 2005 cut off the river road to Kinsuka. In 2009, a project to reopen Ave du Rive, now renamed Ave du Tourisme, was awarded to CREC-8, the Chinese company which rebuilt Boulevard du 30 Juin (Jan. 23, 2011). Related construction work included the Binza River bridge, which was featured on the 500 Franc bill celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence.

Ave Tourisme during reconstruction - 2009 (Ph. author coll.)

Avenue du Tourisme after repairs (Ph. actualite.cd)

The Binza River Bridge at Kinsuka

In the 2010s, the tourism potential of the Kinsuka riverfront began to be developed by property owners along the riverside. Among the first was “Chez Tintin” a beer garden and restaurant decorated with cement sculptures of “Tintin” characters. Another entrepreneur opened “Libaya”, a venue with a view of Mimosa Island, whose signature menu offered a kilo of one’s choice of grilled meat on a plank (libaya) with four Congolese side dishes. Today one can enjoy the river from a simple “nganda” of a few huts to massive hotel complexes with swimming pools and conference facilities.

Chez Tintin (Ph. author coll.)

Libaya restaurant (Ph. author coll.)

Villa Bahari opposite Mimosa Island (Ph. author coll.)

The river experience at Kinsuka is always different depending on the season. At the height of the rainy season, the stream churns by with undulating waves topped with whitecaps, and some riverside venues are flooded. In the dry season, the water recedes and artisanal rock breakers take over, crushing the boulders and river bed by hand to supply Kinshasa’s construction industry. Many of the workers are children and women. Patrons may observe huge dump trucks navigating the channel between Mimosa and the river bank to load crushed stone. The quarry on Mimosa Island was acquired by the Ledya Group in 2005; it and Carrigrés continue to supply stone and rock on industrial scale.

Truck loading sand off Villa Bahari - 2019 (Ph. Author coll.)

Hand broken stone at Chez Tintin - 2016 (Ph. author coll.)

When both arteries were open to traffic, the intersection of Avenues Tourisme and Ecole at Kinsuka Pompage created such massive traffic jams that the site was selected for one of the first “saute de mouton” overpasses in 2019 (Apr. 20, 2019). A major project begun in 2016 was the construction of a nine kilometer road (Ave Nzolana) linking Quartier Pompage with the Université Pédagogique Nationale (UPN) on the Matadi road. Completed in November 2023, the project also included over a kilometer of reinforced concrete roadway to mitigate erosion from the Binza hills.

The Saute de Mouton overpass at Kinsuka (Ph. mediacongo)

Ave. Nzolana leading to UPN - 2023 (Ph. Agence Congolaise des Grands Travaux)

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.)

Leopoldville 1944 - Gunther Baby Grand for Sale

If you’ve followed this blog for a while you may have concluded that one of my favorite buildings in Kinshasa is the former Sedec Motors showroom at the corner of Avenues Aviateurs and Isiro opposite Ste. Anne Cathedral (Oct. 8, 2017).

Sedec Motors looking down Ave. Aviateurs in the 1950s (Author coll.)

This art deco gem is now dwarfed by the Sozacom building and the security around the Electoral Commission (CENI) offices on Blvd. du 30 Juin, but in the 1930s this was prime real estate.

The Sedec store (R), CENI and Sozacom (L)

Sedec (Société des Entreprises Commerciales au Congo Belge), was the retail arm of Lever Brothers’ Huileries du Congo Belge. When the US Consulate was looking for larger premises in August 1945 (Aug. 2, 2018), Sedec offered the building to the US Government within 24 months, but with a 20-year lease. The option was not taken up. In the 1950s the building became one of the first self-service grocery stores in Leopoldville.

The check-out registers in 1959 (Ph. author coll.)

Sprucing up the entrance for King Baudouin's visit in 1955 (Ph. liberas.eu)

After Independence in 1960, foreign currency shortages affected the economy, and grocery shelves were often lined along the edge with a single item, like small cans of sweetened condensed milk or boxes of matches. In the mid-1970s, President Mobutu’s Zairanization program drove Lever Brothers to disinvest and sell off certain assets. When I visited Kinshasa in October 1992, the store was called “Select”, with similarly sparse shelves. It closed in 2003.

Blvd. du 30 Juin 1972, Sedec (R), Sozacom building under construction (Ph. author coll.)

In July 2005, Hasson Freres opened “Espace Hasson”. A firm established in Congo since 1936, their “Au Chic” store on Place Braconnier in 1946 was the first in the city to serve both Congolese and European customers. Living in Kinshasa in the mid 2000s, I was thrilled to shop at “Sedec” again and enjoy the many tenants on the upper mezzanine, which created the feeling of a shopping mall. But success in Congo often breeds excess and, complaining of a plethora of 38 separate tax regimes, Hasson Africa closed the store at the end of December 2017 (Jan. 2, 2018).

Mezzanine walkway to the coffee shop (Ph. author coll.)

The Cosmopolitain restaurant (Ph. author coll.)

Espace Hasson shortly before closure in December 2017 (Ph. author coll.)

A new iteration of the retail store was revealed in 2018 when it became GG Mart Select, with advertising careful to emphasize its Sedec and Select roots. The other tenant was UAC, which sells furniture, appliances and office equipment. The two firms are managed by South Asian brothers and in Solomonic compromise, two separate entrances in the lobby provided access to lengthy corridors of merchandise.

GG Mart "Select" (Ph. author coll.)

GG Mart and UAC entrances (Ph. author coll.)

GG Mart lobby (Ph. author coll.)

Which brings us to the Gunther Baby Grand. On our first visit to check out the new store, we found this piano on the mostly vacant mezzanine. We asked Congolese staff about it, who introduced us to a South Asian manager. Neither French, Lingala, nor English provided any clarification other than the piano was found during the remodeling of the new store.

The Gunther piano on the GG Mart mezzanine (Ph. author coll.)

So, I will hypothesize. Jean deMiddeleer, a Belgian pianist, settled in Leopoldville after an African concert tour was interrupted by the outbreak of war in Europe. During his stay he played for Governor General Ryckmans, gave charity performances for the war effort and in 1943-44 toured South Africa, Katanga and Angola. In December 1944, he offered a Belgian-made Gunther grand piano for sale, “specially constructed for Congo”. In April 1945 he left for Eastern Congo, giving concerts in the mining regions and in 1946, moved to Kenya to direct the Nairobi Symphony.

Was this his piano? It was repainted white and the cigarette burns on the keys suggest Rick’s Café in Casablanca more than the refined atmosphere of the College Albert theater (now College Boboto). It seems even the owners don’t know how it ended up in the Sedec building.

Play it again Sam (Ph. author coll.)

Sources: 

• Courrier d’Afrique, Dec. 21, 1944. 
•  « La société Hasson & frères aurait décidé de fermer ses portes «, mbote.cd, Dec. 9, 2017.