Kinshasa 2026 - International Women's Day

On this International Women’s Day, in Kinshasa and throughout the Congo, women will join parades through the streets of their cities, celebrating the unique contribution of Congolese women to national life and development. Traditionally, although there has been some push back, employers are expected to distribute branded pagnes to their female employees for this event. The pagne (liputa in Lingala), typically a one by six meter brightly-printed cotton wrapper, has been the mainstay of Congolese every day wear and fashion for over 100 years. The pagne is one of the most emblematic characteristics of Congolese women.

International Women's Day parade in 2013 (Ph. Radio Okapi)

Full disclosure: this subject is not my area of research or experience, so much this presentation is the product of searches on the world wide web. I have tried to triangulate and verify this information, but there may be errors within.

Women going to a Palm Sunday service in Lodja, Sankuru Province in 2006 (Ph. Author coll.)

Traditionally, Congolese artisans produced cloth from fibers, including those of the raffia palm. The Kuba people of Kasai are renowned for a range of textiles, from “Shoowa” (or Kasai velour) to embroidered and appliqué fabric.

Male dancers in embroidered Ntshak skirts. Women also wore these on ceremonial occasions
(Forbes Africa, Sep. 1, 2012)

European textiles, known as “trade cloth”, were an early component of economic exchanges with Africa. Handkerchief size pieces served in barter arrangements. “Manchester cotton” was part of the triangular slave trade with West and Central Africa in which enslaved people were obtained in exchange for textiles (and liquor and firearms) and sold in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, which also produced cotton from enslaved labor, then re-exported to the cotton mills of Manchester.

The Kinshasa market around 1912 (Ph. Author coll.)

Early examples of the fabric were nondescript, solids or stripes printed on cotton. As Pelle Yntema describes, the Dutch House, NAHV, used its “Stripes” cotton fabric in the barter trade, in exchange for forest products such as palm oil and kernels. While some elite African women dressed in European outfits (Nov. 5, 2025) most women in the 1920-30s wore “African” cloth.

Three women in cotton sarongs (Ph. Author coll.)

Women posing with Force Publique band members (Ph. author coll)

NAHV store in Inongo, Lac Mai Ndombe Province 1927 (Ph. Yntema, 2023)

Early on, Belgian investors decided to beat the British at their own game and establish a textile plant in Leopoldville. This operation would be supported by forced cotton production in the eastern regions of the country where it was initially introduced as an export crop during WWI. Construction of the plant began in 1927 on 45 hectares of land between Kinshasa and Leopoldville where the Gombe River empties into the Congo (Feb. 27, 2020). During his visit to the colony in 1928, King Albert visited the Texaf factory in Leopoldville and inaugurated the weaving hall (Aug. 22, 2018).

Kin Albert leaving the Texaf plant (Ph. Author coll.)

On the eve of World War II, Texaf, now Utexleo, produced 1.3 million meters of textiles. During the war, Utexleo, expanded production to meet demand. By 1943, with new machinery imported from the US, the factory was producing 20 million yards of fabric. But this only represented a third of demand. The United States, which imported large quantities of strategic materials from Congo during the war – including copper, tin, tantalum and palm oil – wanted to keep the flow going at the maximum possible, and the primary incentive for African workers was textiles. The Americans sold Utexleo over 10 million yards of white muslin to be printed using local designs. Washington bureaucrats did hope American printed textiles could be introduced into the Congo market, however.

Utexleo spinning machines in 1942
(Ph. "Belgian Africa's Total War", Belgian Information Center, 1942) 

A woman outside the Hotel Sica in 1939 (Ph. liberas.eu)

US Vice Consul Cromie explained to Washington the importance of cotton cloth to incentivize Congolese workers employed in war effort industries. In the patronizing tone of the era he opined that a Congolese would not work unless he could immediately exchange wages for trade goods, of which 60 to 65% was spent on cotton textiles. In addition to use as clothing (wraps for women), fabric was also a significant element of bride-dowry negotiations. But, he noted, the African had a keen appreciation of quality.

Avenue Beernaert in 1942. The Patisserie Nouvelle (left rear),
which is still in operation at this location, is under construction (Ph. Author coll.)

Dancers at a bar in the cité in 1943 (Ph. liberas.eu)

In an article in The Atlantic in March 1955, Oden Meeker noted that Utexleo was producing 23 million yards of fabric a year. The Lever Brothers United Africa Company, of which Congo’s Sedec was a Lever Brothers subsidiary, sold 100 million yards per year from Congo all along the West Coast of Africa. Of the European textiles, Congolese women preferred the quality of British, Dutch and French fabric.

Artists at Utexleo in 1952 creating new prints (Ph. Author coll.)

Shoppers at the Public Market in the 1950s (Ph. Author coll.)

The Public Market in the 1950s (Ph. Author coll.)

Although women did not have the right to vote in Congo’s Independence elections in 1960 (women’s suffrage was not granted until 1967), women did participate in the festivities in significant numbers.

Albert Kalonji supporters at the National Parliament in June 1960 (Ph. Author coll.)

Independence 1960 - Woman wearing a pagne printed with King Baudouin's image (Ph. Getty archive)

A woman attending a reception a the President's residence (Ph. Author coll.)

Finalists at a beauty pageant, part of the Independence festivities (Ph. Author coll.)

In 1971, President Mobutu began to implement a series of decrees that came to be known as “Authenticité”. October 27 he renamed the country, the river and the franc from Congo to Zaire. December 31, all European place names in the country were returned to their Congolese original names (Leopoldville and other provincial capitals had already been renamed in 1966). After Mobutu’s trip to China in January 1973, the Political Bureau passed clothing ordinances prohibiting suits and ties for men (in favor of the Maoist-styled “abacost”) and prohibiting women from wearing wigs, pants and skirts.

Employees at Carlo Erba pharmaceutical plant in Kinshasa in 1969,
wearing a mixture of traditional and contemporary outfits (Ph. Elliot Elisofon, Smithsonial Institution)

Foire Internationale de Kinshasa (FIKIN) in the 1970s.
The women are wearing pagne outfits, the men behind them in abacosts (Ph. skyscrapercity)

Shoppers at the Central Market in the 1970s (Ph. Author coll.)

Crossing Blvd. du 30 Juin outside the Belgian Embassy in 1973 (Ph. Wikipedia)

With Mobutu’s demise in May 1997, restrictions on men and women wearing Western clothes were lifted. Young women began wearing jeans and T-shirts, but the pagne still remained a feature of national dress. Haute couture enhanced its use.

A fabric store on Ave. du Commerce (Ph. mapasafamiliakinshasa.blogspot.com)

While the main market, “Zando” (market in Lingala) and nearby Ave. du Commerce were important locations for fabric purchases, another venue called “Beach” developed on Ave. Wagenia near the Brazzaville ferry landing, in a large compound including a restaurant called “Le Grand Baobab”. The vendors sold pagnes, including fabric brought across the river from Brazzaville; but as an informal market (marché pirate), the sellers were subject to harassment and periodic closures by the authorities.

The "Grand Baobab" restaurant, site of the Beach Ngobila fabric market (Ph. Author)

At the end of April 2002, the women sellers were evicted from the site and relocated to a shoulder of Ave. Bas-Congo behind the Onatra headquarters. On May 3, some 200 of the sellers took over the intersection of Aves Ebeya and Kasai, claiming their action was critical for their families’ survival. The following year, the sellers reoccupied the Beach Ngobila site, asserting that they didn’t like the Zando ya Imbwa site (to which they’d been relocated from the Ebeya-Kasai intersection.

Pagne sellers at the Beach Ngobila market (Ph. Radio Okapi)

By the early 2000s, Congo’s domestic textile industry was in trouble. Aging plant and competition from cheap Chinese imports sounded the death knell. In May 2003, management at Utex and Sinetexkin in Lubumbashi appealed to the Minister of Industry for protection. The Filtisaf factory in Kalemie was taken over by the UN Monuc peacekeepers and the machinery stored. Two years later, Utex merged with Congo Textile Printers, a British firm established in Kinshasa in 1969, to form Congotex with the Chinese firm CHA Textiles, which had extensive operations in West Africa (July 3, 2011). The partnership promised $17 million investment in new plant and equipment. Less than two and a half years later Congotex closed its doors, citing lack of cotton to produce fabric and competition from imports. One thousand Congolese were laid off. The only remaining domestic textile manufacturer in Congo was Sotexki in Kisangani, established in 1974 with French investment.

Utex-Africa sales center on Ave. Mondjiba in 2009 (Ph. Author coll.)

Utex-Africa advertisement (Ph. Author coll.)

Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the then US Vice President, visited Kinshasa in July 2014. With additional stops in Zambia and Sierra Leone, her trip was intended to showcase women’s empowerment, education and contributions to economic development. While in Kinshasa, she purchased a full-length turquoise dress from Vlisco. Vilsco, which has been a leading manufacturer of Dutch or Java prints in Central and West Africa for the last century, is now the purveyor of high-end “super-wax” fabric and ready-to-wear. Inspired by Indonesian batiks, the Dutch firm perfected mechanical printing of the cotton fabric. However, the Indonesians didn’t care for the result, so Vlisco turned to Africa, already a competitive market with British, French and Japanese textiles.  

The Vlisco store in Kinshasa (Ph. Vlisco)

Jill Biden (r) shopping at Vilsco (Ph. Washington Post)

Vlisco’s current Managing Director says Vlisco entered the Congolese market around 1950, though not likely as a direct retailer. The company developed commercial links with Unilever’s United Africa Company in West Africa, and Sedec would have been a likely outlet in Congo. Dutch Wax became popular in the Kinshasa market in the 1960s, often smuggled across the river from Brazzaville. Although much more expensive than the domestic fabric, wealthy consumers preferred it for the cachet it offered. In the early 2010s, Vlisco opened a boutique on the south west side of Place du Marche in Kinshasa styled as “Maison du Pagne L’Original”. Last year, Vlisco opened a new show room on Blvd du 30 Juin.

Vilsco sales agent at a Congo store in the 1950s (Ph. Yntema, 2023)

Jill Biden in the Vlisco dress (Ph. Washington Post)

The fabric sellers at Beach Ngobila were evicted in September 2013, ostensibly to allow the Kinshasa municipality to clean up the site. In April 2015, the Bourgemestre (Mayor) of Gombe Commune informed the mamas that they needed to relocate for two months so the city could build a proper new market. The vendors feared this was a ruse to sell the property. Uniformed men evicted 80 fabric sellers from the market in July 2018, destroying the stands. Coincidently, Mama Julie Mboko’s plans for a 5th annual “Kermesse Grand Baobab” at the restaurant were scuttled, even though she’d obtained all necessary permits, provided financial guarantees and arranged for sanitary facilities.

Beach Ngobila Market (Ph. Radio Okapi)

In the middle of the Covid pandemic in 2020, two friends, Rukiya Hamadi Lusinde and Tshibwabwa Mua Bay, created WaxBazaar. Collaborators at the women’s magazine Kabibi, they wanted to address the lack of authentic Congolese pagnes, a market dominated by Chinese and European manufacturers. Notably, their textiles draw upon Congolese themes, including Kuba and Shoowa inspired designs. With the demise of the Congolese textile industry, the fabric is printed in India. In recognition of International Women’s Day this year, the firm is offering pagnes at $10, available at Galerie Delice at Hotel Leon on Ave Luambo Makiadi, at Kanekiya on Ave des Forces armées, and Bellissima on Ave. Mongala. The fabric is also sold at the Bilembo gift shop, located in the former Texaf complex on Ave Mondjiba, bittersweet homage to Congo’s former textile glory.

The WaxBazaar store (facebook-waxbazaar)

When Belgium’s King Philippe and Queen Matilde visited Kinshasa in June 2022, they sought to take in some local culture – “local color”, one might say. Accompanied by Congolese First Lady, Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi, they visited the Beach Ngobila market. The Royal couple visited all the stalls, and the Queen bought a length of cloth from one of the mamas. The visit was well-received by the sellers, though one groused she didn’t make a sale that day.

Belgian Queen Matilde, King Philippe & First Lady Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi at Beach Ngobila market
(Ph. Agence Congolaise de Presse)

In October 2023, ONATRA, the national transportation parastatal that controls the Ngobila Beach site, informed the pagne sellers that they would have to move. As often happens in property disputes in Kinshasa, an individual named Somao claimed to have title to the site, gaining some time for the sellers. Finally, in July 2024, ONATRA’s Director General said the mamas would have to move. The vendors banded together to appeal the decision. It appears they were able to delay the eviction, because on the night of April 6, 2025, a fire spread through the market, destroying the mamas’ stalls and inventory. The following week the Fondation Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi offered funds to help the mamas rebuild. 

At the beginning of January 2026, The Guardian reported that construction had begun on the site, threatening the venerable baobab. The paper’s headline asked, “can Kinshasa’s last remaining baobab tree be saved?” (Apr. 12, 2016). The action mobilized a different constituency to try to protect the old tree, but it seems the mamas’ suspicion that they were being evicted so someone else could profit from the land was not without foundation.

The Beach Ngobila site, remnants of the fabric market can be seen over the wall on left
(Ph. The Guardian)

In a final acknowledgement of Congolese women, even the traffic robots in Kinshasa get pagnes. Designed by Therese Kirongozi, an industrial engineer at the Institut Supérieur de Techniques appliquées (ISTA) at Ndolo Airport, the first two prototypes were installed in Kinshasa in 2013. They have since been expanded in the capital and to Lubumbashi. The novelty of the technology appears to have fostered compliance among the public that Kinshasa’s traffic police were not always able to achieve.

Traffic robot at Ave Tombalbaye & Senegalais (Ph. Author)

Sources: 

• Agence Congolaise de Presse. 
• The Guardian, Jan. 6, 2026, “’The soul of the city”: can Kinshasa’s last remaining baobab tree be saved?” 
• Meeker, Oden, 1955. “Style in the Congo”, The Atlantic, March 1955. 
• Radio Okapi, Fondation Hirondelle. 
• Yntema, Pelle. 2023. The Company Store and African Consumption in the Belgian Congo (1918-1940), Disssertation, Ghent University.

Leopoldville 1923 – The Apollo Palace cinema

The Apollo Palace in Kinshasa

In 2011 I posted this photo of the Apollo Palace Cinema in a piece about Kinshasa’s lost architectural heritage (Mar. 24, 2011). These were images of buildings which I could not situate in Congo’s contemporary capital. The following year, I referred to it again (Feb. 12, 2012), speculating it might have been opened by the French firm Georges Fabre & Co, which operated a soda water plant and cinema in Kinshasa (Leopoldville-Est) in 1920. Since, I have learned a little more about the Apollo Palace, but many questions remain.

In July 1920, Sylvain Danse, an agent of the Banque du Congo Belge, reported the existence of a cinema serving both black and white communities. This could have been the Fabre operation, but as that company was dissolved in April 1921, its disappearance from Leopoldville limits any opportunity for further confirmation. At the beginning of September 1923, Joseph Wauters, the Belgian Socialist Minister of Labor, visited Leopoldville. The following month, Roger de Chatelux, a journalist for La Nation Belge, known by his pseudonym “Chalux”, arrived in the newly designated Capital from Matadi. Both described similar scenes of Sunday afternoon dances at the Apollo. 

Between 4:00 and 7:00 pm, Congolese men and women gathered in the city’s only cinema. It was decorated plainly – white walls, bare cement floor, paper flowers. At one end, were a few 4-seat booths on a raised platform. Wearing an assortment of European clothing, the men line up on one side, the women on the other, also dressed in the finest European fashion available in Leopoldville. When the orchestra, an accordionist accompanied by drums, bottle and bamboo sticks, begins a Euro-American dance tune, the men advance to the women, bow and begin to dance with their partner. They hold each other and dance the two-step, but move around the room in a group circle more typical of Congolese dances. Europeans could attend, but not join the dance. 

While Wauters expressed a desire to also see Congolese traditional dance, Chalux, reflecting racist attitudes of the era, was outraged, noting it was deplorable for whites to witness such performances and that Congolese should only be permitted to dance in the cité. In December, “La Nation” carried a piece (likely by Chalux) reporting that the Apollo Palace, normally reserved for whites, was showing films for Congolese.

A Congolese woman with an accordion (Ph. author coll.)

Presumably, after 7:00, the hall was cleared to prepare for an 8:00 screening of the week’s movie for the European community. Such mixing of the races was extremely rare in colonial Leopoldville, as Chalux’ indignant reaction indicates. Wauters reports that the event was organized by a Mr. Honoré. The 1925 Congo Revue lists its ownership as French. However, two years later it was listed as a property of the Crédit Foncier Africain (CFA), which developed the Public Market in 1925 (Aug. 5, 2011).

The cinema’s architecture is unique for that built at the time in Kinshasa. It resembles the ITAC garage (June 9, 2014), and Garage Centrale which succeeded it, suggesting the same builder, but offers no other clues. And, with that, the Apollo Palace fades from history, and takes us to the next iteration of cinema in Leopoldville.

The ITAC Garage (Ph. Conquete de l'Air, 1928)

Garage Central, Parc de Bock at far end of Avenue (Ph. author coll)

In January 1928, an entrepreneur named Manoel Alves hired the Cogetra construction firm (which built the 345-meter port expansion at Kinshasa in 1923) to construct a 42 x 13 meter cinema building. When completed in June, he named it the Ciné Palace. From 1930 to 1934, the Ciné Palace was listed as operated by a M. Merschaert. 

The Ciné Palace introduced the first “talkies” to Kinshasa audiences in May 1932. A sound engineer from Katanga, Robert Notterdam, who earlier created a cinema at Jim Jumperts’ Grand Hotel in Elisabethville, set up the system. Notterdam’s initiative became known as the Palace Parlant. Afterwards, Notterdam returned to Elisabethville as regional manager of the Ciné  Palace. The success of the talking movies prompted the Hotel ABC in March 1934 to arrange with Merschaert to convert its ballroom to accommodate the new service.

The Hotel ABC (Ph. author coll.)

In 1934, Van Heffen bought the Alves property in Leopoldville, located southwest of the Place de la Cité between Aves. Strauch and Travailleurs, as well as the Jumperts cinema in Elisabethville. Van Heffen’s business model was based on importing films and distributing them to operators in provincial towns. Except for two properties in Leopoldville and Elisabethville, he did not own the cinemas. Van Heffen provided the projectors and sound equipment, and concessionaires were responsible for setting up the venue and collecting receipts, receiving 60% of the proceeds. 

Another player in the movie business was Fernando Toncker, owner of the “Pavillon Kinois” restaurant, who began screening films at the Cinéma Central on Ave. Rubbens in 1935. In June 1938, he offered use of the cinema to the Congo Protestant Council for its 60th Anniversary meetings. With the advent of World War II, records show Tonker as a cinema operator, but the Cinéma Central was now owned by the Compagnie Commercial Congo-Suisse (CCCS). Toncker, an Italian national, was sent to a detention camp in Katanga in May 1941. In May 1942, Charles Stocker, an associate of CCCS, took over the Cinéma Central under his own management.

The Cinema Central in 1937 (Ph. author coll.)

A tax on movies levied by the Comité Urbain at the end of December 1941 proved an unpopular move when the cinemas in turn raised prices. An initial meeting of the Comité in February to review the issue was inconclusive, but in March it reduced the tax to 10 percent. The Cinéma Central then reduced its ticket price to Fr.20, inclusive of tax. Both Cinéma Central and Ciné Palace, which were beginning to screen US films, were also interested in obtaining US newsreels from the US Office of War Information. They were especially interested in footage from the Pacific War, which could be delivered in a timely manner by Pan American Clipper (May 23, 2011).

By mid-August, Cinéma Central was able to announce the arrival of US films in French, the first being the 1933 musical “Moonlight and Melodies” (aka “Moonlight and Pretzels”). In March 1943, however, Jean Hourdebise, a former associate of Van Heffen, took over the cinema, renaming it “Studio-Kin”. Ciné Palace and Studio-Kin continued to offer US films six days a week throughout the remainder of the war, with some French titles becoming available after the liberation of Belgium in 1944. 

Hourdebise also sought to open a cinema for Congolese in the cité. An earlier screening for évolués at the Cinéma Central in April 1942 was well received and participants expressed the hope that the initiative could be continued on a monthly basis. In August 1944, Hourdebise requested a building permit for a site on Rue Kalembelembe in what is now Commune de Lingwala. At the beginning of February 1946, Hourdebise received a half-acre plot on Ave des Huileries from the Comité Urbain. It is not clear if this was the same location at the intersection of Huleries and Kalembelembe, but the cinema was not built. 

At the same time Hourdebise was looking to the African audience, the Colonial Information Service organized a series of films for Congolese in Parc De Bock November 23, 1944, (Feb. 6, 2011), including a documentary on the liberation of Brussels and short features on Congo. Anthropologist Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain (May, 30, 2021) reported over 1000 people attended the event. The Information Service continued weekly open-air seances on a rotating basis at one of five locations in the cité, reaching 6000 people at Place Ruwet in February 1945. The Information Service provided simultaneous translation into Kikongo and Lingala and avid audience participation and commentary added to the viewing experience.

Congolese watching an Information Service program
(Ph. wikipedia)

Congolese entrepreneurs quickly began to obtain licenses for cinemas in the cité. In 1951, African Affairs magazine reported that a third Congolese-owned cinema had opened in Leopoldville; the following year, a fourth theater opened. By the mid-1950s, a couple dozen cinemas were licensed by the Leopoldville municipality, including: Bala, Gagnon, Kongo Bar and Ciné Macauley in Barumbu; Kabangu, Petit-Bois, and Mingiendi in Dendale (now Commune de Kasa-Vubu); Amazou, Siluvangi and Zoe in Kinshasa, and Standard in Ngiri-Ngiri. Often located in a popular bar, the owners used 16mm projection equipment provided by the film distributor (i.e. Hourdebise).

The Kongo Bar in 1946 (Ph. Liberas)

Ciné Macauley (Ph. author coll.)

Young Congolese patrons were enthralled by the images of the American Westerns reaching cité cinemas in the 1950s. The young men were inspired by and emulated the masculine, take charge mannerisms of the cowboys (pronounced “coboy”) portrayed on the screen, adopted soubriquets of their favorite characters and developed a slang dialect called Indoubill (a fusion of Indian and Buffalo Bill). Gondola describes how, “spectators, including youngsters, would pour into the adjacent buvettes to drink and emulate their favorite Western heroes”. Gang members dressed in western outfits -- jeans and plaid shirts and boots, cowboy hats, even holstered pistols -- if they could get them. The subculture was captured in many photos produced by Jean Depara (July 12, 2014).

"Bills" pose for Depara in Leopoldville (Ph. messymessychic)

After the war, Cine Palace and Studio-Kin continued to serve Leopoldville’s movie-going European community. Van Heffen’s Palace chain further developed its US links as distributor for Paramount Pictures in Congo. Pan American Airways screened “Wings over New York” in February 1950, free publicity from Van Heffen for the airline, which wanted to screen Pan Am’s films it its 30 affiliates throughout Congo. Hourdebise’s Studio-Kin was now renamed Cine Albertum. In May 1951, Leopoldville’s elite gathered for a tribute to Governor General Jungers’ 40th anniversary of colonial service.

Cine Albertum in 1947 (Ph. liberas)

Another cinema chain, Ciné RAC (Radio Amplification Cinema) was incorporated in February 1950 by Jean Jacober, another ex-Van Heffen manager, and Willy Pitzele, Director of Comuele, was well as Belgium-based investors. Jacober created RAC in 1942 to sell radio and cinema equipment in Leopoldville. Pitzele moved from Leopoldville to Comuele’s Aketi headquarters the same year and launched a cinema for Congolese there. RAC opened its cinema on Ave. des Aviateurs in 1955.

The Cine RAC in the 1950s (Ph. author coll.)

The Cine RAC in 1970 (Ph. author coll.)

An alternative venue was the Auberge du Petit Pont (Jan. 9, 2011), which added an open-air cinema behind its restaurant at this time. Before air conditioning was widespread, many cinemas in Congo used this format. Your author remembers watching Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’ “The Long, Long Trailer” (1953) there sometime after we moved to Kinshasa in 1956.

The entrance to Petit Pont cinema in 1963 (Ph. author coll.)

Chez Nicola (ex-Petit Pont) in 1968. Entrance to cinema on right (Ph. author coll.)

Chez Nicola demolished in 2010s, replaced with Kin Plaza Mall (Ph. author coll.)

Hourdebise founded Cofilmex in 1952, a distribution company based on 16 mm format. In February 1956, Hourdebise requested a building permit for a 650-seat facility on Blvd Albert opposite the new Post Office to be called “Albertum”. The new venue would replace the original Studio-Kin site on Ave Rubbens. The Comité Urbain expressed concerns about evacuation in the event of a fire. Two weeks later, Hourdebise had his permit after submitting revised plans with better exits and agreement from the adjacent Immoaf building regarding placement of those exits. Two years later, Van Heffen opened a new cinema on Ave De Gaulle.

Ciné Albertum in the early 1960s (Ph. author coll.)

A military parade on Blvd. Albert in 1961 (Ph. cegesoma)

After Independence in 1960, the three main cinemas continued operations. In 1968, Albertum was renamed Palladium. A company called Congovox (led by veteran Belgian journalist Pierre Davister) bought out Hourdebise (Cofilmex) with an investment by President Mobutu. Two years later, Davister’s company acquired the Van Heffen assets. With Zairianization in 1973, Cofilmex was acquired by Information Minister Sakombi, Cine RAC by Anifrani (a Mobutu company), and VanHeffen by Minister Mokolo. When the assets were offered back to the former owners in 1976, a combination of mis-management coupled with the advent of VHS video cassettes considerably diminished their market value. The Palace and Paladium chains merged in 1979.

The Paladium on the Boulevard went through several iterations. An investor named Momo Sunguza reopened it in 1996 as the Cinemax, but it closed in 1998 after a property dispute. After a brief stint as Cinépolis, the cinema was demolished in the mid-2000s, to make way for the Hotel Kinduelo apartment building.

Cinemax in 1997 (Ph. Preston Witman)

Kinduelo building - 2018 (Ph. author coll.)

Ex-Ciné Palace - 2006 (Ph. author coll.)

When I passed this building on Ave. du Commerce in 2006, I thought, “That’s the old Ciné Palace!”. But after nearly 40 years, how reliable could memory be? The unique marquee tower suggested something more than just another retail store on Commerce. Googling the street addresses of the tenants – Kikwa Boss and Nova Japan – confirmed this was No. 52 Ave. du Commerce, the Ciné Palace’s address.

UK-based Italian film-maker Cecilia Zoppelletto visited in Kinshasa in 2014 and was surprised to find the city of over ten million did not have a single movie theater. Her film, “La Belle at the Movies” premiered June 21, 2016 in a ballroom at the Hotel Fleuve Congo Kempinski. The film draws from the experience of Congolese film-makers, former cinema proprietors, government officials and movie fans.  She also interviews some of the "Bills", now in their 60s and 70s.

"La Belle at the Movies" poster (Ph. femmefortes)

As if to challenge the notion that movie going was through in Kinshasa, the following year Cinebuzz, a “salle de spectacle” based on digital projection, opened on Ave Mondjiba opposite the French Embassy. Another cinema, Cinékin, shows movies at some of the new malls in the capital, as well as the auditorium at College Boboto. Notwithstanding the impact of the digital revolution on a preference for personal viewing, there is still an audience for big screen entertainment.

Showbuzz on Ave. Mondjiba (Ph. Showbuzz)

Sources: 

• Chalux, 1925, Un An au Congo Belge, Bruxelles : Librairie Albert Dewit. 

• Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne, 1950. Food and Leisure Among the African Youth of Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, University of Cape Town. 

• Congo, Revue Générale de la Colonie belge. (multiple years) 

• Gondola, Ch. Didier, 2016. Tropical Cowboys: Westerns, Violence, and Masculinity in Kinshasa, Indiana University Press. 

• Otten, Rik, 1984. Le cinéma dans les pays des grands lacs: Zaïre, Rwanda, Burundi, OCIC. 

• « Vodacom, NileDutch, Comexas Afrique et FBNBank sponsors de la soirée la belle at the movies à Kinshasa », Femmes Forte, July 14, 2016.  

(https://www.femmefortes.com/wp-login/blog/2016/07/14/vodacom-niledutch-comexas-afrique-et-fbnbank-sponsors-de-la-soiree-la-belle-at-the-movies-a-kinshasa/) 

• Wauters, Joseph, 1924. Le Congo au travail, Bruxelles : Maison national d'edition l'Églantine.