Leopoldville 1961 - The American School Opens

The American School of Leopoldville opened its doors September 18, 1961, in improvised facilities at the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) compound on the Congo River.  The school had been hastily put together to cater to a growing English-speaking community comprised primarily of American missionaries, US Embassy staff and United Nations personnel.  Although the Congo continued to be a concern for western governments, the election of Cyrille Adoula as Prime Minister the previous month appeared to offer the prospect of more stable governance in the young nation.

Notwithstanding its location on a Protestant mission station, the school was intentionally planned as an American school, to offer an American curriculum for expatriate American children.  In 1958, ABFMS (the only American church with a long-term presence in the city) established a hostel on the compound to enable its children from up-country mission stations to attend the Belgian metropolitan school – the Athenée Royale – but parents were concerned about disruption caused when children switched from French to English (and Belgian to American curriculum) during year-long furloughs in the U.S.  Further, after Independence, the Belgian school system ended (though a new Belgian international school continued at the main Athenée campus at Kalina). 

ABFMS’s mission Treasurer, Jerry Weaver, worked with a member of the US Embassy to develop the school’s charter (eventually a cap of 60% native English speakers was established to maintain the American character of the student body).

TASOL - Sims House Halloween 1961

The school itself was housed in the Sims House, built in 1893 by the pioneer Baptist Missionary, Dr. Aaron Sims.  The modest brick residence, in the shape of a cross, was painted school-house red and accommodated a large combined 5^th & 6th grade in the main wing, 3^rd & 4^th grades in the right arm of the cross, while the entire High School occupied the other arm.  The combined first and second grades were in an adjacent car port, screened in with a half-wall to provide a semblance of classroom structure.  An ancient iron-wood tree, said to have been the site where Henry Stanley negotiated the land concession for the Baptists, shaded the assembly area between the two classroom buildings.  There were 45 students enrolled in the 12 grades that first day.

Two-person desks (wood and steel with ink wells) ordered from FNMA, were not delivered until after a mid-morning rain shower.  Desks and tables ordered for ABFMS’ Christian Center in Kintambo were pulled into service.  Text books from the American Mennonite Brethren Mission’s (AMBM) Ecole Bellevue in Kwilu District, were eventually received.  The library consisted of a single shelf of books, featuring C.S. Lewis and other fiction tomes.  Notwithstanding its charter as an American School, the missionary influence was significant.  The Principal, Orv Wiebe, was seconded from AMBM.  His wife Ruby, taught 5-6th grade, while the wife of an MAF pilot taught 3-4^th grades.  ABFMS continued to operate its hostel on the mission grounds, and a Swiss-American couple with the Bible Society, the Chaponnieres, hosted several Mennonite children in a rented house in Utexleo (behind the building currently owned by the French Embassy at the end of the Boulevard).  Under these circumstances, classes often started with devotional stories and prayer.  Sims’ Chapel, an earlier structure overlooking the river, served as the venue for Assemblies.

5th and 6th Grade Class Trip to White Mountain (Mangengenge). Mwana Mboka with red lunch box (l.)

The student body continued to grow as more expatriates returned or began working in Congo.   By the beginning of 1962, the school cleared ground for a six-classroom building and library on land below Sims’ House. The arrangement with the ABFMS hosts was that the buildings would eventually revert to the Mission.  Additional classroom blocks were built and playgrounds prepared before the high school moved to Mont Ngaliema in 1966 on land obtained through the auspices of the U.S. Embassy.  The elementary school remained at the ABFMS compound until the “pods” were built on the current campus in 1971.  Sims’ House is now used to support women’s programs of the Communauté Baptiste du Congo Ouest (CBCO – the Congolese church that succeeded ABFMS) and the purpose-built classroom complex houses CBCO offices and apartments.

 



Sims House today