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.
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| 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.
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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.