This unusual villa on Ave. de l’Avenir
in Ngaliema Commune is the residence of the Director General of Chanic,
originally the Chantier Naval Industriel du Congo. The house, which brings to
mind the French Quarter in New Orleans or a scene from a Tennessee Williams
novel, was acquired for Chanic’s top manager in 1930 shortly after the shipyards
was established at the original port of Leopoldville which H.M. Stanley created
in 1881 (See Mar. 5, 2011). The house is a part of my earliest
memories of Kinshasa (playing with the neighbors, the wood floors upstairs, the crunch of the gravel driveway) but only
recently did I learn that it was originally built as the first British
Consulate in Leopoldville.
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| The residence of the Director General of Chanic |
In 1906, the United Kingdom decided to
build consular offices in Boma, Leopoldville and Stanleyville (now
Kisangani). As the capital of the
then Congo Free State, Boma had a long term diplomatic presence, but now His
Majesty’s Government was ready to put down roots. As early as March 1901,
Vice-Consul Roger Casement was tasked with finding a site for a consulate at
Stanley Pool, upriver from Leopoldville.
In June 1903 Casement spent several weeks in Leopoldville (he was also
collecting information on abusive treatment of the Congolese), staying at Dr.
Sims’ house (See May 4, 2016). In fact, a map from
this period shows a Consulate site adjacent to the BMS mission in Kinshasa.
But, in the final analysis, the site in Leopoldville next to the American
Baptist Mission was granted by the Congo Free State government, although the
title never transferred. It is not
clear why the decision was made to locate at Leopoldville, but at the time, it
was a much more important settlement and the capital of the District of Stanley
Pool.
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One proposed site for the new Consulate (left of the 2 pink parcels).
In today's Gombe Commune, this is would be the South African Embassy compound |
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| The architect's design for the Leopoldville site (reference to "American Church" is Sims Chapel). |
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| A view from the opposite direction. The Consulate built in the area labeled "Brousse", American mission at right. |
In October 1906, the British Consul
requested that the Congo Free State reduce the tariff for shipping the
materials to Leopoldville via the Congo Railway from Matadi, but the
authorities in Brussels politely declined. In December His Majesty’s Office of
Works submitted plans to the Treasury for bungalows costing £4,000 to be built
in Leopoldville and Stanleyville. The residence was constructed between 1907-09
according to plans prepared by Robert Neill and Sons of Manchester at a cost of
£5,900, including materials shipped from England. In 1911 the cost of the Consulate was questioned in the House
of Commons, to which the respondent explained that Leopoldville was very remote
and it was difficult to get adequate labor, in short it was “a very expensive
place”.
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| The architect's design for the Consulate (front elevation). |
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| The upper floor - Consul's residence. |
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| The ground floor - Consulate offices. |
The first resident of the Consulate was
Jack Proby Armstrong, who served as Vice-Consul in Leopoldville from 1905 to
1911. This period was the height
of the “Red Rubber” campaign in which British and American Protestant missionaries exposed the
brutal exploitation of Congolese by the extractive Leopoldian regime. In September 1909, the Presbyterian
African-American missionary, William Sheppard, was summoned before the Court in
Leopoldville in a libel suit by the Compagnie du Kasai whose labor practices
Sheppard had criticized. Armstrong and the American Consul William Handy,
witnessed the trial at which Sheppard was acquitted. During the trial, Sheppard lodged at Sims’ House at the
nearby American Baptist mission.
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| Side view of the residence today. |
During World War I, the Vice-Consul’s
steam launch, the “St. George” was
sent to Lake Tanganika to join a British flotilla supporting the Belgian
campaign against the Germans in East Africa (See Aug. 3, 2014).
After the war Vice-Consulate appears to have gone unfilled for certain
periods and in 1923 the building was leased to the colonial government. In 1930, the building was sold to
Chanic, most likely as a Depression economy move, although the following year
the Consulate was officially transferred from Boma to Leopoldville, now the capital of the colony. Two parcels
were obtained in Kinshasa, one for the Consul’s residence (the actual site of
the Embassy and Ambassador’s residence on Ave. Baudouin) and another in the
downtown area for a Consular office.
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| A Twenties-themed whimsical postcard |
At some point after Chanic acquired the
building it was renovated to its current configuration and appearance. The wrap-around balconies
were enclosed with masonry walls on either side and the front enclosed with French
doors and louvered windows matching the original verandah support columns. A garage, tennis court and swimming
pool were added to the compound.
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| Another view of the northeast side. |
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| The driveway and garage from Ave. de l'Avenir. |
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| A cement elephant, Chanic's logo, in front of the tennis court. |
Sources:
- Room for Diplomacy. Catalogue of British Embassy and
Consulate buildings, 1800-2010.
