My
recent discovery of the pre-fabricated origins of the Chanic Director’s house (See Oct. 22, 2016) led me to wonder
about the status of other early pre-fabs in Kinshasa. There were two dating
from the turn
of the 20th Century on the
former Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) compound, now the Communauté Baptiste du Fleuve Congo (CBFC) (See Wikinshasa). During the TASOK
Fiftieth Anniversary architectural heritage tour in 2011, the two houses were
one of the stops on the alumni schedule. A recent visit disclosed that the two 100-year-old
structures have been demolished to make way for speculative building projects.
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| One of the houses in 2011 |
The
BMS moved to Kinshasa from Leopoldville (today’s Ngaliema Commune) around 1890
after a grass fire burned down the original mission station located at the top
of Mont Ngaliema. The Baptists
negotiated with District Commissioner Liebrechts for the property, but paid
Chief Nculu (Ngobila) for the land in March 1889. After the fire on Mont Ngaliema, Missionary Thomas
Comber recommended building in brick, iron or stone. By 1893, construction of a
brick house for Missionary S.C. Gordon was under way. A large brick house for
the students, a kitchen and store room were also built the following year. Sales
of surplus bricks to local firms such as the “Dutch House” (NAHV) covered the
cost of constructing the student housing.
Over the next two years, additional brick housing, including a
“visitors” house, was built.
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| Note original BMS station at top of this 1888 map, the mission was originally named "Arthington" for a benefactor in Leeds. |
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| Rev. Comber and Congolese in front of a stick and thatch house. |
By
1903, the church decided to move its steamer fleet from Bolobo to Kinshasa, in
recognition of Kinshasa’s growing importance as a transportation nexus. This
also required new housing for the missionaries responsible for the steamers. The two pre-fabricated houses ordered at this
time were erected around 1907 side by side facing the river in Kinshasa. The
structures were fabricated by Frodingham Iron and Steel of Yorkshire in UK and
shipped to the Congo in pieces for assembly.
In addition to pine siding and poplar tongue and groove wood floors, the
buildings were designed to withstand termite attacks through innovative steel
piers incorporating dishes around the structural column which could be filled
with kerosene or other chemicals to repel insects.
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| One of the pre-fabricated houses |
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| The "Peace" at Upoto just downstream from Lisala in Mongala Province. |
Notwithstanding
the regret a historic preservationist may harbor at this loss of a unique part
of Congo’s patrimony, such old colonial structures occupy an ambivalent place
in contemporary ex-colonial society. For
Congolese, or other Africans or Asians for that matter, such buildings
represent a colonial past that is remembered without affection or appreciation
of the challenges and sacrifices of the colonials may have made. In this particular instance, Congolese did
not occupy these houses until years after Independence in 1960. Today, such
houses are viewed as outmoded and costly to maintain. Why not use the land they
occupy to leverage new residential and commercial development?
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| A view from the 1970s |
During
my recent visit, I found the riverside site cleared of the two houses and the
trees that shaded them. Remnants of the
original buildings litter the ground. A cement block wall separates the
compound from the two Riverside Towers started by Congo Futur which rise along
the riverbank. Construction on these is
now suspended and the 20-story concrete structures obstruct the view of the
river. The developer at CBFC has started a project to
reconstruct a reduced version of one of the houses nearby, but the advent of
the rainy season threatens to destroy the unprotected wood flooring before the
developer gets around to putting on the roof.
It does not appear to be a priority in any event.
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| The remains of the houses: wooden siding, foundation piers. Congo Futur tower in background. |
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| Windows and door frames. |
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| Re-erection of part of one house. |
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| Note Frodingham Iron & Steel on the girder. |
In
June 1909 Charles Pugh, a young BMS missionary on his way to the upcountry
station of Yakusu, arrived in Kinshasa.
Pugh, who would eventually become the long-serving Legal Representative
of the BMS in Leopoldville, later described his initial visit, walking on foot
from the train station to the BMS mission whose main purpose “was to keep this
base transport station functioning effectively… Here, amid many signs of
activity, were found the homes of those who for so long had splendidly
maintained the fine traditions of this Stanley Pool Station.
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| Kinshasa in 1909. BMS mission compound at extreme left. |
A
decade later, a BMS delegation arrived in Leopoldville to assess 40 years of
BMS endeavor in the country. Like Pugh,
the delegation detrained at the Kinshasa gare (now Place Braconnier, See Mar.11, 2011) and walked the kilometer or so to the mission station, though this
time, the female members took advantage of the popular single wheel rickshaw
taxi called a “pousse pousse”. The head
of delegation recorded the presence of four houses on the river, two relatively
new of wood & iron, two older brick structures. He further observed, “We noticed that the H.C.B. (Huileries du Congo Belge, the
local subsidiary of Lever Brothers) has adopted a standard type of small brick
bungalow for their white staff, consisting of two main rooms with verandahs
front and back — brick on a high
plinth, iron sheeting roof, wood lined — the cost of which is £350. It appears to us that a similar
bungalow, with three main rooms instead of two, would be generally suitable for
our purposes.”
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| A rider on a "pousse pousse" of the era. |
As
noted, an important factor in the development of the BMS mission in Kinshasa
was the decision in to relocate the steamer fleet from Bolobo. A first steamer,
the “Peace” was launched at Leopoldville in 1884 (See May 4, 2015). For a number of years the boat was based at
Bolobo, but it was transferred to Kinshasa in 1903, where it continued to serve
the upriver stations under a full time missionary until 1908 when it was decommissioned. The BMS later launched the “Goodwill”, the “Endeavour”
and finally the “Grenfell”, at the Mission in 1912. As part of the deal to sell 20 hectares of
mission property to H.C.B., Lever Brothers agreed to allow BMS passengers and
cargo access to its own steamers, obviating the need for the mission to
continue to operate its own fleet.
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| The launch of the steamer "Grenfell" at the BMS beach in 1912. The "Endeavour" in the background. |
After
the Peace was decommissioned, the bow and forward sections of the craft were
shipped back to Britain to be used for fund-raising purposes. The heavy boiler was left at the river bank
and settled into the mud as it was submerged during successive annual rainy
seasons. When Pugh returned to serve at
the mission in the late 1920s he placed the boiler on the mission grounds near
the two pre-fabs as a memorial to the pioneer missionaries.
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| The steam boiler of the "Peace" on display on the riverbank around 1927. The man at left may be Charles Pugh. |
Looking
around the site, I finally located the boiler rusting away in the tall weeds. If the CBFC church does not see any value
displaying the boiler in its compound (the developer did name the apartment
building facing Ave. Kalemie, “The Peace” -- See Aug. 17, 2016), the
boiler and some of the steel components of the houses (such as the
termite-resistant piers) could be donated to the new National Museum under
construction on the Boulevard Triomphal.
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| The "Peace's" boiler today. |
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| One of the steel piers designed to thwart termites. |
Footnote: In the
course of the research for this post I happened upon some interesting Congo
trivia. The boat used in the Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn film, “The African
Queen” filmed in Kisangani in 1951 was also built by Frodingham Iron and Steel
in 1912 for service in the Congo.
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| "The African Queen" |
Sources:
