On
January 24, 2019, Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo was sworn in as fifth
President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The grand event, an
unprecedented peaceful transfer of power, was the first in nearly 60 years of
Independence. It took place at the
Palais de la Nation, today the President’s Office, but originally constructed
in the late 1950s as the residence of the Governor General of the colony (Sep. 12, 2011).
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| January 24, 2019 - Felix Tshisekedi takes the oath of office at the Palais de la Nation (Photo: www.presidentrdc.cd) |
At
Independence, June 30, 1960, the first President, Joseph Kasavubu, also took
the oath of office in the Palais de la Nation, but he was not destined to be its
first resident, because the Belgians had decided to convert the facility into
the Parliament of the new nation. What about
the former Governor General’s residence, the late 1920s edifice 100 meters up
Ave. Tilkens (now Ave. du Fleuve)? That was
assigned as the official residence of the Prime Minister, Kasavubu’s rival,
Patrice Emery Lumumba. On the eve of
Independence, at which neither politician had sufficient seats in Parliament to
form a government, a compromise was worked out whereby Kasavubu became
President and Lumumba the Prime Minister. The new President moved out to Mont
Stanley (Mont Ngaliema) to the recently completed residence of the Governor of
Leopoldville Province.
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| The first Official Residence of the President of the Congo (Photo: author coll.) |
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| The Governor General's residence in the late 1950s. It became the Prime Minister's residence at Independence (Photo: author coll.) |
The
Provincial Governor’s residence was built on a spectacular site overlooking the
Kinsuka rapids of the Congo River during Governor Julien Babilon’s term in
office (1955-59). During this time, the Stanley Monument and Provincial Office
Building (now the Ministry of Defense) were completed on the summit of Mont
Stanley, adding to the urbanization of the area led by Imafor’s “100 Maisons”
residential subdivision. The residence was an International Style box in two
stories, with the top floor projecting over the base on all sides. In addition to initiating construction of the
Residence, Governor Babilon also gave his name to Quartier Babylon in Kintambo
Commune, built by the Office des Cités Africains in the mid-1950s (Sep. 30, 2011).
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| The President's Residence on Mt. Ngaliema. Ministry of Defense building on left (Photo: author coll.) |
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| President Kasavubu on the balcony of the Residence (Photo: author coll.) |
In
September 1960, as tension between Kasavubu and Lumumba escalated, both he and
Lumumba requested the United Nations provide a security detail at their
residences. On September 15, Mobutu staged a coup neutralizing both Kasavubu and
Lumumba and essentially confining Lumumba to house arrest. In November 1960,
Lumumba slipped through double rings of UN and Congolese Army guards around the
Prime Minister’s residence and sought to escape to Stanleyville
(Kisangani). He was apprehended in Kasai
province, returned to Leopoldville, then transferred to Katanga in January
1961, where he was assassinated. Kasavubu continued to conduct affairs of
state, receiving new Ambassadors, government ministers and supplicants. He remained at the official residence until
Mobutu’s second coup on November 24, 1965.
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| A UN security detail at Kasavubu's residence (Photo: Corbis) |
Meanwhile,
General Mobutu, the strongman behind the Presidency, established his
headquarters in what became Camp Tshatshi, strategically located adjacent to
the Presidential Residence. In 1964 he
notified Imafor’s subsidiary, Imbaleo, that he was taking over “100 Maisons” to
expand the Camp (Imafor was a real estate company established by Joseph
Rhodius, Director of the Texaf textile complex). No compensation has ever been
paid to Texaf or Imafor. After the coup, he began to expand the grounds around
the Presidential Residence, creating formal gardens along the bluff between the
residence and Stanley Monument and extending a vast Presidential Zoo down Mont
Ngaliema to the river. He used the
Residence more as an office and venue for receiving official visitors,
preferring to sleep in the security of fortified Camp Tshatshi. In 1967 as well, Congo hosted the annual
meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and a new conference center
with villas for 40 heads of state was built southwest of the Residence. In July 1976, during the heyday of US-Zaire
relations, Mobutu hosted a huge Bicentennial reception for the American community,
at which Mwana Mboka and new best friend were privileged to shake the “Grand
Leopard’s” hand.
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| Mobutu and Foreign Minister Bomboko Lokumba receiving the press at the Residence (Photo: author coll.) |
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| OAU Village around 1971. President's Residence in upper right. (Photo: Elisofon Collection, Smithsonian Institution) |
In
1970, the Governor of the Central Bank, Albert Ndele, began building an
“official residence” for himself in the hills of the Binza district in Ngaliema
Commune. He tapped the skills of the
team of Eugene Palumbo and Fernand Tala N’gai who designed the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs complex (1965) and the Supreme Court (1969) (Aug. 20, 2011) and the thinking of the
team for the Supreme Court can clearly be seen in the circular plan from
which the rest of the building and grounds radiated. It was an opulent
structure, reportedly using Italian marble from a quarry that supplied the
Vatican. The result, taking in the topography of the site, was said to resemble
to map of the Congo (see inset below). Ndele was named Minister of Finance in September 1970
(considered a demotion), then dismissed in November. Although the Bank claimed the property in its
inventory, it passed under the control of the Presidency and served as a guest
house for high ranking visitors. Among
others, US National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, stayed there in April
1976.
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| The Palais de Marbre. Inset in the shape of the Congo. (Photo: Lagae & DeRaedt, 2015) |
In
November 1975, President Mobutu laid the first stone for a new Palais du Peuple
on Ave. Triomphal which was to be built under the terms of bilateral cooperation
with China. As early as the mid-1960s
Mobutu had requested designs from such architects such as Marcel Lambrichs (Aug.15, 2011) and Anibal Baldo for new Parliament building. This building, completed in
the 1980s, became the new home of a moribund Parliament which had started with such anticipation in
June 1960 on the banks of the Congo in the Palais de la Nation.
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| The Palais du Peuple in 2010 (Photo: Wikinshasa) |
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| The Prime Ministers's residence in 2011 (Photo: Wikinshasa) |
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| The original building, probably during King Albert and Queen Elisabeth's visit in 1928. Photo by Zagourski. (Photo: author coll.) |
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| In 2004, under the "1 + 4" Peace Accord formula, VP Arthur Zahidi Ngoma lived in the residence. I used to tell people I had a "distant" view of the river from my apartment. (Photo: author coll.) |
In
1982, Prof. Lumuna Sando, a critic of the Mobutu regime, reported to the Second
Russell Tribunal in Rotterdam, that Mobutu had three principal residences in
Kinshasa; the original Kasavubu residence, which served as his office; the
Palais de Marbre, often used as an official guest house; and a “Palais Privé”
behind the Okapi Hotel in Binza.
However, the President preferred to stay within Camp Tshatshi, in a
residence known as “OAU II”, reported to include an underground prison cell. As the Mobutu regime came increasingly under
pressure to open political space, the President often spent weeks at a time at
his official residence in Gbadolite, his home village in Equateur Province. In fact, the President had official residences
in all Provincial capitals and many smaller municipalities.
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| The Lion fountain in Mobutu's palace in Gbadolite (Photo: Monuc) |
President
Mobutu chose to announce an opening for multi-party politics in April 1990 at
the Nsele Pagoda (June 4, 2017),
another of his palaces, though not used as a residence. Mobutu imagined that this gesture might result
in one or two opposition parties, but overnight, hundreds of new political
groupings were registered. In March the following year, Mobutu signed an
Ordonnance creating a constitutional conference called the Conférence Nationale
Souveraine (CNS), held at the Palais du Peuple, to elaborate a framework for
the Third Republic. The CNS opened in
August, but before anything could be accomplished, the “Pillages” of September
22-23 rocked Kinshasa and spread throughout the rest of the country. On September 28, Mobutu met with opposition
members at the Palais de Marbre which resulted in the nomination of Etienne
Tshisekedi (Felix's father) as Prime Minister on the 30th. A long-term opposition
figure and founder of UDPS in 1982, Tshisekedi was appointed Prime Minister on
October 16 in a ceremony at the Palais de Marbre, but two days later Mobutu
changed his mind and chose another opposition figure, Mungul Diaka.
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| "Pillage du 23 au 24 Sept. 1991 a Kinshasa" - Pierre Bodo (Photo: Art Richelieu Castor-Hara) |
The
country continued to limp along from crisis to crisis (a second Pillage in January
1993) and a series of seven government reshuffles, in which Tshisekedi was
appointed two more times, the last for a week in April 1997. On May 17, 1997, the AFDL led by Laurent
Kabila captured Kinshasa. Kinshasa
residents joined the conquerors and sacked the President’s official residence
on Mont Ngaliema and attacked other symbols of the departed dictator. Laurent Kabila moved into the Palais de Marbre.
On January 16, 2001, one of his body guards shot him as he was working in his
office. The building was largely
abandoned and is only open to the public on January 16 and 17 each year
(anniversaries of Kabila and Lumumba’s assassinations). Visitors may view the office just as it was
on the day he was shot, including blood stains.
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| Visitors lining up to visit the Palais de Marbre. (Photo: grandhotelkinshasa.blogspot.com) |
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| Kids waiting to visit Laurent Kabila's Mausoleum - January 16, 2017. The dome of the Palais de la Nation in the background (Photo: author coll.) |
Laurent’s
son, Joseph Kabila Kabange, was named President by the late President’s
entourage. He moved to a property at the
summit of Avenue de l’Ouganda overlooking Ngaliema Bay in Gombe Commune, which
he developed into a sumptuous personal residence. When questioned about his
personal plans after the CENI named Felix Tshisekedi the winner of the
Presidential race, Kabila indicated he was not planning to leave where he
was. Prime Minister Tshibala, occupying
the Primature residence in Ngaliema Commune, relocated to a villa on Ave.
Justice in Gombe, so the Prime Minister’s residence could be readied for the
new President. At the time of posting,
Tshisekedi and family had moved from the Hotel du Fleuve, located mid-way between
the Palais de la Nation and Kabila’s residence to the Cité de l’Union Africaine
(ex-OAU). The historic preservationist in me would like to see the Kasavubu
residence rebuilt. There is precedent:
the White House in Washington, DC after the War of 1812 and the Imperial Palace
in Tokyo after World War II.
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| The Cite de l'OUA shortly after completion in 1967 |
Sources:
Lagae, Johan and
Kim DeRaedt, 2015. “Building for ‘Authenticite’ Eugene Palumbo and the
Architecutre of Mobutu’s Congo”, Journal of Architectural Education, Oct. 2015.
RFI Afrique - http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20190127-rdc-residence-felix-tshisekedi-palais-presidentiel-kabila
Texaf – Price
Waterhouse Coopers report on creation of Imbakin Holding SA, Mar. 25, 2014 (http://www.texaf.be/fileadmin/user_upload/NTCdocument/Texaf__RC_scission_1_1397305227.pdf)
Wikinshasa - http://www.wikinshasa.org/