Leopoldville 1944 - Gunther Baby Grand for Sale

If you’ve followed this blog for a while you may have concluded that one of my favorite buildings in Kinshasa is the former Sedec Motors showroom at the corner of Avenues Aviateurs and Isiro opposite Ste. Anne Cathedral (Oct. 8, 2017).

Sedec Motors looking down Ave. Aviateurs in the 1950s (Author coll.)

This art deco gem is now dwarfed by the Sozacom building and the security around the Electoral Commission (CENI) offices on Blvd. du 30 Juin, but in the 1930s this was prime real estate.

The Sedec store (R), CENI and Sozacom (L)

Sedec (Société des Entreprises Commerciales au Congo Belge), was the retail arm of Lever Brothers’ Huileries du Congo Belge. When the US Consulate was looking for larger premises in August 1945 (Aug. 2, 2018), Sedec offered the building to the US Government within 24 months, but with a 20-year lease. The option was not taken up. In the 1950s the building became one of the first self-service grocery stores in Leopoldville.

The check-out registers in 1959 (Ph. author coll.)

Sprucing up the entrance for King Baudouin's visit in 1955 (Ph. liberas.eu)

After Independence in 1960, foreign currency shortages affected the economy, and grocery shelves were often lined along the edge with a single item, like small cans of sweetened condensed milk or boxes of matches. In the mid-1970s, President Mobutu’s Zairanization program drove Lever Brothers to disinvest and sell off certain assets. When I visited Kinshasa in October 1992, the store was called “Select”, with similarly sparse shelves. It closed in 2003.

Blvd. du 30 Juin 1972, Sedec (R), Sozacom building under construction (Ph. author coll.)

In July 2005, Hasson Freres opened “Espace Hasson”. A firm established in Congo since 1936, their “Au Chic” store on Place Braconnier in 1946 was the first in the city to serve both Congolese and European customers. Living in Kinshasa in the mid 2000s, I was thrilled to shop at “Sedec” again and enjoy the many tenants on the upper mezzanine, which created the feeling of a shopping mall. But success in Congo often breeds excess and, complaining of a plethora of 38 separate tax regimes, Hasson Africa closed the store at the end of December 2017 (Jan. 2, 2018).

Mezzanine walkway to the coffee shop (Ph. author coll.)

The Cosmopolitain restaurant (Ph. author coll.)

Espace Hasson shortly before closure in December 2017 (Ph. author coll.)

A new iteration of the retail store was revealed in 2018 when it became GG Mart Select, with advertising careful to emphasize its Sedec and Select roots. The other tenant was UAC, which sells furniture, appliances and office equipment. The two firms are managed by South Asian brothers and in Solomonic compromise, two separate entrances in the lobby provided access to lengthy corridors of merchandise.

GG Mart "Select" (Ph. author coll.)

GG Mart and UAC entrances (Ph. author coll.)

GG Mart lobby (Ph. author coll.)

Which brings us to the Gunther Baby Grand. On our first visit to check out the new store, we found this piano on the mostly vacant mezzanine. We asked Congolese staff about it, who introduced us to a South Asian manager. Neither French, Lingala, nor English provided any clarification other than the piano was found during the remodeling of the new store.

The Gunther piano on the GG Mart mezzanine (Ph. author coll.)

So, I will hypothesize. Jean deMiddeleer, a Belgian pianist, settled in Leopoldville after an African concert tour was interrupted by the outbreak of war in Europe. During his stay he played for Governor General Ryckmans, gave charity performances for the war effort and in 1943-44 toured South Africa, Katanga and Angola. In December 1944, he offered a Belgian-made Gunther grand piano for sale, “specially constructed for Congo”. In April 1945 he left for Eastern Congo, giving concerts in the mining regions and in 1946, moved to Kenya to direct the Nairobi Symphony.

Was this his piano? It was repainted white and the cigarette burns on the keys suggest Rick’s Café in Casablanca more than the refined atmosphere of the College Albert theater (now College Boboto). It seems even the owners don’t know how it ended up in the Sedec building.

Play it again Sam (Ph. author coll.)

Sources: 

• Courrier d’Afrique, Dec. 21, 1944. 
•  « La société Hasson & frères aurait décidé de fermer ses portes «, mbote.cd, Dec. 9, 2017.