Leopoldville 1943 – Leisure on the River at Kinsuka

Kinsuka is a Quartier in Ngaliema Commune, situated on the rapids four kilometers downstream from the Chanic shipyards. Tradition holds that Kinsuka means, “end of town”, the furthest extension of colonial Leopoldville. Opposite the site, a narrow rocky channel runs between the bank and Ile Mimosa. The land around Mont Ngaliema, along the river and into Binza was part of a 300 hectare concession granted to Joseph Rhodius, founder of the Texaf textile mill in 1936 (Feb. 27, 2020).

The rapids at Kinsuka (Ph. author coll.)

Leopoldville’s Hygiene Service began clearing weeds along the river at Kinsuka in March 1943 to reduce the prevalence of mosquitos. Four hundred Congolese were employed in the work. Force Publique Engineers erected a 135-meter footbridge of rattan and lianas to provide access to Mimosa Island. Paths were laid out on the island, which was covered with all kinds of vegetation including wild Mimosa. At the downstream end of Mimosa, the current between the channel and main river deposited sand to create a beach which, noted the Courrier d’Afrique newspaper, “should attract Kinois”. In July, enthusiastic patrons appealed to the Public Works Department to resurface the gravel road leading to Kinsuka.

Ile Mimosa 1946 (Ph. author coll.)

Bridge to Ile Mimosa (Ph. author coll.)

When entrepreneur Trenteseaux began building the Forescom building in 1944 (May 28, 2011), he built a narrow bridge to the island and opened a quarry to mine the purplish red sandstone. The elevated bridge on stone pillars had only two tracks for the vehicle wheels and no guard rails. In 1950 a company affiliated with the Texaf textile interests opened an industrial quarry called Carrigrès on the mainland in the Rhodius concession. At the same time, an industrial brick-making factory called Bricongo acquired land from Imafor (Rhodius group). In 1954, the Chemin de Fer Matadi-Leopoldville laid 6 kilometers of track from Kintambo gare to Kinsuka to improve speed of delivery and reduce the cost of handling output from the quarries. The riverside area remained a major vector of mosquito borne malaria and yellow fever for the growing European suburbs of Ngaliema and Binza and a program of spraying by helicopter began in 1951.

The bridge to the Ile Mimosa rock quarry - 1946 (Ph. author coll)

Mimosa island continued to be an attraction for some residents of Leopoldville Ouest. Mwana Mboka and neighbors would either walk or ride bikes to the island. Guards on the mainland side usually did not prevent expatriate visitors crossing the bridge to the island if they stayed away from the quarry operations.

The bridge to Mimosa Quarry - 1961 (Ph. flickr)

In 1970 President Mobutu asked Doctor Bill Close, his personal physician, to upgrade services at the main hospital in Kinshasa, named for the President’s mother, Mama Yemo (Nov. 26, 2012). Close envisioned a state-of-the-art medical facility with international specialists to complement the Congolese personnel. The President ordered construction of an expansive residential complex for expatriate medical personnel, called “Mimosa”, on the slopes of Mont Ngaliema opposite the island. Prefabricated units imported from Belgium were installed on concrete foundations.

The housing at Camp Mimosa (Ph. facebook)

The Camp Mimosa compound (Ph. facebook)

After the demise of Mobutu, in 1999 the new Ministry of Tourism sought to promote Mimosa Island as a tourist site. In addition to recreation seekers, however, the river front attracted residential settlers, as Kinois sought new land to build homes on. The Ministry of Transport opened a transit line to Mimosa on the old line from Kintambo Magasins that originally served the quarry. However, this service was terminated in 2002. 

 

One problem for the riverain community was seasonal flooding and erosion from the former Presidential compound and Camp Tshatshi on Mont Ngaliema. There were only two paved roads serving Kinsuka, the river road from Chanic along the base of Mont Ngaliema called Avenue du Rive, and Avenue de l’Ecole from the Matadi road above TASOK and the Cercle Hippique. A major storm in March 1998 washed away a one kilometer section of Ave. Ecole cutting off 100,000 residents. In March 2004, the Kuweit Fund provided funds to repair the critical roadway. 

Another landslide at the end of 2005 cut off the river road to Kinsuka. In 2009, a project to reopen Ave du Rive, now renamed Ave du Tourisme, was awarded to CREC-8, the Chinese company which rebuilt Boulevard du 30 Juin (Jan. 23, 2011). Related construction work included the Binza River bridge, which was featured on the 500 Franc bill celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence.

Ave Tourisme during reconstruction - 2009 (Ph. author coll.)

Avenue du Tourisme after repairs (Ph. actualite.cd)

The Binza River Bridge at Kinsuka

In the 2010s, the tourism potential of the Kinsuka riverfront began to be developed by property owners along the riverside. Among the first was “Chez Tintin” a beer garden and restaurant decorated with cement sculptures of “Tintin” characters. Another entrepreneur opened “Libaya”, a venue with a view of Mimosa Island, whose signature menu offered a kilo of one’s choice of grilled meat on a plank (libaya) with four Congolese side dishes. Today one can enjoy the river from a simple “nganda” of a few huts to massive hotel complexes with swimming pools and conference facilities.

Chez Tintin (Ph. author coll.)

Libaya restaurant (Ph. author coll.)

Villa Bahari opposite Mimosa Island (Ph. author coll.)

The river experience at Kinsuka is always different depending on the season. At the height of the rainy season, the stream churns by with undulating waves topped with whitecaps, and some riverside venues are flooded. In the dry season, the water recedes and artisanal rock breakers take over, crushing the boulders and river bed by hand to supply Kinshasa’s construction industry. Many of the workers are children and women. Patrons may observe huge dump trucks navigating the channel between Mimosa and the river bank to load crushed stone. The quarry on Mimosa Island was acquired by the Ledya Group in 2005; it and Carrigrés continue to supply stone and rock on industrial scale.

Truck loading sand off Villa Bahari - 2019 (Ph. Author coll.)

Hand broken stone at Chez Tintin - 2016 (Ph. author coll.)

When both arteries were open to traffic, the intersection of Avenues Tourisme and Ecole at Kinsuka Pompage created such massive traffic jams that the site was selected for one of the first “saute de mouton” overpasses in 2019 (Apr. 20, 2019). A major project begun in 2016 was the construction of a nine kilometer road (Ave Nzolana) linking Quartier Pompage with the Université Pédagogique Nationale (UPN) on the Matadi road. Completed in November 2023, the project also included over a kilometer of reinforced concrete roadway to mitigate erosion from the Binza hills.

The Saute de Mouton overpass at Kinsuka (Ph. mediacongo)

Ave. Nzolana leading to UPN - 2023 (Ph. Agence Congolaise des Grands Travaux)