The Stanley House in Vivi

Vivi was the first settlement on Congolese soil founded by Stanley in 1879 on his first mission for the Belgian king Leopold II. His house was rebuilt and turned into a museum. While representing one of the darkest chapters in Belgium's colonial past, the era of the pioneers and Leopold was revered and depicted by the propaganda as heroic and humane. A large portrait of Leopold covered one of the walls of the museum.
(Photo by H. Goldstein / Congopresse, 1958).

Architecture and monuments

The impact of modern architecture on the landscape, or the transformation of the wilderness into a cultural landscape, whether agrarian or urban, was interpreted as a sign of progress and civilisation.
The monument of Stanley in the capital Leopoldville (now Kinshasha) was inaugurated as late as 1956. The first explorers became superhuman heroes. The statue was no less taken down in 1971 and replaced by the “Bouclier de la Révolution”.
(Photo by H. Goldstein / Congopresse, 1956).

Leopoldville, a modern city

That modernity meant progress in the colonial mindset never found a more direct expression as in the urban development in Belgian Congo, as can be seen from this aerial shot of the European sector of the capital Leopoldville.
(photo by H. Goldstein / Congopresse, 1950s).

Anything was possible

The holy children's friend had to make a long detour to steam to Central Africa, and if we have to believe this photo he even jumped the rules of segregation. Sinterklaas on a feast organised for the staff of the Information services of the Government General in Leopoldville.
(Photo by C. Lamote / Congopresse, December 1957).

A bit of Belgian folklore in the colony

Organising Belgian folkloristic events in the colony, such as the Gilles from Binche parade in Leopoldville, revived the ties with the homeland just as much as it emphasised the reluctancy of the white colonial society to identify with the Congolese.
(photo by H. Goldstein / Congopresse, 1950s).

Important visitors

An exploration of the African sections of the city by white ladies was a favorite moment for the propaganda press. The wife of the chief of staff of the American Navy visiting the Congo is accompanied by the wives of high Belgian officials.
(photo by J. Makula / Congopresse, 6 April 1957)

Life under Belgian rule

Conform to this detestable notion of Belgian Congo as so-called model colony, the government produced many staged images of a harmonious relationship between the Belgian rulers and the Congolese people.
(Photo by J. Makula / Congopresse, 1950s).

Savings bank

Congolese women in Leopoldville stand in line for contributing to the Caisse d'Epargne du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi, the national savings bank founded in 1950.
(Photo by C. Lamote / Congopresse, 1950s).

Health care

Topics like health care and education were vastly exploited by the propaganda photography to hammer home the achievements and sense of progress in the colony.
(Photo by J. Makula / Congopresse, 1950s)

The first Congolese woman to obtain her driver's licence, 1955

The first Congolese woman to obtain her driver's licence was Victorine Ndjoli. A former home economics pupil of the Franciscan nuns and an occasional advertising model, at some point it was suggested that Ms. Ndjoli would drive king Baudouin around on his state visit of the colony in the spring of 1955, but that plan never materialised.
(Photo by C. Lamote/Congopresse, 1955).

Inaugaration of the King Baudouin Stadium, 1952

The most ambitious brainchild of the Belgian missionaries, at the time of its inauguration in 1952 the King Baudouin Stadium in Leopoldville was the largest in all Africa, with a capacity of 80.000. Although meant to recreate and thus keep the masses quiet, ironically, it was here that in early 1959 the riots broke out which eventually would lead to the independence.
In a different era, in 1974, it provided the setting for the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match opposing Muhammad Ali to George Foreman. Renamed Stade du 20 May, it is now Stade Tata Raphaël, after its founder missionary Raphaël de la Kethulle.
(Photo by J. Mulders / Congpresse, 1 July 1952).

King Baudouin in Belgian-Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, 1955

The state visit of the young Belgian king in May 1955 was hugely successful and massively covered by the media, readily becoming a key event in the visualisation of the colony. Every move and blink of Baudouin during his trip seems to have been preserved for posterity. It was the high mass consecrating the imagined success of the colonial dream. Yet, in reality it was to fall apart a mere five years later.
(Photo by C. Lamote / Congopresse, 1955).

Shinkolobwe, 1955

Miners from Shinkolobwe waiting for king Baudouin.
Shinkolobwe, in the province of Katanga, was the most important uranium mine in the world. In World War II large quantities of uranium were shipped to the USA. The atomic bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were produced with uranium from Shinkolobwe.
(Photo by C. Lamote / Congopresse, 1955)

The first ever elections, 1957

Hoping to reverse the growing discontent the colonial government finally allowed the Congolese some political power. In December 1957 the Congolese men of three urban centres (Leopoldville, Elisabethville and Jadotville) voted for mayors and city councils.
(Photo by C. Lamote / Congopresse, 8 December 1957).

Order is restored in Leopoldville, January 1959

Riots broke out on 4 January 1959 in Leopoldville. When the end was near, images like this kept the illusion of a successful continuation of the colonial dream alive.
(photo by H. Goldstein / Congopresse, 6 January 1959).

The beginning of a new era

President Kasavubu, prime minister Patrice Lumumba and other members of the new Congolese governement wave goodbye to the last Belgian governor-general.
(5 July 1960).