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House construction and social engineering in the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale manuals of the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (1943-1966)

Maison individuelle et ingénierie sociale au travers des manuels des séries Beaux métiers et Formation sociale de la Bibliothèque de l’Étoile
Igor Bloch

Texte intégral

  • 1 Guy Vanthemsche, “Le plan décennal et la modernisation du Congo belge (1949-1959),” in La mémoire (...)
  • 2 Bruno De Meulder was among the first to develop an in-depth discussion of the OCA-housing producti (...)

1After the Second World War, the Belgian colonial authorities changed their policy towards the Congolese population. The Ten-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Belgian Congo (1949-1959) emphasized the improvement of the living standard of the colonized.1 Providing decent accommodation for the African population in the colony’s booming urban centers became a spearhead of post-war colonial policies, together with ameliorating health care and educational facilities. In this context, the Office des Cités Africaines (referred to below as OCA) was founded in 1952, to design and build new satellite cities in the surroundings of the major cities in the Belgian Congo. In historiography, these OCA neighborhoods, with—and, perhaps, because of—their striking modernist architecture and urban layout, have received ample attention.2 Despite the large number of dwellings constructed by OCA, the initiative fell far short of enabling the colonial state to keep up with the actual housing needs. As such, housing and vocational education in urban centers became a necessary complementary effort in the colony’s economic development. Colonial policy makers were aware it was urgent to create a group of “Europeanized” professionals who could gradually join public administration and different economic sectors. The vocational schools that had been run by missionary congregations since the interwar years at least were also unable fulfill the market’s needs and Congolese aspirations. This is the context in which manuals aimed at a Congolese audience of potential housebuilders were published in the Belgian Congo during the early 1950s. A case in point is the 1953 brochure, À Chacun sa Maison. Construis ou Fais Construire, published by the Bureau de l’Information pour Indigènes, a branch within the Service des Affaires Indigènes et Main d’œuvre of the central colonial administration in Léopoldville (today Kinshasa), the so-called Gouvernement Général (fig. 1).

Figure 1: Front cover of the À Chacun sa Maison. Construis ou Fais Construire-brochure, Kalina: Éditions du Bureau de l’Information pour Indigènes (INFIND), Service des A. I. M. O. du Gouvernement Général 1953.

Figure 1: Front cover of the À Chacun sa Maison. Construis ou Fais Construire-brochure, Kalina: Éditions du Bureau de l’Information pour Indigènes (INFIND), Service des A. I. M. O. du Gouvernement Général 1953.

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, BIB.V.005252/4.

2In this essay, I wish to draw attention to a series of pocket manuals regarding house construction and furniture design and execution that have so far been overlooked by scholars working on colonial architecture in the Belgian Congo. They were part of a large collection of volumes entitled the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (hereafter BdE), published by the congregation of the Jesuit fathers based in Leverville. The publications were mail-order pocket editions, available on a subscription basis, intended to continue the education of determined self-learners. They addressed basic questions in different fields of general knowledge. With a catalogue of 145 titles by 1960, the collection covered both general topics and a range of practical subjects in the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale-series, from crafts and building construction to social training in the field of housekeeping. I contend that the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile collection became a sophisticated social engineering tool in late colonial housing campaigns (fig. 2).

Figure 2: Front covers of various BdE manuals from the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale-series.

Figure 2: Front covers of various BdE manuals from the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale-series.

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0067, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0066, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0065, BIB.L99.VA.E.0102, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0058, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0072, BIB.L99.VA.A.0060, BIB.L99.VA. E.0123.

From Bibliothèque des Évolués to Bibliothèque de l’Étoile: a “general training” project

  • 3 See https://kadoc.kuleuven.be/english/index. Accessed 19 July 2024.
  • 4 Full bibliometric descriptions of all 119 BdE volumes held by Ghent University Library specified t (...)
  • 5 BdE publications are easily traceable in American libraries through online catalogues. Investigati (...)

3I first discovered the BdE publications in the context of an ongoing PhD research project examining post-war housing in Belgian Congo. It focuses in particular on hitherto overlooked actors like Congolese self-builders, investors, and artisans active in the building sector. Searching for source material on vocational training set up by missionary congregations in the Belgian Congo, I consulted the collections of the KADOC—the Documentation and Research Center on Religion, Culture, and Society in Leuven.3 The KADOC library holds extensive archives, publications, and audiovisual materials on Belgian and international Catholic organizations and movements, including missionary congregations involved in Congo. It contains a significant number of volumes of the BdE series, as well as archival material pertaining to its agenda and editorial policy. Further research revealed that the library at Ghent University also possesses a collection of 119 BdE volumes, although these seem to have entered the holdings only recently, in 2015.4 A quick online search indicates that more can still be found in libraries in the United States and French-speaking Africa.5

  • 6 Daniel Tödt, The Lumumba Generation: African Bourgeoisie and Colonial Distinction in the Belgian C (...)
  • 7 Mukala Kadima-Nzuji, “Chapitre X. La bibliothèque de l’étoile (1943-1966),” in La littérature zaïr (...)

4Daniel Tödt’s study of the emergence during the post-war years of a Congolese educated elite, known as évolués, entitled The Lumumba Generation: African Bourgeoisie and Colonial Distinction in the Belgian Congo,6 mentions the BdE collection, albeit almost in passing. Congolese scholar Mukala Kadima-Nzuji describes it in greater detail.7 However, manuals of the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, especially the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale series, have not yet been discussed as a component of the colonial housing campaigns.

  • 8 Jean Feller, “Que sais-je?: une collection qui a réponse à tout,” Communication & Langages, vol. 2 (...)
  • 9 Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Catalogue Gé (...)

5The publishing program, initially entitled Bibliothèque des Évolués, was founded in 1943 by Jesuit missionaries stationed in Leverville (today Lusanga, DRC). At the time, the city was a significant center for the palm oil industry and the cradle of the Unilever corporation. The series was initiated by Father Jean Coméliau, who had been struck by the absence of libraries and bookstores catering to Congolese readers and the lack of publications designed for people seeking to improve their knowledge and skills. Father Coméliau founded the BdE, a fast-growing mail-order publishing house, to fill this niche. He aimed at a larger readership for a comprehensive library of concise pocket editions covering various subjects and fundamental concepts. The series resembled metropolitan publications devoted to “general training,” such as the French Que sais-je? series initiated in the same decade.8 The wide range of topics treated in the BdE collection is striking, with volumes dedicated to subjects like Les Termites, Le Football, and Le Cinéma.9 The decision to publish several pocket biographies of colonial pioneers seems peculiar, especially from today’s perspective. For instance, the 1957 catalogue (fig. 3) features titles such as Albert Thys: Un énergique; Dhanis: Un des fondateurs du Congo; and Brazza: Un explorateur. Looking at the complete collection, however, other books seem more progressive in their choice of the topic. The 1956 biography Un grand chef congolais: Lutunu shows a better grasp of local history and culture. There were also pocket manuals on the United Nations (1955) and even the issue of racial segregation (Le Couleur bar, 1954).

Figure 3: Catalogue Général 1957, Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, p. 9 of 19.

Figure 3: Catalogue Général 1957, Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, p. 9 of 19.

Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.) / BE/942855/1723/306.

  • 10 Mukala Kadima-Nzuji, “Chapitre X. La bibliothèque de l’étoile (1943-1966),” op. cit. (note 7), p.  (...)
  • 11 Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Contrat entr (...)
  • 12 Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Une œuvre d’ (...)
  • 13 Daniel Tödt, The Lumumba Generation, op. cit. (note 6). Interestingly, the BdE volume entitled Le (...)
  • 14 “Il fallait faire autre chose. Sous la direction d'un jésuite, les Missions entreprirent un travai (...)

6One thousand copies were printed for the inaugural volume, entitled L’Avion. As demand grew, five thousand copies were printed of each of the subsequent editions.10 By the end of World War II, the BdE had 3,600 subscribers in Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, publishing a total of 85,000 copies of 21 titles. In 1949, due to the still-expanding number of subscribers and publications, distribution was outsourced to the printing house Zech & Fils.11 They shipped books from Belgium to their bookstore in Kikwit, to various apostolic vicariates in Congo, and even to Catholic missions in Tanganyika, French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, Cameroon, and Madagascar. The Bibliothèque’s internationalization went hand in hand with translations to African languages: by 1960, at least 28 of the 145 volumes were translated into Kikongo, Lingala, and Swahili.12 However, the primary subscribers to the BdE remained the Congolese évolués who were the most affluent and best educated African members of Belgian colonial society, usually being clerks and professionals. Often, they might also have been readers of La Voix du Congolais, a magazine that catered to Congolese trying to carve out a space for themselves, and that during the 1950s, would articulate fairly progressive ideas concerning the path to independence.13 Being aware of the aspirations of their readership and the pejorative connotations of the term “evolved,”14 the Jesuits ultimately changed the name of the series from to the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile. The new star (étoile) had three meanings: it served as a guide towards improvement, referred to the star on the Congo flag, and symbolized the Holy Mary.

Responding to the housing crisis: the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale series

  • 15 One example of outsourcing the housing crisis in the Belgian Congo is the Système Grévisse, a self (...)
  • 16 “Nous devons apprendre petit à petit à nos Noirs à construire eux-mêmes leur maison, à fabriquer l (...)
  • 17 “Au Congo Belge, actuellement, l’intérêt des éducateurs, qu’il s’agisse des services du Gouvernemen (...)
  • 18 Daniel Tödt, The Lumumba Generation, op. cit. (note 6), p. 177.

7The books in the BdE catalogue were always issued as new publications in various series. Lumière et vie covered moral and religious education; Éveil, secular themes; Étoile, general education. There were also Élite, La Vérité, and a series published in vernacular languages. Among these, the subseries entitled Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale are of particular interest to us, as they revolve around topics such as house construction, homeownership, and habitation. Being part of the larger BdE collection aimed at supporting Congolese students and self-learners, these subseries, I believe, were important instruments in backing up the post-war colonial housing policy, aimed at shifting the responsibility for providing modern, durable housing from state-run organizations like the Office des Cités Africaines to the emerging Congolese nuclear families themselves.15 Missionary and vocational training teacher W. Callevier aptly articulated this agenda: “Little by little, we must teach our Blacks to build their own homes, make their own furniture, and thus help their country economically.”16 This political expediency was also understood by the Father Albert Leysbeth, a member of the BdE editorial board: “In the Belgian Congo, the interest of educators, whether from Government departments or from the Missions, is currently focused on craft and domestic education. In fact, there is a real need to promote manual work, to create an elite of better-trained craftsmen, and, for domestic work, to promote the status of women and their training to run the home. […] The Bibliothèque de l’Étoile wanted to contribute to this effort.”17 For this reason, Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale manuals gradually began to find their way into écoles et centres de formation professionnelle (vocational schools and centers), écoles de ménage (housekeeping schools), and foyer sociaux (a particular colonial institution aimed at educating Congolese women arriving in urban centers from the rural areas to become docile spouses),18 as a prelude to their adoption by the emerging private households.

Building a house of one’s own: The books entitled Maçonnerie and L’Histoire de la Maison

  • 19 Jean de Decker, Maçonnerie, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).
  • 20 Julien Close, Arithmétique Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).
  • 21 Idem, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).
  • 22 So far, no further information about the illustrator known as Peacock has been found.

8What follows is an admittedly brief discussion of two specific volumes, shedding light on the specific nature of the BdE collection and of the subseries of Beaux métiers and Formation sociale in particular. The first, a small 18 x 11.5 cm volume entitled Maçonnerie and authored by J. de Decker,19 follows the BdE publication format and was issued as part of the Beaux Métiers series. This set also includes titles such as Arithmétique Artisanale20 and Menuiserie Artisanale,21 written by Julien Close. All three volumes have a distinctive front cover design, by an artist named Peacock.22 The Maçonnerie volume, depicting a Congolese man putting up a brick wall—and peculiarly well dressed for the job—is 86 pages long, with 75 sketches and four photographs. The flyer advertising the book to subscribers, as well as the blurb on its back cover (fig. 4) addressed potential readers—vocational school students in their apprenticeship as bricklayers, as well as self-builders, and those who supervise the construction of their houses.

Figure 4: Front cover and advertising flyer of Maçonnerie by J. de Decker, n.d. (ca. 1955). Illustration by Peacock.

Figure 4: Front cover and advertising flyer of Maçonnerie by J. de Decker, n.d. (ca. 1955). Illustration by Peacock.

Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l'Étoile (B.D.E.) / BE/942855/1723/306.

9In the booklet, the author J. De Decker discusses in great detail and in a hands-on manner the characteristics and use of various materials and building components, including sand, cement, lime, adobe, fired bricks, stone, mortar, and cement and concrete blocks. He goes on to enumerate the steps necessary in the home-construction process: selecting a suitable plot of land, planning layout, setting foundations, erecting walls, installing doors and windows, and framing roof trusses. The volume is illustrated with educational diagrams, showing, for instance, how to lay bricks for the corners of the dwelling (fig. 5).

Figure 5: Pages from Maçonnerie, by J. de Decker, n.d. (ca. 1955), showing how to lay brick wall corners.

Figure 5: Pages from Maçonnerie, by J. de Decker, n.d. (ca. 1955), showing how to lay brick wall corners.

Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l'Étoile (B.D.E.) / BE/942855/1723/306.

Figure 6: Jean de Decker, Maçonnerie, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l'Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955), p. 84-85.

Figure 6: Jean de Decker, Maçonnerie, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l'Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955), p. 84-85.

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99.VA. A.0065.

  • 23 Fonds d'Avance, next to Fonds du Roi, was, in the 1940s and 1950s, a state fund that granted mortg (...)

10The content of Maçonnerie resonated with the 1953 self-build guidebook À Chacun sa Maison (fig. 1) I mentioned in the introduction. It promoted the Fonds d'Avance home-ownership financing scheme for Congolese people and also included many drawings and diagrams that provided practical instruction on how to build a house or supervise construction. However, it was more comprehensive, since it addressed explicitly financial matters in addition to technique. It also differed in tone, writing style, and graphic layout, seeming to be less technical but more evocative (it even suggested decorative motifs). Moreover, it included a section composed as a dialogue between two Congolese men on how to obtain a parcel or a loan.23The Maçonnerie book also contains five model house designs. For each, the floor plan is discussed in order to underline the importance of a well-designed house, in terms of both architecture and hygiene. The production of houses based solely on the builder’s fantasy and personal taste is discouraged. The types are organized in terms of size, ranging from a modest two-room dwelling to the most advanced and representational type of five room-house. Maçonnerie features the replica of the house at the Jesuit mission in Leverville (fig. 6).

  • 24 Pierre-Louis Flouquet, La Petite Maison, Brussels: Éditions Art et Technique, 1950.
  • 25 Katrien Theunis, “De Wet De Taeye. De individuele woning als bouwsteen van de welvaartsstaat,” in (...)
  • 26 C. Lambert et R. Tamine, Bungalows et Chalets de Week-end, 2nd edition, Brussels: Les Éditions du (...)

11I have compared these housing types to those featured in books targeting future home-owners in Belgium, such as the 1950 volume La Petite Maison (fig. 7).24 These publications can be linked to the housing aid policy Loi de Taeye / Wet De Taeye, introduced to promote private home-ownership in Europe.25 Second, Bungalows et Chalets de Week-end (1960, 2nd edition), from the series Les Livres Pratiques, presents a series of modest holiday cottages. I was struck by the contrasts between the books for each readership in terms of dwelling size, room layout and, more importantly, comfort26 (fig. 8). Moreover, the European books tended to be aimed more at the independent investor in search of a second (holiday) residence, rather than the self-builder.

Figure 7: Pierre-Louis Flouquet, La Petite Maison, Brussels: Éditions Art et Technique, 1950.

Figure 7: Pierre-Louis Flouquet, La Petite Maison, Brussels: Éditions Art et Technique, 1950.

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, TW01.728.1PRECIOSA0472.

Figure 8: C. Lambert and R. Tamine, Bungalows et Chalets de Week-end, 2nd edition, Brussels: Les Éditions du Jour (Les Livres Pratiques)1960.

Figure 8: C. Lambert and R. Tamine, Bungalows et Chalets de Week-end, 2nd edition, Brussels: Les Éditions du Jour (Les Livres Pratiques)1960.

Source: Author’s collection.

  • 27 Henri Loves, L'Histoire de la Maison, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1957.
  • 28 “Un genre de vie civilisée qui exige plus d’hygiène, de propreté, de confort et une vie de famille (...)
  • 29 Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Mabel O. Wilson (eds.), “Introduction” in Race and Modern Archit (...)

12In this respect, it is interesting to look at another volume from the BdE, entitled L'Histoire de la Maison. It is classified in the Étoile series27 and its subject is the evolution of human habitation and house typologies in various locations and periods, from prehistoric times to the present. It includes a chapter discussing housing types in relation to different climate zones, including the igloo des Esquimaux and the wigwam des Indiens, thus following a narrative constructed on the racial timelines which, as Irene Cheng has recently argued, have been intrinsic to the structural racialism in modern architectural theory since the late 19th century. Author Henri Loves, describing the climate-responsive nature of the three types of “traditional” houses in Central Africa as distinguished by ethnographers (the hutte circulaire, the case rectangulaire and the maison carrée avec toit en terrasse), nevertheless concludes that these housing types are no longer in line with “a civilized way of life that demands greater hygiene, cleanliness, and comfort, as well as a family life that is completely different from primitive concepts.”28 The volume thus simultaneously directs the attention of Congolese readers to contemporary and locally accessible housing in line with the loi du progress, explaining the sudden jump in the sequence of images from the wigwam des Indiens to the modern “Europeanised” houses built for and by the so-called évolués in the Centre Extra-Coutumier (or so-called “native-towns”) of Congolese cities such as Elisabethville and Kikwit. The leap echoes Banister Fletcher's Tree of Architecture valuation based on geographical and ultimately national origin (fig. 9).29

Figure 9: Henri Loves, L’Histoire de la Maison, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1957, p. 32-33. (recto-verso)

Figure 9: Henri Loves, L’Histoire de la Maison, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1957, p. 32-33. (recto-verso)

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, BIB.L99.VA. E.0123.

  • 30 “C’est chose assez normale; on ne saurait aimer, sans reserves, une maison dont on n’a pas conçu, (...)
  • 31 Dikumbwa N’Landu, “Evolution and prospects of dwelling morphology in Lubumbashi (Zaire),” Geo-Eco- (...)

13This loi du progrès in the domain of housing was further accentuated by references to Le Corbusier’s Cité radieuse and even the soon-to-be-opened Berlin Interbau 57 exhibition. Interestingly, the text also mentions the houses constructed by the Office des Cités Africaines, but suggests that this housing formula was less popular, and that the occupants were not fully satisfied with the completed dwellings. It adds that “this is merely to be expected: you can’t love a house unconditionally unless you have designed the plans yourself.”30 It is telling that the homes in Elisabethville’s C.E.C. were exactly the kind of housing produced by self-builders and local artisans, a type that the architects employed by the Office des Cités Africaines rejected, on the basis of both their alleged poor construction and lack of taste.31

Equipping the house: the La Menuiserie/Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-volumes

  • 32 A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1948; A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie (...)
  • 33 Julien Close, Menuiserie III, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1953.
  • 34 Idem, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).
  • 35 Johan Lagae, “Nomadic furniture in the ‘Heart of Darkness’: Colonial and postcolonial trajectories (...)

14Because the Congolese were supposed to know not only how to build their own houses, but also how to furnish them, to remedy the post-war housing crisis, the BdE also issued manuals on cabinetmaking. First published in French as part of the Étoile collection, the volumes La Menuiserie I and La Menuiserie II, authored by A. Bonnelance in 1948 and 1949, respectively, assumed that readers possessed the basics of the carpenter’s trade, enabling them to gain the necessary knowledge to construct a stool, a solid chair, or a simple chest of drawers.32 Other volumes would follow, such as La Menuiserie III (1953)33 or Menuiserie Artisanale (ca. 1955),34 which were clearly intended for the most advanced carpenters, as can be deduced from their content. Menuiserie I, for instance, still depicts the tools necessary for carpenters as abstract objects presented in the primer, without instructions on how to use them (fig. 10). The third volume in the Menuiserie series, however, shows a detailed furniture design drawing that reflects home-decoration trends in Europe. It echoes the introduction of design furniture in late colonial Congo that initially targeted white consumers (fig. 11).35

Figure 10: A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1948, p. 7.

Figure 10: A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1948, p. 7.

Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, KW640 6.

Figure 11: Julien Close, Menuiserie III, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1953, p. 14.

Figure 11: Julien Close, Menuiserie III, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1953, p. 14.

Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, KW640 56.

  • 36 Lingala was developed as a lingua franca by missionaries and colonial agents from a local language (...)
  • 37 This colonial government agency operated between 1948 and was primarily tasked with managing funds (...)
  • 38 A. Bonnelance, Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-I, Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1952; Idem, Ngai mo-kabinda mpe (...)

15Tellingly, some of these books were soon translated into Lingala, one of the main “local” languages in colonial Congo,36 a project supported by Fonds Du Bien-Être Indigène.37 The first two volumes in the Menuiserie series, respectively titled Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-I (1951) and Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-II (1952), faithfully mirror the original French works, matching tables of contents and page numbers.38 Further research is needed to see if Menuiserie III (1953) has been translated into Lingala at one point. But that I have not found such translation might well indicate that the editors of the BdE collection considered it logical that experienced carpenters needed to be proficient in French. Or perhaps, no further funding was received to continue translations.

16The covers of the French and Lingala editions display a remarkable contrast. The design for the Menuiserie Artisanale in the Beaux Métiers series features professional black carpenters in aprons focused on their work (fig. 12), while the volumes translated into Lingala attempt to reproduce traditional African ornamentation. Nevertheless, the hint of ethnography tends to trivialize their potential native language readers (fig. 13). This paternalizing attitude is also reflected in the illustrations included in these manuals, which vary from professional technical plans to children’s book drawings.

Figure 12: Julien Cose, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).

Figure 12: Julien Cose, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99.VA. A.0066.

Figure 13: A. Bonnelance, Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1952.

Figure 13: A. Bonnelance, Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1952.

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99. I.C.26.D.0250.

Une Maison Agréable

  • 39 “Le premier conseil serait: Épargnez ! [...] Comme second conseil, nous dirions: Sachez employer v (...)

17Although the manual entitled Une Maison Agréable belongs to the Formation Sociale series, one can argue that it is related to the Beaux Métiers series. Subjects such as the technicalities of home or furniture construction are not addressed, but the book maps the path to follow in order to make those material goods a reality accessible to all readers. As the author Felix Miller (pseudonym of Father Albert Leysbeth) put it: “The first piece of advice would be: Save! [...] Our second piece of advice would be: ‘Know how to use both hands.’”39 In other words, Congolese readers were encouraged to solve the housing shortage by applying their financial resources, first, supplemented by their physical labor and manual skills. In doing so, they would release the colonial state from its responsibility to provide decent accommodation for the ever growing African population in urban centers.

  • 40 “Formez, petit à petit, votre femme à jouer ce rôle.” Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Levervill (...)

18Although the author of Une Maison Agréable broadly described and depicted women’s domestic work, usually taught at foyer social and écoles de ménage, he saw husbands not only as those responsible for the house’s maintenance, but also as the educators of their spouses. Listing the numerous daily duties in the model household, consisting of the nuclear family (which ignored social dwelling practices in Central Africa, especially in the rural areas where many of the newcomers had grown up), he urged husbands to teach their wives appropriate “European” social behavior when welcoming guests: “Gradually train your wife to play this role.”40 Yet interestingly, a woman could escape from the traditional subordinate role in the field of planning the family budget. Being in charge of the finances, the wife came into her own, as a person, and was regarded by Miller/Leysbeth as an essential participant in the household. If she was employed as a nurse or a schoolteacher, she not only brought in the money, but also helped her husband to distribute the expenses rationally. The visuals included in Une Maison Agréable attest to the multilayered agency of the Congolese housewife: although the husband is depicted only twice, welcoming guests and eating a meal, the spouse, who has been scrubbing the floor, ironing, and cleaning, suddenly sits down at the table to pay the bills and work out a financial plan for the household (fig. 14).

Figure 14: Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1955, p. 24, 34, 36, 21. A sample of various illustrations from the volume.

Figure 14: Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1955, p. 24, 34, 36, 21. A sample of various illustrations from the volume.

Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, BIB.L99.VA. E.0102.

Educating future homeowners, from proletarians to petite bourgeoisie

  • 41 Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Mabel O. Wilson (eds.), Race and Modern Architecture, op. cit. ( (...)
  • 42 Igor Bloch and Simon De Nys-Ketels, “Système Grévisse. The Lubumbashi post-war housing scheme, bet (...)
  • 43 Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman, How to Read the Self-building Manual: Houses, Self-builders, and Expert (...)
  • 44 Gary Gutting, Foucault: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 81.

19The preliminary rereading of the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale series in the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile collection I have presented here responds to the recent call in architectural historiography “to write race back into architectural history.”41 Scholars have confronted many obstacles in highlighting African voices in the production of the built environment in the late colonial Belgian Congo, and have largely omitted them. I argue that the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile collection can provide an interesting and productive entry-point for an alternative narrative on housing policies. In the past, architectural historians have tended to focus on the iconic architecture of the Office des Cités Africaines housing schemes. Instead, I suggest we investigate the agency of Congolese self-builders and artisans, which is often overlooked, and the way they sourced knowledge on modern construction techniques to fulfill the housing needs for the greatest number in the Belgian colony during the post-war period. Elsewhere, I have discussed investigations of particular schemes like the Système Grévisse, a self-build program in Elisabethville.42 The volumes of the BdE collection, published by the Jesuit missionary congregation, were also (partly) subsidized by the colonial state through the Fonds du Bien-Être Indigène. Their contents indicate the extent to which the individual Congolese was seen as a co-producer of the solution, within the postwar housing policy. BdE manuals, educational and informative, yet at the same time manipulative and propagandist, aimed to stimulate self-sufficiency. They outsourced the housing crisis to its victims. According to their reasoning, “if the population was taught to read and write, they needed to learn how to make their own houses.”43 While in Belgium and the rest of Western Europe, DIY guidebooks in a pocket formats generally functioned to fulfill the needs of individual hobbyists, in the Congolese context, such manuals can be read in Foucauldian way as miniaturized, portable “sites of control.” It required much less investment than building a vocational school or a factory that produced prefabricated houses.44

  • 45 Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman, How to Read the Self-building Manual, op. cit. (note 40).
  • 46 Frederick Cooper, Africa since 1900. The Past of the Present, Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres (...)

20The BdE performed a control function on several levels, overseeing Congolese homes from their construction and durability to their proper furnishing and running. It thereby imposed a specific model of the ideal household constructed around the nuclear family. Its precepts organized family dynamics spatially and mentally.45 Through mail-order publishing, to which one had to subscribe, the BdE created an elite club accessible only to insiders, who also subscribed to the image the BdE constructed of the évolué black nuclear family. Husbands and their spouses were guided to create houses in which hygiene and good manners were as important as physical upkeep and careful budgeting, reassuring state mortgage repayment. In this way, the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile was one of the foundations of “welfare colonialism,”46 imagining and trying to ensure a peaceful future for the colony, in which private household and financial obligations would turn potential proletarians into members of the petite bourgeoisie (fig. 15).

Figure 15: Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1955, p. 16.

Figure 15: Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1955, p. 16.

Source: Ghent University Library, BIB.L99.VA.E.0102.

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on investigations conducted in the context of a 4-year PhD research project, which is part of the EOS research project “Construction History, Above and Beyond. What History Can Do for Construction History,” directed by professors Michiel Dehaene (UGent), Dave De Ruysscher (VUB), Rika Devos (ULB), Johan Lagae (UGent), Stephanie Van de Voorde (VUB) and Ine Wouters (VUB). In particular, the project confronts construction history with colonial history. It is supervised by Johan Lagae and Ine Wouters, with Robby Fivez as postdoc researcher and myself as PhD candidate. For more information, see the project website: https://www.above-and-beyond-construction-history.be. I want to thank the KADOC administrative and academic employees, especially Luc Vints and Jonas Van Mulder, whose assistance was invaluable in locating these documents.

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Notes

1 Guy Vanthemsche, “Le plan décennal et la modernisation du Congo belge (1949-1959),” in La mémoire du Congo. Le temps colonial, Exhibition Catalogue (Tervuren, Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, February 4-October 9, 2005), Ghent: Éditions Snoeck, 2005.

2 Bruno De Meulder was among the first to develop an in-depth discussion of the OCA-housing production. See Bruno De Meulder and Marie-Françoise Plissart, Kuvuande Mbote: een eeuw koloniale architectuur en stedenbouw in Kongo: veertien plannen en projecten, Antwerp: Hautekiet, 2000; Bruno De Meulder, “OCA (Office des Cités Africaines 1952-1960) and the Urban Question in Central Africa,” in ArchiAfrika Conference Proceedings: Modern Architecture in East Africa around Independence, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 27 and 29, 2005.

3 See https://kadoc.kuleuven.be/english/index. Accessed 19 July 2024.

4 Full bibliometric descriptions of all 119 BdE volumes held by Ghent University Library specified that they were part of the Schenking J. Daeleman - G. Van Bulck donation in 2015.

5 BdE publications are easily traceable in American libraries through online catalogues. Investigating the distribution of the BdE collection in Africa during the publisher’s existence (1943-1966) is challenging, due to the lack of digitalization and will require cooperation with librarians. In the case of the DRC, I plan to trace the local distribution during a fieldwork mission scheduled for April 2025.

6 Daniel Tödt, The Lumumba Generation: African Bourgeoisie and Colonial Distinction in the Belgian Congo, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.

7 Mukala Kadima-Nzuji, “Chapitre X. La bibliothèque de l’étoile (1943-1966),” in La littérature zaïroise de langue française, Paris: Karthala, 2000, p. 277-295.

8 Jean Feller, “Que sais-je?: une collection qui a réponse à tout,” Communication & Langages, vol. 28, 1975, p. 71-75. In the archival documents on the BdE’s editorial policy, “general training” (“formation générale”) was explicitly defined as one of the pillars of the project. Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Bibliothèque de l’Étoile 1947/Unsigned.

9 Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Catalogue Général 1948-1950.

10 Mukala Kadima-Nzuji, “Chapitre X. La bibliothèque de l’étoile (1943-1966),” op. cit. (note 7), p. 277-295.

11 Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Contrat entre la S.A. Zech & Fils à Braine-Le-Comte et La Bibliothèque de l’Étoile à Leverville, Congo Belge.

12 Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Une œuvre d’édition au Congo Belge/A. Leysbeth.

13 Daniel Tödt, The Lumumba Generation, op. cit. (note 6). Interestingly, the BdE volume entitled Le Couleur bar explicitly quotes a Congolese thinker, Edouard Mbala, whose opinion on the topic was published in the pages of La Voix des Congolais (1953, p. 442).

14 “Il fallait faire autre chose. Sous la direction d'un jésuite, les Missions entreprirent un travail formidable. Refaire sur tous les sujets possibles, tant profanes que religieux, des brochures écrites spécialement à l'intention des Noirs et tenant compte de leur ignorance élémentaire. Ainsi […] la ‘Bibliothèque des Évolués’ qui prit le nom de ‘Bibliothèque de l'Étoile’ (pour éviter le terme évolué qui déplait aux Noirs).” Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Un probleme de lecture, Gazette de Liège, 15.02.1949.

15 One example of outsourcing the housing crisis in the Belgian Congo is the Système Grévisse, a self-build scheme first introduced in the 1940s in Elisabethville (today Lubumbashi) by Ferdinand Grévisse.

16 “Nous devons apprendre petit à petit à nos Noirs à construire eux-mêmes leur maison, à fabriquer leurs meubles personnels et à aider ainsi économiquement leur pays.” All translations by the author. P.W. Callewier, “Notre école professionnelle de Luluabourg,” Missions de Scheut, September 1958.

17 “Au Congo Belge, actuellement, l’intérêt des éducateurs, qu’il s’agisse des services du Gouvernement ou des Missions, se porte sur l’enseignement artisanal et l’enseignement ménager. Cela correspond d’ailleurs à une nécessité: valoriser le travail manuel, créer une élite d’artisans mieux formés, et, pour le travail ménager, promouvoir la condition de la femme et sa formation en vue de la tenue de la maison. […] La ‘Bibliothèque de l’Étoile’ a voulu contribuer à cet effort.” Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.)/BE/942855/1723/306/Une œuvre d’édition au Congo Belge/A. Leysbeth.

18 Daniel Tödt, The Lumumba Generation, op. cit. (note 6), p. 177.

19 Jean de Decker, Maçonnerie, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).

20 Julien Close, Arithmétique Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).

21 Idem, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).

22 So far, no further information about the illustrator known as Peacock has been found.

23 Fonds d'Avance, next to Fonds du Roi, was, in the 1940s and 1950s, a state fund that granted mortgages to Congolese to purchase land, a house or building materials to build themselves.

24 Pierre-Louis Flouquet, La Petite Maison, Brussels: Éditions Art et Technique, 1950.

25 Katrien Theunis, “De Wet De Taeye. De individuele woning als bouwsteen van de welvaartsstaat,” in Karina Van Herck and Tom Avermaete (eds.), Wonen in Welvaart. Woningbouw en wooncultuur in Vlaanderen, 1948-1973, 2006, p. 66-77.

26 C. Lambert et R. Tamine, Bungalows et Chalets de Week-end, 2nd edition, Brussels: Les Éditions du Jour (Les Livres Pratiques), 1960.

27 Henri Loves, L'Histoire de la Maison, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1957.

28 “Un genre de vie civilisée qui exige plus d’hygiène, de propreté, de confort et une vie de famille toute différente des conceptions primitives.” Henri Loves, L'Histoire de la Maison, op. cit. (note 27), p. 34.

29 Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Mabel O. Wilson (eds.), “Introduction” in Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020, p. 8.

30 “C’est chose assez normale; on ne saurait aimer, sans reserves, une maison dont on n’a pas conçu, soi-même, les plans.” Henri Loves, L'Histoire de la Maison, op. cit. (note 27), p. 45.

31 Dikumbwa N’Landu, “Evolution and prospects of dwelling morphology in Lubumbashi (Zaire),” Geo-Eco-Trop, vol. 3, no. 4, 1978, p. 273-285.

32 A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1948; A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie II, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1949.

33 Julien Close, Menuiserie III, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1953.

34 Idem, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).

35 Johan Lagae, “Nomadic furniture in the ‘Heart of Darkness’: Colonial and postcolonial trajectories of modern design artifacts to and from tropical Africa,” in Fredie Floré and Cammie McAtee (eds.), The Politics of Furniture. Identity, Diplomacy and Persuasion in Post-War Interiors, Routledge: Abingdon, 2017, p. 15-32.

36 Lingala was developed as a lingua franca by missionaries and colonial agents from a local language in Central Africa in the late 19th century to facilitate trade.

37 This colonial government agency operated between 1948 and was primarily tasked with managing funds for the socio-economic development of the Congolese population.

38 A. Bonnelance, Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-I, Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1952; Idem, Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-II, Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1951.

39 “Le premier conseil serait: Épargnez ! [...] Comme second conseil, nous dirions: Sachez employer vos deux mains.” Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l'Étoile, 1955, p. 6-7.

40 “Formez, petit à petit, votre femme à jouer ce rôle.” Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l'Étoile, 1955, p. 40.

41 Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davis II, Mabel O. Wilson (eds.), Race and Modern Architecture, op. cit. (note 30), p. 4.

42 Igor Bloch and Simon De Nys-Ketels, “Système Grévisse. The Lubumbashi post-war housing scheme, between colonial guidelines and reality,” in 8th International Congress on Construction History, Zurich, ETH Zurich, 24-28 June 2024.

43 Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman, How to Read the Self-building Manual: Houses, Self-builders, and Experts in Mexico, MSc dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020.

44 Gary Gutting, Foucault: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 81.

45 Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman, How to Read the Self-building Manual, op. cit. (note 40).

46 Frederick Cooper, Africa since 1900. The Past of the Present, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 91 ff. Crawford Young, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994, p. 182 ff.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Figure 1: Front cover of the À Chacun sa Maison. Construis ou Fais Construire-brochure, Kalina: Éditions du Bureau de l’Information pour Indigènes (INFIND), Service des A. I. M. O. du Gouvernement Général 1953.
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, BIB.V.005252/4.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 503k
Titre Figure 2: Front covers of various BdE manuals from the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale-series.
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0067, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0066, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0065, BIB.L99.VA.E.0102, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0058, LWBIB.L99.VA.A.0072, BIB.L99.VA.A.0060, BIB.L99.VA. E.0123.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 889k
Titre Figure 3: Catalogue Général 1957, Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, p. 9 of 19.
Crédits Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (B.D.E.) / BE/942855/1723/306.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 352k
Titre Figure 4: Front cover and advertising flyer of Maçonnerie by J. de Decker, n.d. (ca. 1955). Illustration by Peacock.
Crédits Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l'Étoile (B.D.E.) / BE/942855/1723/306.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 896k
Titre Figure 5: Pages from Maçonnerie, by J. de Decker, n.d. (ca. 1955), showing how to lay brick wall corners.
Crédits Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, Dossier Bibliothèque de l'Étoile (B.D.E.) / BE/942855/1723/306.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 350k
Titre Figure 6: Jean de Decker, Maçonnerie, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l'Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955), p. 84-85.
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99.VA. A.0065.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 409k
Titre Figure 7: Pierre-Louis Flouquet, La Petite Maison, Brussels: Éditions Art et Technique, 1950.
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, TW01.728.1PRECIOSA0472.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 364k
Titre Figure 8: C. Lambert and R. Tamine, Bungalows et Chalets de Week-end, 2nd edition, Brussels: Les Éditions du Jour (Les Livres Pratiques)1960.
Crédits Source: Author’s collection.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-8.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 475k
Titre Figure 9: Henri Loves, L’Histoire de la Maison, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1957, p. 32-33. (recto-verso)
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, BIB.L99.VA. E.0123.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-9.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 548k
Titre Figure 10: A. Bonnelance, Menuiserie I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1948, p. 7.
Crédits Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, KW640 6.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-10.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 412k
Titre Figure 11: Julien Close, Menuiserie III, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1953, p. 14.
Crédits Source: Leuven (Belgium), KADOC, KW640 56.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-11.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 306k
Titre Figure 12: Julien Cose, Menuiserie Artisanale, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, n.d. (ca. 1955).
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99.VA. A.0066.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-12.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 414k
Titre Figure 13: A. Bonnelance, Ngai mo-kabinda mpenza-I, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1952.
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, LWBIB.L99. I.C.26.D.0250.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-13.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 443k
Titre Figure 14: Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1955, p. 24, 34, 36, 21. A sample of various illustrations from the volume.
Crédits Source: Ghent (Belgium), Ghent University Library, BIB.L99.VA. E.0102.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-14.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 260k
Titre Figure 15: Felix Miller, Une Maison Agréable, Leverville: Bibliothèque de l’Étoile, 1955, p. 16.
Crédits Source: Ghent University Library, BIB.L99.VA.E.0102.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/abe/docannexe/image/16325/img-15.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 765k
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Igor Bloch, « House construction and social engineering in the Beaux Métiers and Formation Sociale manuals of the Bibliothèque de l’Étoile (1943-1966) »ABE Journal [En ligne], 23 | 2024, mis en ligne le 27 septembre 2024, consulté le 16 juillet 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/abe/16325 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12ebq

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Igor Bloch

Doctoral Researcher, Ghent University, Belgium ORCID ID: 0009-0008-5149-0552

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