Kinshasa : tales of the tangible city

In response to Filip De Boeck’s 2004 thesis that Kinshasa’s urbanity exists “beyond the city’s architecture”, this paper argues that in order to grasp its contemporary urban condition it does make sense to take into account the built environment and urban form, in particular those produced during colonial times, as these still to a large extent define the urban landscape of what is today the capital city of the DR Congo. Questioning conventional approaches to (colonial) built heritage, I argue here that any reflection on this particular legacy has much to gain from a critical form of history writing that brings to the fore the particular context and the actors that produced it, as well as from engaging in memory work that can unveil how the urban infrastructure has been inscribed over time with new meanings. Using the example of Kinshasa and unraveling its urban fabric as a palimpsest, this paper does not seek to provide historical knowledge on what should be preserved or not, but rather intends to illustrate that the real challenge for architectural historians working in this domain lies in developing complex and layered narratives on which other stakeholders can draw to articulate their position vis-à-vis this colonial built heritage in a more nuanced way