Tracing Mobutu’s Spectre in Kinshasa’s Concrete Skyline through a builder’s archive

In this paper we present a discussion of a key building that was part of president Mobutu’s project of ‘nation building’ in Kinshasa, Congo: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, constructed between 1968 and 1974. Drawing on explorations in diverse archival collections, but in particular that of the Belgian construction company involved, we aim to show how a Construction History perspective can help in gaining a more profound understanding of Mobutu’s cultural politics, while also making a claim to broaden the history of what architectural historians have called the “Geopolitics of Concrete”.