Planning Belgian Congo’s network of medical infrastructure: type-plans as tools to construct a medical model-colony, 1949–1959

Abstract

He graduated in 2012 with a master dissertation on the origin and development of the Kenya-neighbourhood in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, based on extensive archival research as well as extensive fieldork. Apart from his experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he has also participated in a heritage listing project in Nawalgarh and in research on slum rehabilitation projects in Nagpur, in 2013 in India. Before starting his PhD, he worked one year as a research fellow at the University of Antwerp. His current PhD-research concerns the architecture and urban planning of colonial and post-colonial hospital infrastructure in the DRC.

Governing economic interests: Interwar road construction in Belgian Congo

“…This clearly illustrates the Belgian government's conflicting motives concerning forced labour that benefitted the development of their colonie modèle or labour defined as 'educating the passive and lazy indigenous population' as part of a civilizing mission (Laqua, 2013). After WWII, these impromptu strategies accumulated in a shift of colonial policymaking towards what Young has called 'welfare colonialism' (Young, 1994), where the colonial extraction economy was reframed by associating it to major housing, healthcare and education investments (De Nys-Ketels et al, 2019). Between 1927and 1931, catholic politician Henri Jaspar (1870-1939 was almost without interruption both Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Colonies (Vanhove, 1958).…”

“…By analysing the case of Victor Cooreman's road negotiation in the Cataractes-Nord region, we hope to provide useful insights in the nuanced realities of colonial road construction in order to add to the rising scholarship on localised agencies (Salami, 2016;De Nys-Ketels et al, 2019). At the same time, this case offers a powerful tool to critically reassess African transportation and planning history, which seems quite technical at first, but ultimately proves to be exceptionally layered.…”