Educating the Colonial Spouse or Pushing the Agenda of Tropical Modernism in the Belgian Congo?

Abstract

This chapter discusses the way in which the Bulletin de l'Union des Femmes colonials, a journal that ran from 1924 to 1960, served as a platform to discuss colonial architecture in the Belgian Congo. Targeting an audience of colonial housewives, it addressed from the very first issues topics such as the ideal housing type for the coloniser and apt furniture for living in the tropics, while especially from the post-war period onward, it published on a regular basis contributions on garden layout and interior decoration in which advice was provided on how to create a ‘comme chez soi’ in a colonial environment that triggered a ‘condition of displacement’ and a sense of uprootedness. Including the voices of both experts (i.e. prominent figures within the scene of tropical modernism) and those of its (female) readers, the Bulletin thus provides us with an excellent source to trace the tensions underlying the divergent views on dwelling practice and architecture in the Belgian Congo as they emerged during both the interwar and post-war years.