The 1922 Boma Fire and the Loss of Congo Free State Archives

In 1922, a devastating fire swept through Boma, the colonial capital of the Belgian Congo, destroying thousands of official records from the Congo Free State era. This episode explores what was lost: correspondence from King Leopold II, labor records from the rubber and ivory trades, and early missionary accounts. Lucas and Luna discuss the circumstances of the fire, the subsequent efforts to reconstruct the archives through oral histories and scattered copies in Brussels, and what this loss means for our understanding of colonial atrocities. They examine the role of Belgian colonial officials like Jules Renkin and Albert de Bassompierre in documenting resistance, and the importance of the Boma Archives for historians of the Force Publique, the chicotte, and the exploitation of Congolese labor. The episode also touches on the ongoing efforts to digitize surviving records and the debate over whether the fire was accidental or deliberate. This is a story about history itself—how we know what we know, and what happens when the primary sources go up in smoke. #BomaFire #BelgianCongo #CongoFreeState #Archives #LeopoldII #JulesRenkin #AlbertDeBassompierre #ForcePublique #Chicotte #ColonialAtrocities #1922 #History #FexingoHistory #OralHistory #Boma #Belgium #Congo #ArchivalLoss Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo