Boma, Congo, ca. 1900-1915

Black and white lantern slide showing a view of the Congolese port of Boma, taken by the shore. A large single storey building can be seen in the distance, with several smaller huts lying in front of it. Boma was the capital of the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo from 1886 to 1926 - it was founded as a slaving station by European merchants in the late sixteenth century. The port handled exports such as cacao, bananas, rubber and palm products. This slide comes from a collection generated by missionaries working for the Congo Balolo Mission, a mission begun in 1889 under the supervision of the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions that developed into the interdenominational evangelical mission Regions Beyond Missionary Union after 1900.