Lusanga (formerly Leverville) is a town in
Kwilu province of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. It is at the confluence of the
Kwenge and
Kwilu rivers.
The town is served by a small airport (IATA Code: LUS).
In the colonial era the town was called Leverville.
It was named after
William Lever
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools ...
of the
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...
, which started as a soap-making business and grew into the
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
consumer goods giant. In 1911 Lever signed a treaty with the Belgian government to gain access to the
palm oil of the colony, and established the main coordinating base at Leverville.
The
Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB), a subsidiary of Lever Brothers, established a large palm oil factory at Leverville, one of three in Kwilu.
References
Sources
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Populated places in Kwilu Province
Palm oil production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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