The Limete Tower (also known as french: Tour de l'Échangeur; "Interchange Tower" or french: Tour des Héros nationaux du Congo; "Tower of the National Heroes of Congo") is a

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

located in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

Limete Limete is one of the 24 communes that are the administrative divisions of Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Location Limete is located south of the Pool Malebo between the mouths of the Funa and Ndjili rive ...

in Kinshasa, the capital city 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 ...

History

President Mobutu Sese Seko decided to rename the Boulevard Léopold II, a major road connecting

N'djili Airport N'djili Airport (french: Aéroport de N'djili ), also known as N'Djili International Airport and Kinshasa International Airport, serves the city of Kinshasa and is the largest of the four international airports in the Democratic Republic of th ...

to the city centre, to Boulevard Lumumba in 1966, a year after taking over power. He also wanted to erect a monument to

Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba (; 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June u ...

at the cross-road to

from the boulevard. The foundation stone for the tower was laid by

Julius Nyerere Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, af ...

, then the president of Tanzania, on November 24, 1967, while construction began in 1969. The design for the tower was by French-Tunisian architect and construction to be done by a Yugoslav company. The top of the tower was supposed to be a copper spire with the tower comprising four cylindrical columns of reinforced concrete. Construction stopped by 1974 after the building reached 12 floors. The tower complex stood as a

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...

for many years. The tower stands at a square which was called Exchange Square until 2011 when it was renamed as Reconstruction Square. A statue of

was erected in the square on January 17, 2002. Additional construction work around the base and the square began in 2010 under the presidency of

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, Pres ...

, by adding an amusement park, fountains and a performing arts venue at a cost of US$11 million. The tower also hosts the Museum of Contemporary and Multimedia Arts which has collections of Congolese artists and sculptors.

References

{{reflist Mont Amba District Towers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Brutalist architecture in Africa 1967 establishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Buildings and structures in Kinshasa