Lusanga (formerly Leverville) is a town in Kwilu province of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. 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. Educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools, he joined his f ...

of the

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and su ...

, which started as a soap-making business and grew into the

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

consumer goods giant. In 1911 Lever signed a treaty with the Belgian government to gain access to the

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

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.

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* * * * * Populated places in Kwilu Province Palm oil production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{Kwilu-geo-stub