Lovanium University (french: Université Lovanium) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Jesuit university in Kinshasa in the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. The university was established in 1954 on the Kimwenza plateau, near Kinshasa. The university continued to function after independence until it was merged into the National University of Zaire in 1971. It can be considered an antecedent of the

University of Kinshasa The University of Kinshasa (french: Université de Kinshasa), commonly known as UNIKIN, is one of the three major universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together with the University of Kisangani and University of Lubumbashi. Origin ...

Early history

Before the foundation of Lovanium, the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

already operated multiple institutes for higher education in the

. The ''Fomulac'' (Fondation médicale de l'université de Louvain au Congo), was founded in 1926, with the goal of forming Congolese medical personnel and researchers specialized in tropical medicine. In 1932 the Catholic University of Louvain founded the ''Cadulac'' (Centres agronomiques de l'université de Louvain au Congo) in Kisantu. Cadulac was specialized in agricultural sciences and formed the basis for what was later to become Lovanium.

Lovanium

The university was established in 1954 on the Kimwenza plateau, near Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). Lovanium was founded by the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, and was named after it (''Lovanium'' being

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for Leuven). When it opened, the university received heavy subsidies from the colonial government, it also received funding from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, the Rockefeller Foundation and the

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 b ...

and was lauded as the best university in Africa. The official opening of the university was in 1954, the first students were to graduate from Lovanium in 1958. Africa's first nuclear reactor, TRIGA I, was established at Lovanium in 1958, in conjunction with the U.S.

Atoms for Peace "Atoms for Peace" was the title of a speech delivered by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953. The United States then launched an "Atoms for Peace" program that supplied equipment ...

program. In August 1971, the university merged with two other universities in the Congo to form the federalised National University of Zaire (Université Nationale du Zaïre, UNAZA). Between 1980 and 1991, the universities were again divided into three institutions, the

, Kisangani University, and the

University of Lubumbashi The University of Lubumbashi (), also known by the acronym UNILU, is one of the largest universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located in Lubumbashi in Haut Katanga Province, previously Katanga Province. The campus is locate ...

Notable alumni

* Valentin Y. Mudimbe *

Clémentine Nzuji ''Clémentine'' (pronounced ) was a 1985 French animated television series (in co-production with Japan). The series consisted of 39 episodes which featured the fantastic adventures of a 10-year-old girl (Clémentine Dumat) who uses a wheelchair ...

Étienne Tshisekedi Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba (14 December 1932 – 1 February 2017) was a Congolese politician and the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the main opposing political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC ...

* Simon Mbatshi Batshia * Pius Ngandu Nkashama * Albert Ndele * Barthélémy Bisengimana * Jacques Depelchin *

Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum Jean-Jacques Muyembe is a Congolese microbiologist. He is the general director of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale (''INRB''). He was part of team at the Yambuku Catholic Mission Hospital that ...

* Nkulu Mitumba Kilombo * Angela Okolo

Notable faculty

Marcel Lihau Marcel Antoine Lihau or Ebua Libana la Molengo Lihau (29 September 1931 – 9April 1999) was a Congolese jurist, law professor and politician who served as the inaugural First President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo from 1968 u ...

* Sophie Kanza * Daniel Biebuyck

References

External links