BELGIAN CONGO (Postluchtdienst) in 1921 issued airmail (Service Postal Aerien) stamps depicting landmarks, nature and lifestyle in the Belgian colony. The stamps featured either a mono-winged plane or aircraft propeller. The air mail service operated between Kinshasa and Stanleyville, which began on 1 April 1920. This particular cover was registered, postmarked 27 May 1922 in Kinshasa, and sent by airmail with the final destination being to Brussels, Belgium. It has both airmail and regular postage stamps affixed to the envelope.
Stamps shown on this cover:- 25 (overprint 50) C - "Inkissi Falls"
- 40 C - "Congo canoe"
- 50 C - "Wharf on Congo River"
- 1 F - "Country store"
- 2 F - "View of the Congo River"
- 5 F - "Fortress"
The Congo has a history of chaos and oppression from its colonial period until today. Among the reasons for this include Belgium's sudden departure in 1960 without properly preparing the country for self-government, despite their claims to the contrary. Congo needed a middle class and educated bureaucratic officials and so on, but the Belgians had not bothered with that. An early democratic leader was Patrice Lumumba, but he was accused of being a communist sympathiser, and even though this was not true, he ended up being assassinated with CIA and M16 support for his murder. Since then bad leadership of the strong-man variety has prevailed. If the Congo's economy had been organised and infrastructure built, its vast resources might make it the richest country in Africa. Unfortunately it wallows in corruption and semi-poverty lingers till this day. Although the sordid history of colonial oppression and its aftermath loomed large for the Belgian Congo, stamp collectors have been left ironically with a lovely philatelic legacy.
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