ABSTRACT
Avenue 21 is the name I have previously give to twentythree dwelling compounds situated in one of the peripheral areas of Kisangani.1 The avenue led on to the Irumu Road which constituted the southern boundary of that quarter of the town. The twentythree compounds faced each other across one end of a long avenue which contained a total of seventy dwelling compounds. The avenue lay about four kilometres away from the central market, from the administrative offices of the African townships, and from the centre of the ‘European town’. A subsidiary market on the inlying border of the quarter was just over a kilometre away. Across the Irumu Road, and within two minutes’ walk from the avenue, were a few European dwellings, a sawmill and a general workshop. These establishments employed several men living in the avenue, though the majority worked in or near to the town centre.
