A pirogue for the voyage of King Leopold III in 1957
According to Carlo Van Elsen, then deputy administrator of Ponthierville (present-day Ubundu), two large pirogues were bought by the Congolese population to transport King Leopold III during his brief stay in the region in March 1957. The two pirogues, according to Van Elsen, came from the village of Bamanga.

A few months after the king’s voyage, direct negotiations took place between the director of the Museum of Tervuren, Frans Olbrechts (1899-1958), and members of the territorial council of Ponthierville, with the view to sending one of the pirogues to Belgium. In January 1958, this specimen arrived at the museum and was included in the collections as a ‘consignment from Carlo Van Elsen’.

Lack of documentation relating to the acquisition 
In a letter to the Museum in 1997, Van Elsen corrected a number of errors in the text relating to the pirogue, which was on display. In this letter, he stated that the pirogue had been donated to the Museum by the inhabitants of Ponthierville, at the request of deputy District Commissioner André Carpiaux. There are no records, however, about the circumstances of the transaction with the residents of Ubundu. In this context, it is difficult to imagine what room to negotiate the Congolese in the Ponthierville region had with respect to this ‘request’ from their government custodians.

This photograph was taken near the village of Biondo (west of Ponthierville / (B)ubundu) in front of one of the two pirogues that were used to transport King Leopold III during his short stay in the region. Leopold III is standing at the front, with his back to the riverbank, next to the administrator Van Elsen. HP.2019.4.1.