The agricultural economy was mainly export-oriented and focussed on the growing of three crops: oil palms (Elais), rubber (Hevea) and cotton. The Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB) - later Unilever - received 750.000 hectares of land. Unilever was mainly known for the forced labour that workers had to undergo, but refuted this criticism, with the construction of hospitals, schools and roads (agreed upon by contract). Photgraph of the harvest of oil palm nuts at a plantation in Binga, 1947 (Photographs by E. Lebied for Congopresse).
NAB, Archives INEAC, no. 7972.
NAB, Archives INEAC, no. 7972.
