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). Potographs of large-scale Elaei plantations of SA des Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB) and Imafor near Leopoldville, 1945-1946. (Photographs by A. Da Cruz for Congopresse).
NAB, Archives INEAC, no. 10113.
NAB, Archives INEAC, no. 10113.
