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Archduke Simeon of Austria

b. 1958

Born
29 Jun 1958, Katana
Country of birth
Congo - Kinshasa

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
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Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Katana

    Birth, Katana

What was it like?

The world around Katana, 1958: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Archduke was born around the same time as Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, and Stephen Harper.

Born around the same time

  • Tom Hanks

    1956 · American actor and film producer (born 1956)

  • Mel Gibson

    1956 · American actor, director, producer and screenwriter (born 1956)

  • Stephen Harper

    1959 · 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015

  • Martina Navratilova

    1956 · Czech-American tennis player

  • Naruhito

    1960 · Emperor of Japan (born 1960)

  • Theresa May

    1956 · Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019

Fashion

Kinshasa gangs wore cowboy costumes

In the 1950s, young Kinshasa street gangs known as Bills wore complete cowboy outfits, sometimes including fake pistols.

Women's elegance clubs and pagne fashion

Women's elegance clubs promoted new fashion trends, such as wearing wax-print pagnes and Sputnik-style hairdos, often participating in fashion shows held in local bars.

Music

Musical Instruments of Urban Kinshasa

In the early 1950s, urban musicians adapted Latin American instrumentation, including lead and rhythm guitars, double bass, clarinet, conga drums, maracas, and the claves rhythm sticks. Earlier "tango ya ba-Wendo" performances often featured traditional instruments like the likembe and accordion accompanied by empty bottles for percussion.

Religious Musical Traditions and Prohibitions

While some musicians were part of classical orchestras, the Kimbanguist church, a prominent institution, strictly banned dancing, viewing it as obscene. Instead, the church promoted a militaristic ethos, encouraging brass bands and organized marching drills for children as young as three.

Getting around

River Steamer Journeys to Leopoldville

Traveling by a stern-wheeler steamer like the Reine Astrid from Stanleyville to Leopoldville took eight mornings to complete.

Around 1950–1954

Commuting on Foot in Leopoldville

In the early 1950s, many Congolese workers traveled to their jobs in Leopoldville on foot and arrived too tired to work effectively.

Daily life

Training for Ideal Households

Girls were taught in schools to become respectable housewives and manage European-style households, while boys in professional schools were instructed on how to build durable, modern brick homes. These programs were part of a colonial social engineering project aiming to shape the nuclear family.

Daily Water Collection

Water access was a major daily task, with households relying on shared standpipes, neighbors, or vendors. Collecting and protecting these water supplies was essential work for ordinary families living in crowded neighborhoods.

Food

Common diet of cassava and palm oil

Families frequently consumed pundu (cassava leaves), fufu (manioc loaf), and chikwangue (fermented manioc bread), often seasoned with palm oil and pilipili peppers.

Libations to the ancestors

Before drinking palm wine or beer, it was customary to pour a few drops onto the ground as a libation to the ancestors.

Prices and wages
Around 1957–1957

Low monthly wages for labor

In 1957, a Congolese worker in a Kinshasa soap factory received 300 francs for 15 days of work, or 600 francs for a full month.

Around 1956–1956

Vast wage gap between workers

In 1956, a Congolese worker earned an average of 9,000 Congolese francs per year, while a European worker earned 400,000 francs.

Work

Formalized construction labor contracts in the 1950s

Construction companies in the 1950s provided some workers with formal employment contracts that detailed daily regimes, medical services, and access to loans for items like bicycles. Some contracts were even written in the local Lingala language.

Struggling for survival as street vendors

Street vendors, such as the elderly woman Hilda, woke up before dawn to walk an hour to town to sell small goods like groundnuts. Lacking a market stall, she could earn as little as 64,803.50 francs a day, barely enough to buy a bag of maize flour.

News and letters
Around 1956–1956

Weekly rural mail delivery routes

For a mission station in 1956, mail arrived weekly via a truck to a crossroads 60 miles away, followed by a native courier completing the final eight miles by bicycle.

Mail collected at post offices

In Congolese cities, mail was not delivered to homes; residents had to collect their correspondence from postal boxes installed in post office walls.

During their lifetime

  1. 1959

    Anti-colonial riots in 1959

    Anti-colonial riots demanding independence from Belgium erupted in the city of Kinshasa, then known as Léopoldville.

  2. 1967

    Nationalization of copper mines in 1967

    Mobutu nationalized the copper mining giant Union Minière to redirect revenues into the national treasury.

  3. 1974

    Rumble in the Jungle boxing match, 1974

    The Rumble in the Jungle, a world heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, drew 50,000 spectators.

  4. 1992

    Democracy movement election celebrations, 1992

    Following a peaceful national election, the entire country erupted into a victory dance for the opposition candidate Tshisekedi.

  5. 1994

    Cholera epidemic in refugee camps, 1994

    An estimated 50,000 people died when cholera spread through squalid refugee camps in eastern Zaire.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.