Belgian Congo

British

noun

a former name (1908–60) of Congo

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In the former Belgian Congo, Simon Kimbangu is believed to have miraculously healed a sick woman in 1921, marking the early beginnings of the Kimbanguist church.

From Barron's • Dec. 25, 2025

Born in South Africa in 1921 to a French father and British mother, Phyllis was orphaned at the age of four and went to live with an uncle in Jadotville in the Belgian Congo.

From BBC • Oct. 13, 2023

Elisabeth Tshala Muana Muidikay was born on March 13, 1958, in Élisabethville, in what was then the Belgian Congo; the city is now Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From New York Times • Dec. 23, 2022

Glenn Close: My dad worked in the former Belgian Congo.

From Slate • Oct. 8, 2020

So Mr. Patrice will be the Prime Minister of the Congo now and it won’t be the Belgian Congo anymore, it will be the Republic of Congo.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023