Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo – Inside the deteriorating archives of the national broadcaster Télé Congo, thousands of rusting tape reels stacked from floor to ceiling hold a fragile yet invaluable record of Central Africa’s history.
For decades, the broadcaster’s cameras documented the country’s political, cultural and social journey from its time under France’s colonial rule to the upheavals of the World War II and the Soviet-aligned political era that followed independence.
Documentary filmmaker Hassim Tall Boukambou describes the collection as a “treasure trove” of historical material. Since 2019, Boukambou and a small group of volunteers have been working to rescue the deteriorating tapes stored in the broadcaster’s abandoned headquarters in Brazzaville, where ceilings are collapsing and climate control is nonexistent.
A Record of Central African History
The reels contain footage ranging from sports events and concerts to historic news broadcasts and political trials held during the Marxist-Leninist government that ruled Congo-Brazzaville between 1968 and the early 1990s.
According to Boukambou, the oldest surviving recordings date back to the 1920s, during the colonial era.
Founded in 1962, two years after the country gained independence, Télé Congo became the first television channel to broadcast in sub-Saharan Africa. Its emergence was made possible by the legacy of Radio-Brazzaville, which had begun operations during the war years.
In 1940, after the fall of France to Nazi Germany, the French government in exile established its wartime capital in Brazzaville. From there, Radio-Brazzaville transmitted broadcasts across Central Africa and even reached parts of southern France.
When independence arrived two decades later, the powerful transmitter remained in place, allowing Télé Congo to quickly become a major cultural and information hub for the region. Households across Cameroon, Gabon and the Central African Republic tuned in to its programming.
Decline and Neglect
Over the years, however, the broadcaster declined due to underfunding and competition from private television networks. Its difficulties deepened during the civil conflict that gripped the country between 1997 and 1999.
When Télé Congo relocated to a new headquarters in 2009, the vast archive collection was left behind in the aging building, where humidity and heat continue to damage the fragile film reels.
“It’s honestly a miracle that we still have usable material,” Boukambou said, noting the rapid deterioration caused by the region’s humid equatorial climate and the lack of air conditioning.
Volunteers Preserve a Forgotten Heritage
Despite the conditions, volunteers continue to work methodically to preserve what remains. Among them is Blanbert Banakissa, a painter and electrician who has spent his Saturdays for the past five years cleaning and cataloguing the tapes.
“When I first came here, I thought I was coming to earn something,” Banakissa said. “I had never even heard of an archivist in this country.”
The volunteers carefully clean each reel and attempt to identify its contents from handwritten labels before storing it on already crowded shelves. Nearby, dozens of tapes considered beyond repair lie in a separate room.
“On each reel you have roughly an hour of footage. Just imagine how many hours we have lost,” Boukambou said, warning that time is running out to preserve the material.
Plans for Digitisation
Once the reels are stabilised and catalogued, the team hopes to digitise the surviving footage with support from the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel. Digitisation would protect the material from further deterioration and make it accessible for future generations.
Boukambou believes preserving the archive is vital for Africa’s young population.
“Africa has a largely young population under the age of 35,” he said. “They need to delve into their history to understand today’s challenges.”
