Stade Des Martyrs - History

History

The Stade des Martyrs was first called Stade Kamanyola at the time of Zaire. From the memorandum of Understanding of May 13, 1987 between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Zaire, construction began on October 14, 1988 and ended on October 14, 1993 The inauguration took place on September 14, 1994, on which a friendly took place after the African Cup of Nations had opposed the Leopards of Zaire and the Malawi team football. Built by the Chinese, like other prestigious achievements of the regime of Zaire, the building is now the venue of the city where the international meetings, as well as many other sporting events of cultural importance. It is considered by many football experts as the Cathedral of African Football in regard to its shape and size. Its construction cost was approximately 38,000,000 US dollars. It replaced the former National Stadium, the Stade Tata Raphael.

In 1997, the stadium was renamed to the Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecote in honour of Jerome Anany, Emmanuel Bamba, Alexandre Mahamba, and Evariste Kimba, who were hanged on June 1966 on the current site of this stadium.

In 2008, the Stadium was renovated by the government following the recommendation of FIFA and now meets international standards (wardrobe, sound, lighting, electronic marker table, numbering of the seats, press gallery, security system and fire...). For this, the state has spent $3,000,000. The Dutch Company Edell Grass came by a lot of containers at the port of Boma and then transported them to Kinshasa by train. The containers contained 140 tonnes of synthetic rollers and 150 tons of sand. The work was conducted by a team of four technicians, including two Dutch, and South African, and one Norwegian.