Henry Morton Stanley reputedly stopped at Bolenge during his epic voyage across central Africa during the 19th century.

In the 1890s the local missionaries Murphy, Sjoblom and Banks were pioneers in bringing world attention to atrocities by Belgian King Leopold's Congo Free State.

Eventually a network of mission stations were established throughout the Equateur province of what was at the time known as the Belgian Congo.

The hospital and schools and private homes were all pillaged, resulting in the evacuation of the several foreign missionary families who were living at Bolenge.

This mission was the site of a large leprosarium and is reportedly where the British author Graham Greene spent time in gathering material for his novel A Burnt-Out Case, which is set at Iyonda in the 1950s.