Pinnable

In the 1870s, many European countries were looking to expand their control in Africa. Belgium wasn’t among these countries, but its King Leopold II fancied the idea of ruling a fiefdom of his own, and during the 1880s he managed to do so by having the explorer Henry Stanley & his team establish treaties with hundreds of local chieftains in the Congo Basin that effectively resulted in their land being ceded to the Belgian crown. After the many atrocities committed in the Congo Free State under Leopold’s rule came to light, the Belgian parliament reluctantly decided in 1908 to annex the royal colony. Half a century later, in 1960, the Belgian Congo gained its independence. Since then, conflict & instability, as well as authoritarian rule, have led to an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while rich in natural resources, ranks among the poorest countries in the world.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, on the outskirts of Brussels, was established in 1898, serving as a propaganda tool for the colonial venture in the Congo. The exhibition moved to the current building in 1910, and when the museum reopened in 2018 after a five-year renovation, it was the first time since 1957 that its presentation had profoundly changed. Dubbed ‘the last colonial museum in the world’ not so long ago, the Africa Museum is now trying hard to be an ethnological museum like any other, focusing on central Africa’s languages & music, rituals & ceremonies, and landscapes & biodiversity, but its undeniable colonial past defines almost everything on display in the exhibition, and the amount of attention it is given. All in all, the Africa Museum is a fascinating place, not only because of the issues evolving around colonization & decolonization, but mainly because Africa is such a captivating continent to learn more about.

Reader Comments