Royal Museum for Central Africa

History

International Exposition (1897)

Main article: Brussels International Exposition (1897)

After the Congo Free State was recognised by the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, King Leopold II wanted to publicise the civilising mission and the economic opportunities available in his private colony to a wider public, both in Belgium and internationally. After considering other places, the king decided to have a temporary exhibition in his royal estate in Tervuren, just east of Brussels, in today's province of Flemish Brabant.

When the 1897 International Exposition was held in Brussels, a colonial section was built in Tervuren, connected to the city centre by the monumental Avenue de Tervueren/Tervurenlaan. The Brussels–Tervuren tram line 44 was built at the same time as the original museum by Leopold II to bring the visitors from the city centre to the colonial exhibition. The colonial section was hosted in the Palace of the Colonies. The building was designed by the French architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe and the classical gardens by the French landscape architect Elie Lainé. In the main hall, known as the Hall of the Great Cultures (), the architect and decorator designed a distinctive wooden Art Nouveau structure to evoke a Congolese forest, using Bilinga wood, an African tree. The exhibition displayed ethnographic objects, stuffed animals and Congolese export products (e.g. coffee, cacao and tobacco). In the park, a temporary "human zoo"—a copy of an African village—was built, in which 60 Congolese people lived for the duration of the exhibition. Seven of them died during their forced stay in Belgium.

File:Affiche exposition coloniale Tervuren.jpg|Poster for the colonial section of the 1897 International Exposition File:Plan de lexposition coloniale 1897 a Tervuren.jpg|Plan of the colonial section of the 1897 World's Fair in Tervuren File:Tervuren 1897 salon des grandes cultures.jpg|Wooden structure by in the Hall of the Great Cultures during the exhibition File:Village congolais - Exposition Tervuren 1897 (album Alphonse Gautier).jpg|The 'Congolese Village' human zoo during the exhibition

Development of the museum

The exhibition's success led to the permanent establishment, in 1898, of the Museum of the Congo (, ), a museum and a scientific institution for the dissemination of colonial propaganda and support for Belgium's colonial activities, and a permanent exhibition was installed in the Palace of the Colonies. A decade later, in 1912, a small, similar museum—the —was opened in Namur. The museum began to support academic research, but due to the avid collecting of the scientists, the collection soon grew too large for the museum and enlargement was needed. Tervuren, which had become a rich suburb of Brussels, was once again chosen as the location of the enlarged museum. The new museum started construction in 1904 and was designed by the French architect Charles Girault in neoclassical "palace" architecture, reminiscent of the Petit Palais in Paris, with large gardens extending into the Tervuren Forest (a part of the Sonian Forest). It was officially opened in 1910, a year after the death of Leopold II, by his successor, King Albert I, and named the Museum of the Belgian Congo (, ).

The following years saw the consolidation and enlargement of the museum's collections. In 1934, the museum's herbarium was transferred to the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (today's Meise Botanic Garden in Meise, Flemish Brabant). In 1952, the adjective "Royal" was added to the museum's name. In preparation for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58), in 1957, a large building was constructed to accommodate the African personnel working in the exhibition: the Centre d'Accueil du Personnel Africain (CAPA). In 1960, following the independence of the Congo, the museum's name was changed to its current name: the Royal Museum for Central Africa ( or KMMA, or MRAC, or KMZA).

File:Musée du Congo, Tervuren, Belgium; one of five interior scen Wellcome V0014542.jpg|The interior of the original exhibit in the Palace of the Colonies File:Algemeens Wereldtentoonstelling van Brussel 1910 - Koloniale Afdeeling Park van Tervueren (imp. E. & H. Mertens).jpg|Poster for the colonial section of the Brussels International Exposition of 1910 File:Homme-léopard (Tervueren).jpg|The museum's Leopard Man statue, from Le Monde colonial illustré (1934) File:Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale-Portail (1).jpg|Portal of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Dutch name shown)

Renovation (2013–2018)

By the turn of the millennium, the museum was in need of a thorough renovation. The more than 100-year-old central building was no longer adapted to the needs of a current museum operation. Besides, the permanent exhibition was outdated and its presentation not very critical of the colonial history. A new scenography was thus urgently required.

A global master plan was drawn up in 2007 for the entire site. The Belgian Buildings Agency entrusted the plan to the Temporary Association Stéphane Beel Architects (TV SBA). In late 2013, the museum was closed to allow a major renovation of its exhibits and an extension. The Belgian Government spent €66 million on the museum's modernisation. The exhibition area was increased from 6,000 m2 to 11,000 m2, while presenting fewer pieces; 700 against 1,400 previously (out of a total of 180,000 objects preserved). The additional space allowed contemporary art from Central Africa to be displayed alongside the original colonial exhibits. Renamed AfricaMuseum, the museum was reopened on 9 December 2018. The statue of King Leopold II that once stood in the Great Rotunda was replaced with a sculpture by DRC-born artist, Aimé Mpane. Some of the colonial statues once displayed in the museum were moved in 2023 to areas where only guided tours visit.

File:Royal Museum for Central Africa Interior 1.jpg|The interior of the museum in 2011, shortly before its major renovation File:Tervuren, Royal Museum for Central Africa, renovation (3).jpg|The museum's main building during the 2013–2018 renovation File:KMMA.JPG|Old museum entrance through the garden with the restored dome File:Studiedag Familievriendelijk erfgoed (47941725828).jpg|The Great Rotunda in 2019, featuring the artwork New Breath, or the Burgeoning Congo by Aimé Mpane

Buildings

The current AfricaMuseum complex consists of six buildings. The centrally located main building houses the permanent exhibitions. It was built under Leopold II by the French architect Charles Girault. The building is 125 m long and 75 m wide. The façade is decorated in the style of the neoclassical French grand palaces. On the right (south-west) side of this imposing building is the Executive Pavilion, and on the left (north-east), the Stanley Pavilion, which houses the entire Stanley Archive. The former Palace of the Colonies (now the Africa Palace) has been transformed into a reception centre, media library and banquet hall. The Centre d'Accueil du Personnel Africain (CAPA) building, erected in 1957 for the African staff, houses several scientific departments.

Following the museum's complete renovation, a part of the previously scattered archives are now presented in new on-site exhibition spaces. A reception pavilion, newly built in 2016, between the management building and the Palace of Africa, functions as the entrance building. In this building are the ticket offices, cloakrooms, a shop, a restaurant, as well as a picnic area for children. An underground gallery leads from the reception building into the existing museum building. This space is also used for temporary exhibitions. In the museum's enclosed courtyard, a sunken garden with a light shaft was added, bringing light to this underground level.

File:Palais des Colonies (Tervuren) 03.JPG|Africa Palace (former Palace of the Colonies) (Aldrophe, 1897) File:Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika in Tervuren 01.jpg|Main museum building (Girault, 1905–1910) File:Pavillon de Stanley-Tervuren (3).jpg|Stanley Pavilion File:Tervuren, Centre d'Accueil du Personnel Africain.jpg|Centre d'Accueil du Personnel Africain (CAPA) building (1957) File:Entrance building Royal Central African Museum.jpg|New entrance pavilion (2018)

Collections

The AfricaMuseum houses collections that are unique in the world, of which only a small proportion can be exhibited. According to the museum's website, the objects and animals on display in the main building make up less than 5% of the total museum's collection:

• The Department of Zoology has over 10,000,000 specimens, including 6,000,000 insects and 1,000,000 fish.
• The Department of Geology and Mineralogy holds more than 56,000 wood samples in its xylotheque, as well as 200,000 rock samples and 17,000 minerals.
• The Department of Cultural Anthropology can boast of 120,000 ethnographic objects (1,600 of which are in the exhibition rooms). The ethnomusicology collection comprises 8,000 musical instruments, as well as 2,500 hours of recordings of traditional music from sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in Central Africa (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi), of which the oldest dates back to 1910 (wax Edison scrolls). Additionally, more than 500,000 films and photos are kept in the film and photo libraries.
• Finally, the Department of History and General Scientific Services manages thousands of historical objects and 350 archives, including some of Henry Morton Stanley's journals. Some of the collections are digitally accessible.

The herbarium collection of the then-Congo Museum was transferred to that of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium in 1934.

File:Statues funéraires Mboma-Africa Museum.jpg|Ntadi (Mintadi) funerary statues, Mboma culture, northern Angola (left) and central Congo (right), late 19th century File:Receptacle for funeral donations - Ashanti - Royal Museum for Central Africa - DSC06953.JPG|Terracotta receptacle for funeral donations from the tomb of King Prempeh I, Ashanti culture, Ghana File:Statue emumu Lyembe représentant un lion-Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale (1).jpg|Emumu statue representing a lion, made of wood and plant fibres, Lyembe culture, western Congo, File:Everything passes, except the past (DSCF3558).jpg|Long dugout canoe used by King Leopold III in the Congo and offered by the inhabitants of Ubundu. Installed in the entrance of the renovated museum.

Archives

The museum stores archives documenting its own institutional history, as well as archives of private businesses, organisations, and individuals. As of 2018, online finding aids exist for archives of Lieutenant-General , musicologist Paul Collaer, geologist , Commandant Francis Dhanis, Governor-General of the Belgian Congo Félix Fuchs, Lieutenant-General Cyriaque Gillain, General-Major , explorer Charles Lemaire, American explorer Richard Mohun, Colonel Emmanuel Muller, German explorer Paul Reichard, Captain Albert Sillye, British explorer Henry Morton Stanley, soldier and explorer Émile Storms, Vice-Governor General of the Congo Free State Alphonse van Gèle, historian Jan Vansina, territorial administrator Auguste Verbeken, historian Benoît Verhaegen, Commandant Gustave Vervloet, as well as the railway enterprises Compagnie du chemin de fer du bas-Congo au Katanga (BCK) and .

Research

The publicly accessible exhibitions only represent about 25 percent of the museum's activities. The scientific departments, which represent the bulk of the museum's academic and research facilities, together with the main collections, are housed in the former Palace of the Colonies, the Stanley Pavilion and in the CAPA building.

There are 4 departments:

• Department of Cultural Anthropology
  • Ethnography
  • Archaeology and Prehistory
  • Linguistics and Ethnomusicology
  • Anthropology and Ethnohistory
• Department of Geology and Mineralogy
  • General Geology
  • Mineralogy and Petrography
  • Cartography and Photo interpretation
  • Physical and Mineral chemistry
• Department of Zoology
  • Vertebrates (Ornithology, Ichthyology, Herpetology, Osteology and Mammalogy)
  • Entomology
  • Invertebrates non-insects (Arachnology, Myriapodology, Acarology)
• Department of History and General Scientific Services
  • History of the Colonial Period
  • Contemporary History
  • Agricultural and Forest economics (Geomorphology, Laboratory of Wood Biology)

The museum also maintains a library of some 130,000 titles.

Controversy

There has been controversy surrounding the Royal Museum for Central Africa. It had previously been called a museum that "has remained frozen in time".

The resulting, more modern exhibition The Memory of Congo (February–October 2005) tried to tell the story of the Congo Free State before it became a Belgian colony and a less one-sided view of the Belgian colonial era. The exhibition was praised by the international press, with French newspaper Le Monde writing that "the museum has done better than revisit a particularly stormy page in history... [It] has pushed the public to join it in looking into the reality of colonialism." Hochschild himself had a mixed critique of the renovated museum.

Gallery

References

Bibliography

Issued by the museum

• {{cite book |editor=Verswijver|display-editors=etal|title= Masterpieces from Central Africa |year=1995
• {{citation |author=Patricia Van Schuylenbergh |title= La mémoire des Belges en Afrique; Inventaire des archives historiques privées du Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale de 1858 a nos jours |url= http://www.africamuseum.be/collections/museum/collections/docs/memoiredesbelges.pdf |isbn=2-87398-006-0 |number=8 |language=fr |year= 1997
• {{cite book |editor= Toma Muteba Luntumbue & Claire Ponas |title=EXITCONGOMUSEUM/Contemporary Art |year=2001

About the museum

;in English

• {{Citation |publisher = Karl Baedeker |location = Leipzig |title = Belgium and Holland |edition=15th |date = 1910 |oclc = 397759 |chapter-url = https://archive.org/stream/belgiumhollan00karl#page/146/mode/2up |via=Internet Archive

;in other languages

About the 1897 exhibition

References

1. (13 March 2023). "Un diplomate rodé à l'Afrique à la tête de l'Africa Museum". [[Le Soir]].
2. "During the renovation". Africamuseum.be.
3. Dirk F.E. Thys van den Audenaerde, ''Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale'' (in French), Brussels, Crédit communal, coll. "Musea Nostra" (no 32), 1994, p. 8–9
4. (3 July 2017). "A King, Congo and a Museum". [[The Brussels Times]].
5. "Museum history {{!}} Royal Museum for Central Africa - Tervuren - Belgium".
6. Gryseels, Guido. (16 May 2014). "Towards the Renewal and the Renovation of the Royal Museum for Central Africa". Africa Atlanta 2014 Publications.
7. (2018-06-01). "King Leopold's ghost: Belgium's Africa museum to reopen". Reuters.
8. Kakissis, Joanna. (September 2, 2018). "Belgian Museum Looks At Country's History Of Colonialism And Racism". NPR.
9. (July 11, 2023). "Africa Museum removes several colonial statues from its tour route". The Brussels Times.
10. "Palais des Colonies - Lieu de prestige au coeur de Tervuren".
11. "Unique and priceless heritage An overview of our collections". africamuseum.be.
12. "The long dugout canoe".
13. (1982). "Africanist Archival Research in Brussels". [[History in Africa]].
14. "Collections: Archives". Royal Museum for Central Africa.
15. "Discover our research".
16. "Library collection". Royal Museum for Central Africa.
17. "Provenance of the collections".
18. (2020-05-21). "The Congo, I Presume ? – Tervuren {{!}} BE-monumen".
19. (18 July 2002). "This article is more than 23 years old Belgium confronts its colonial demons". [[The Guardian]].
20. McDonald-Gibson, Charlotte. (2013-11-29). "Belgian museum faces up to its brutal colonial legacy".
21. (26 February 2005). "La Belgique confrontée à la violence de son aventure coloniale au Congo". [[Le Monde]].
22. Hochschild, Adam. (15 December 2019). "The Fight to Decolonize the Museum". [[The Atlantic]].