AfricaMuseum, Tervuren
At the time of this photograph, this building was known as the Royal Museum for Central Africa. It assumed its present name in 2018.
The backstory is not the most glorious, as the museum relates to the Congo, until 1960 a Belgian colony. Between 1883 and 1908, the Congo was the personal possession of Belgium’s monarch, King Leopold II. The colony was ruthlessly exploited for its mineral resources, with considerable cruelty inflicted on the indigenous population. A number of western observers were scandalised by what they witnessed, prompting the Belgian government to annex the Congo in 1908, taking it away from direct royal control after Leopold’s death.
Prior to the revelations about the reality of the Congo fiefdom, Leopold II was keen to highlight the civilising effects that he and his agents’ stewardship were having on the indigenous population. To this end, he promoted an international exposition that was held in 1897 on his royal estate at Tervuren on the outskirts of Brussels. Leopold commissioned the French architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe to design a Palace of the Colonies. This became the Museum of the Congo afterwards, described by Wikipedia as “a museum and a scientific institution for the dissemination of colonial propaganda and support for Belgian colonial activities”.
At the time of my visit over 20 years ago, I was unaware of this facet, though I did know of the humanitarian disaster that was the Congo under colonial rule. I left with the impression that the place and its exhibits were still attempting to whitewash a shameful story. Hopefully, under its new identity, the tenor has now changed.
May 2004
Rollei 35 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.
AfricaMuseum, Tervuren
At the time of this photograph, this building was known as the Royal Museum for Central Africa. It assumed its present name in 2018.
The backstory is not the most glorious, as the museum relates to the Congo, until 1960 a Belgian colony. Between 1883 and 1908, the Congo was the personal possession of Belgium’s monarch, King Leopold II. The colony was ruthlessly exploited for its mineral resources, with considerable cruelty inflicted on the indigenous population. A number of western observers were scandalised by what they witnessed, prompting the Belgian government to annex the Congo in 1908, taking it away from direct royal control after Leopold’s death.
Prior to the revelations about the reality of the Congo fiefdom, Leopold II was keen to highlight the civilising effects that he and his agents’ stewardship were having on the indigenous population. To this end, he promoted an international exposition that was held in 1897 on his royal estate at Tervuren on the outskirts of Brussels. Leopold commissioned the French architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe to design a Palace of the Colonies. This became the Museum of the Congo afterwards, described by Wikipedia as “a museum and a scientific institution for the dissemination of colonial propaganda and support for Belgian colonial activities”.
At the time of my visit over 20 years ago, I was unaware of this facet, though I did know of the humanitarian disaster that was the Congo under colonial rule. I left with the impression that the place and its exhibits were still attempting to whitewash a shameful story. Hopefully, under its new identity, the tenor has now changed.
May 2004
Rollei 35 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.