Belgium's AfricaMuseum has a dark colonial past – it's making slow progress in confronting this history
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Tuesday, July 4, 2023
Natural history, Awareness, Exhibition, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Brussels, Research, History, Black, Attitude, Government, Central Africa, Democratic republic, Acquisition, Collection, Time, Museum, Racism, Colonialism, Congo Basin, Humboldt Forum, Ownership, Entertainment, Hunting, Film industry, Nightclub, Tourism, Gum arabic, Drug, African, Congolese
Their handling of objects looted during the colonial period, especially from Africa, is seen as an indicator of the political relations between Europe and African nations.
Key Points:
- Their handling of objects looted during the colonial period, especially from Africa, is seen as an indicator of the political relations between Europe and African nations.
- International advances by other former colonial powers like France, Germany and Great Britain in the restitution debate also created impetus.
- As a white and privileged researcher who focuses on colonial memory, racism and anti-colonial movements in Europe, my perspective on the AfricaMuseum is divided.
- In my view, the museum is marked by a dusty past and has shown little evidence of post-colonial self-reflection.
Colonial looting
- It was a colonial human zoo within the Brussels World’s Fair.
- The colonial institution initially served the purpose of legitimising the brutal colonial rule in the Congo Basin.
- To this day, some conservative positions glorify the Belgian colonial period as a justified and philanthropic undertaking.
- As late as 2001, the US anthropologist Jean Muteba Rahier described the museum as a colonial place frozen in time.
- It can be assumed that most of the collection was illegally looted during the colonial period.
Recognising African heritage
- Yet, some objects remain placed in a context that allows for a pejorative view of Africa.
- This is evidenced by the combination of the depiction of Congolese culture and the natural history of humankind in one space.
- Reparation and representation of African and diasporic voices became a priority.
Early results
- It proposes, for example, a joint commission to coordinate scientific investigations into the origin of objects in Belgium’s possession.
- Those artefacts have been in Belgium’s possession since colonisation and are now to be examined with a view to possible restitution.
Next steps
- Some European politicians, museum directors and scholars have pointed to an alleged lack of storage facilities in Africa.
- The vast majority of artefacts were seized from their original context and only transformed into “art objects” in European museums.
The new Belgian path shows that this seems possible, though there’s still a long way to go.