- By Catharina Moh
- BBC Journey Present
Within the darkest nook of a grand museum that appears like a neo-classical palace lies a not-so-secret room.
It’s full of statues of Congolese individuals, which have been considered racist, that had been as soon as a part of the everlasting exhibition.
Schoolchildren on instructional excursions file previous the Leopard Man, males with spears and girls nearly bare.
That is the Africa Museum in Tervuren, simply exterior Brussels, and till lately these sculptures had been a part of the everlasting exhibition.
After going through years of heavy criticism nationally and internationally, the museum labored with a bunch of consultants from the African diaspora in Belgium to rethink the controversial statues on show.
Colonial historical past
The museum traces its origins again to when King Leopold II arrange the Worldwide Exposition of 1897. As a part of that, 267 Congolese males, ladies and kids had been taken by pressure to Belgium and flaunted to the general public in fenced pretend villages on the location the place the museum now stands.
When Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands within the nineteenth Century, the Western nations’ “scramble for Africa” was in full throttle. King Leopold II wished his personal slice of the continent, however with out authorities backing he needed to win over buyers and the general public.
The “human zoo” was a software to persuade guests that Belgium had an obligation to deliver civilization and Christianity to the African nation. The exposition was an enormous success and so started Belgium’s lengthy and violent historical past within the Congo.
Quick ahead to the current and the museum is now marking its a hundred and twenty fifth 12 months. It’s also 5 years because it underwent a large renovation, the place it eliminated problematic statues and adjusted the labelling round objects that created a unfavourable stereotype about Africa.
Guido Gryseels was the director of the museum till he retired earlier this 12 months, aged 70, and is basically answerable for ushering in change.
Customer numbers have improved for the reason that revamp, however a few of the African diaspora imagine extra may be executed and that the statues needs to be eliminated utterly. Others say the museum simply mustn’t exist any extra given its historic shows representing African individuals as primitive.
The museum says it can’t change the previous however is dedicated in doing its half in direction of constructing a greater future.
“We realised that almost all kids had their first encounter with Africa by way of a go to to this museum, both once they got here with the varsity or with their mother or father,” Mr Gryseels advised the BBC.
“For 100 years that impression was principally one among stereotypes, that Africa was good for offering nature and we had been good for offering tradition. From stereotypes you get pre-judgements and from pre-judgements you get a specific amount of racism.”
When Mr Gryseels joined the museum in 2001, a survey confirmed 95% of Belgians thought colonisation was factor. In 2022 the survey was executed once more and the quantity dropped to 35%.
Regardless of the museum’s greatest efforts, a few of its historical past stays thinly veiled. In an attractive spherical atrium referred to as the Rotunda, vibrant drapes cling across the partitions.
Behind them you may see larger-than-life statues with matching French inscriptions equivalent to “La Belgique apportant la civilisation au Congo”, which translated means “Belgium brings civilisation to Congo”.
“Belgium brings safety to Congo” is on a plaque underneath a golden goddess-like statue with a Congolese baby at her toes. The counter-narrative picture depicts an armed Belgian soldier holding a machine gun. One other statue exhibits a Congolese man wrestling a snake.
“Right here you’ll discover the statue is black and the others are gold, as a result of gold is seen as superior, as godly, however that is for somebody who’s inferior,” Africa Museum collaborator Marie-Reine Iyumva explains.
She is a part of a brand new era of workers with African heritage particularly introduced in to assist result in change and supply context.
Ms Iyumva stated their work shouldn’t be as a easy as eradicating or altering gadgets thought of problematic.
“The constructing is protected, it is a part of the Flanders Cultural Heritage, so we can’t contact something from the partitions of the constructing. So what we did is we commissioned modern artists to current their various interpretation.”
The reply, it appears, lies in training. Visiting the Africa Museum shouldn’t be a part of the nationwide curriculum and excursions are as much as a instructor’s discretion.
However weekdays are busy with visiting faculty teams taking excursions in French, Dutch, English and German. An enormous emphasis is on the workshops and open discussions addressing Belgium’s colonial previous and the function the museum has performed all through the previous century.
One younger feminine pupil admitted the expertise was eye-opening.
“I feel it is the primary time we actually discovered about it. I would not do it if I used to be queen of Belgium,” she stated.