Royal museum of central Africa

The royal Musée of central Africa is located at Tervuren, Belgium, a few kilometres from Brussels.

Create in 1897 pennies the impulse of the king Léopold II it is closely related to the history of the colonization of the Congo by Belgium. The museum of Congo, colonial palate to the fitting Art nouveau builds in the middle of a sumptuous park connected to Brussels by a double avenue especially creates, at the origin was intended to wake up the interest and the curiosity of the Belgian people for what was at the time the “State independent of Congo” (1884 to 1908).

After 1908, it became the Museum of the Belgian Congo then the royal Museum of central Africa in 1960.

History of the museum

To give a window to its Congo and an idea of the economic potential of this area to the Belgians and thus to attract the investments, Léopold II wished to arrange a kind of museum by putting in scene the original objects, imported in quantity according to a multidisciplinary approach: anthropological, ethnological, botanical, zoological, entomological, geological and mineralogical.

At the time of the World Fair of 1897, it made build in the royal field of Tervuren the " Palate of the colonies" conceived by the Belgian architect Georges Hobé in the style art nouveau of the time. The temporary exhibition which was arranged there made the good share beside the " curiosités" from Congo, empaillés animals and objects of ethnographic interest, with the products of export: coffee, cocoa, tobacco and forest gasolines. In the park among others " attractions" several tens of Congoleses placed in reconstituted African villages were offered to the glances of the visitors. Seven of them died there of diseases or cold.

The success of the exposure (more than one million visitors in six months) and the interest of the scientists were such as it was decided to make it permanent. Very quickly, the buildings became too exiguous, the king cherished the project to make field its " small Versailles" , the construction of the current building, from neo-classic style, entrusted to the French architect Charles Girault began in 1905 to be inaugurated in 1910 at the time of a second World Fair. Congo for two years had then ceased being a royal possession to become Belgian colony.

Until 1960, year of the independence of Congo, the collections did not cease increasing by the sendings of objects and samples of all kinds carried out by colonial soldiers, missionaries, administrators, tradesmen and scientists.

Thereafter acquisitions were extended to the whole of the Africa.

Collections

The Museum shelters single collections in the world of which it is possible to state only one small proportion. It also has priceless historical files of which those, complete of Henry Morton Stanley, a photographic library, a film library, sound archives ethnomusicologic as well as a large range of charts and geological and scientific data.

Some figures:

10.000.000 animal specimens
250.000 mineral samples
180.000 ethnographic objects
20.000 charts
56.000 wood samples
8.000 musical instruments
350 funds of files

Mode of acquisition often not scientist of most of the objects, results sometimes the ethnographic lack of data and the need for continuing the study of it. The institution occupies 75 scientists working in five fields: cultural anthropology, zoology, geology, history, agricultural and forest economics. It accommodates student and enquiring coming from the whole world.

The museum at the 21st century -->

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