https://www.africamuseum.be/en
The most interesting part of this museum was the relatively brief but very thought-provoking ‘prologue’to the (vast) display, which explored and questioned the whole idea of ‘provenance’ regarding museum exhibits. Although it referenced this particular museum, the questions posed could, and should, be asked by any museum, particularly one that has been established for a long time and has artefacts from cultures and civilizations other than those of the people and state where it is currently residing.
After this, one looked at the artifacts with a different eye although we were consistently guided to consider how and why the objects were obtained although this was not done in too heavy-handed and didactic a manner. And it was a good idea to keep one room set out and labelled ‘old-style’ – row upon row of dead insects labelled in Latin and all remarkably uninformative.
But one of the best items was a vast tree-length dugout canoe that one walked past, in an otherwise completely bare, spare white corridor, prior to entering the museum. But I do think that the horrors of Leopold in the Congo were slightly underplayed – perhaps an avoidance of lurid sensationalism but even so…