Confrontation, not celebration
Colonial statues were removed or placed in critical context after 2018.
Jmh2o — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Éric Dodémont (Dodeeric) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · TCsongor — CC BY-SA 4.0 · TCsongor — CC BY-SA 4.0
Because its origin is wholly colonial: Leopold II built it to display his Congo project, a rule that produced documented atrocities, and the building was paid for with wealth taken from that land. The museum today acknowledges this and displays it, but the argument over whether acknowledgement is enough — and over restitution — continues.
By tram from Brussels to Tervuren, about forty minutes from the centre, with the stop close to the entrance. By car it is roughly twenty minutes. Treat it as a standalone half day rather than a quick addition, since the collections are large and the park deserves time.
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A museum of Central Africa in a palace set in wide parkland east of Brussels, among the most important museums of the African continent outside it by the scale of its collections — and the most problematic in its origins. It was created by King Leopold II in 1898 as a colonial museum displaying his achievements in the Congo Free State, a territory he held as personal property rather than as Belgian sovereign. His rule there produced atrocities documented on a vast scale, and Congolese rubber and ivory wealth is what paid for this building. The museum closed for five years and reopened in 2018 after a complete review. The new approach confronts that history rather than celebrating it: colonial statues were removed or placed in critical context, experts from the African diaspora were involved in the redisplay, and the question of returning objects to their countries is raised openly. The collections themselves are vast: ethnography, natural history, music and languages. The argument about the museum continues and is not settled, and that is part of what makes a visit thought-provoking.
Colonial statues were removed or placed in critical context after 2018.
The museum raises returning objects to their countries openly, and it is unsettled.
The building sits in wide free parkland, worth walking after the visit.
Tervuren, about twelve kilometres east of Brussels