Publications RMCA

Birds of Katanga by Michel Louette & Michel Hasson Series "Studies in Afrotropical Zoology" Available in English and in French French Version: n° 296 ISBN 978-9-0817-9400-8 English Version: n° 297 ISBN 978-9-0817-9401-5 Retail price: 65 euro

Part of the museum's 'Studies in Afrotropical Zoology' series,  this is the first illustrated book on the birds of Katanga. The status of the 693 species with confirmed records was investigated carefully, including research on the collections of the Royal Museum for Central Africa.
Katanga has five endemic  bird species: Lippens’s Ground Thrush from the Upemba National Park, Greater Double-collared Sunbird from the Marungu mountains, Upemba Masked Weaver (along the Lualaba River), Lufira Masked Weaver (along the Lufira River), and Black-lored Waxbill (along the Lualaba River).
General distribution, presence and status in Katanga, ecology, breeding and migration, notes, and conservation status are discussed for a selection of 248 species that are illustrated in  full colour. Habitat diversity is illustrated by 25 photos.
Given that the photographs for this book were assembled over only three years by a small team, we can conclude that Katanga’s ornithological biodiversity is still relatively well-preserved.
 

The constitution of the DR Congo, adopted via referendum on 18 and 19 December 2005 and proclaimed on 18 February 2006 by the President of the Republic Joseph Kabila, stipulates that the decentralization principle is a building block of the country’s institutional architecture, in the context of a united state. From a country with 11 provinces, created in 1988, the DR Congo will turn into a country with 25 provinces, plus the city of Kinshasa.

A project initiated by the Royal Museum for Central Africa, with the support of the Belgian Development Cooperation and the Belgian Science Policy, concerns the writing of monographs on the provinces. After first demarcating each of the provinces recognized by political decision, the project aims to build up real and precise knowledge of each province with the ambition of providing basic (political, economic, geographic, linguistic, social…) data promoting a far-reaching policy of environmental and regional planning.

The Haut-Uele monograph is the second volume of this series.

The name ‘Haut-Uele’ conjures visions of its famed peoples – the Mangbetu, the Azande, the Logo, the Budu, the Mayogo – whose rich and diverse cultures impressed both Arab and European conquerors.

In addition to presenting these groups, this monograph provides a general overview of the geography, relief, geology, hydrography, flora and fauna, and demography of Haut-Uele. It also analyses the province’s historical, cultural, political, economic, and tourism-related development in greater detail.
 

The Fishes of Zimbabwe covers all 158 species known to occur in Zimbabwe, these are illustrated and their distributions mapped. There are numerous graphs and tables pertaining to the biology of species.  This scientific book is published with the support of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, which is involved in the major publications about African fishes. Contents are related to RMCA’s Ichthyology’s researches and collections.

The constitution of the DR Congo, adopted via referendum on 18 and 19 December 2005 and proclaimed on 18 February 2006 by the President of the Republic Joseph Kabila, stipulates that the decentralization principle is a building block of the country’s institutional architecture, in the context of a united state. From a country with 11 provinces, created in 1988, the DR Congo will turn into a country with 25 provinces, plus the city of Kinshasa.

A project initiated by the Royal Museum for Central Africa, with the support of the Belgian Development Cooperation and the Belgian Science Policy, concerns the writing of monographs on the provinces. After first demarcating each of the provinces recognized by political decision, the project aims to build up real and precise knowledge of each province with the ambition of providing basic (political, economic, geographic, linguistic, social…) data promoting a far-reaching policy of environmental and regional planning.

This monograph of Maniema is the first publication in a new collection on all the provinces proclaimed in the DR Congo’s Constitution.

It was in 1988 that Maniema, up to the Kivu district, became a province. Along with two other districts of the ancient Kivu, it from then on held the same rank as the Eastern Province, Equateur and Katanga.
 

This book of photos accompanies the exhibition Museum Dwellers of RMCA photographer Jo van de Vijver, which is on display from 22 September 2011 until 8 July 2012 at the museum cafe and the Okapi room as part of UNCENSORED. 

Rwanda’s history between the two world wars remains relatively unknown, with researchers turning their attention to other eras of the country’s history. Yet this period saw the introduction of a series of administrative, agricultural, social, and health policies that transformed this part of Central Africa.

This book discusses the health policies used by Belgium in the land of a thousand hills between 1920 and 1940 while examining the links between health action and social control. It assesses the roles of various agents of colonisation (the state, Catholic and Protestant missions, private companies) and analyses the fact that medical action was used as an imperial tool, as evidenced by the occasionally hostile response from the local populations.
The book gives a detailed study of health facilities and personnel, campaigns against endemic diseases and epidemics, rivalries and frictions between the state and the missions, and the reactions of the local populations.

The ‘political’ aspect of medical activity in a colonial setting is evident in the correlation between the standardisation of a health system and the coloniser’s hold on society. The administration tied the census to health campaigns; locals were subject to strict obligations or risked fines or imprisonment; African authorities were told to collaborate actively or be threatened with removal.

Seen through this lens, the study also shines a fascinating light on a colonial society crisscrossed by tensions: tensions between health services and administrative services, between leading figures, between missions and the state and between Catholics and Protestants, and finally, tensions between coloniser and colonised — in other words, a white society much less monolithic than it appears on the surface, facing an African society also marked by its diversity.

De Luulu à Tervuren. La collection Michaux au Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale In the series ' Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities' Author: Rik Ceyssens   Available in French 322 p.+ 48 p. booklet in full color ISBN: 978-9-0747-5296-1 Retail price: 45 euro

The Museum of Belgian Congo obtained the 716 artefacts of the Michaux collection in 1919. After nearly a century of various efforts to conserve, classify, and  make use of them, the time has come to take stock of the results obtained and draw a few conclusions, as ‘imprecise and incomplete’ as they may be.

The ante quem period provides ample room for study. We show the coloniser-collector at work, at times actively bargaining for souvenirs, other times eschewing all pretence of give-and-take and directly confiscating the loot in situ based on the principle of might makes right. We specifically made a push to free the artefacts from the ‘misleading’ environment of museum showcases and place them in their original context, thus highlighting both messenger and message (explicit or not).

As for the inner workings of the museum as a scientific institution, we opted to go beyond the usual reference texts published in recent years, instead methodically tracing the documentary chain beyond the ‘adjacent’ generation, in the hope of separating the wheat from the chaff, in search of deserving instigators wherever they may be.
 

	Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (République démocratique du Congo) In the series « Cahiers africains », n° 78, co-edition L’Harmattan / RMCA. Authors: Joël Noret and Pierre Petit Available in French 160 p. ISBN: 978-2-296-54252-5 Retail price: 16.50 euro

 
This work compares the funeral practices by the North Katanga Luba a couple of decades ago with the contemporary funerals of Lumbumbashi. The continuity and the breaks between the rural doings of the past and the urban procedures of contemporary Katanga become apparent throughout the chapters. The evolution of funeral practices and the organisation of mourning underline the social, generational, religious and family dynamics.

The urban funerals of today seem less imbued with the universe of kinship, albeit they still play a fundamental role, while groups of religious affiliations are increasingly playing a part in the social management of death. The book offers the reader a subtle view on the contemporary reconfigurations of Congo’s dealing with death, and an original perspective on social change through funerals.
 

	Sammy Baloji & Patrick Mudekereza en résidence au Musée Royal de l’Afrique centrale. Congo Far West. Arts, sciences et collections (exhibition catalogue) Ed.: S. Cornelis & J. Lagae Available in French With abstracts in English and Dutch 120 p. ISBN: 978-8-8366-2024-1 Retail price: 20 euro Silvana Editoriale (Milan) in partnership with RMCA

 
Two young Congolese artists, photographer Sammy Baloji and writer Patrick Mudekereza, were invited in a residence by the RMCA and the Ghent University. They produced some works in interaction with a number of the museum's scholars and it is not by chance that “Congo Far West” is the theme chosen by Patrick Mudekereza and Sammy Baloji for their residency as artists : referring to descriptions of early colonial outposts, this title also evokes the link between the museum’s collections and DR Congo. This “Cahier de la Résidence” and the exhibit (RMCA, 11/05 to 4/09/2011) are the results of this experimental, transnational, intercultural and multidisciplinary project.

Fetish Modernity (exhibition catalogue) Ed.: A.M. Bouttiaux & A. Seiderer  With the collaboration of Noemi del Vecchio Available in English 272 p. ISBN: 978-9-0747-5294-7 Retail price: 29 euro

 
This publication has been produced for the exhibition Fetish Modernity, organized as part of the European project ‘Ethnography Museums & World Cultures’. The exhibition will be presented in Tervuren from 8 April to 4 September 2011 and will travel to five partner museums until 2014.
Lead Museum: Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium).
Partner Museums: Musée du quai Branly (France), Pitt Rivers Museum (England), Müseum für Völkerkunde (Austria), National Museums of World Culture (Sweden), National Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde) (Netherlands), Museo de América (Spain), Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures (Czech Republic), National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography “L.Pigorini” (Italy), Linden-Museum Stuttgart (Germany).
Associate Partners: Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève (Switzerland), The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (USA), Diaspora Association Plus au Sud (Belgium), La Cambre-ISACF (Belgium), Culture Lab (Belgium).

Popular Snapshots and Tracks to the Past CAPE TOWN, NAIROBI, LUBUMBASHI D. de Lame and C. Rassool (eds) in the series: Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, vol.  171 296 p. ISBN: 978-9-0747-5279-4 Retail price: 35 euro Flexible, informal appropriations of individual creations can combine with other elements and produce specific strategic positioning, act as markers in power games and rally partisans. Yet, in essence they do not have this function. In the first place, appropriations are acts of creation in their own right; they are “expressive acts”. Accordingly, they are comparable with many other collective expressions of belonging that reaffirm the existence of a community and testify to its capability of assimilating novelty and (re)building the past. In this respect, popular cultural expressions do not differ fundamentally from collective rituals, where memory is enacted and modified through creative changes enabling the social assimilation of novelty. Objects, texts, sets of norms, and museums are like snapshots open to interpretation, ready for recycling.

Mayombe. Ritual Sculptures from the Congo. (exhibition catalogue) Ed.: J. Tollebeek (dir.), E. Van Assche, M. Derez, L. Nys, H. Vanhee, A. Verbrugge Available in English, French and Dutch 176pp. ISBN EN: 978-9-0209-9183-3 Retail price: 35 euro Lannoo in partnership with RMCA

This book serves as the catalogue for the exhibition presented at Leuven’s M Museum from 7 October 2010 to 23 January 2011. Mayombe. Masters of magic presents valuable sculptures and other objects from the Congolese collections belonging to the K.U.Leuven, the Université Catholique de Louvain and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren.
100 years ago, missionaries of Scheut collected these impressive pieces in Mayombe, a region in Lower Congo. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Congo, M is bringing these rare objects back together again for the first time.

Kinshasa. Architecture et paysage urbains Authors: Bernard Toulier & Johan Lagae (dir.)   Available in French 128 p. ISBN 978-2-7572-0362-0 Retail price: 25 euro Somogy (Paris), Arter-Boa (Brussels) in partnership with the RMCA

Kinshasa. Architecture et paysages urbains (‘Kinshasa. Architecture and Urban Landscapes’) is the result of a 2008 mission initiated by the national leadership of the Bureau Development and Urban Planning Research (BEAU) of the Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure of the Democractic Republic of Congo (DRC) and financed by the Support Programme for Urban Development in Congo and the Strengthening of Local Capacities of the Cities of Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Kisangani (PRODEV) (a programme of the French Development Agency (AFD)).

The study is in the context of the regional and territorial development policy accompanying decentralization, and evaluates the conditions for establishing an inventory of urban heritage useful to the maintenance and urban management of Kinshasa. Such an inventory can be used to implement a network of decentralized, heritage-knowledgeable teams integrated in urbain operations of the Democratic Republic of Congo, reform legislation rarely applied and forgotten for nearly a generation, and transfer skills from North to South via a Franco-Belgian partnership.

A scientific committee of French, Belgian and Congolese (including B. Toulier, Minister of French Culture, J. Lagae (UGent), Leon de St Moulin and J. Ibongo) validated an inventory in the form of a database with urban heritage photographs and technical information.

The authors benefited from the support of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, from whose collections they selected the necessary illustrations for their documentation and this volume devoted to Kinshasa.

Villes et organisations de l'espace en République démocratique du Congo In the series « Cahiers africains », n° 77, co-edition L’Harmattan / RMCA. Author: Léon de Saint Moulin Available in French 304 p. ISBN : 978-2-296-11999-4 Retail price: 29 euro

The history of cities is doubly useful: it clarifies the transformations of an entire country and the regional contrasts that must also be accounted for in order to understand what is happening.

This volume presents a thorough record of the cities of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Using a solidly multidisciplinary approach, Léon de Saint-Moulin has integrated the best quantitative and qualitative data into a vision that elucidates the most important dimensions of social phenomena and blazes a trail through a wide range of issues. His thinking goes from the ‘micro-scale’ of national space, to the ‘macro-scale’ of neighbourhoods, and to the intermediary scale of relations between cities and their immediate environment.

On the historical front, the author shows that Congolese cities are not colonial creations. The space of Central Africa had long-distance organization and important poles before colonization, which reorganized them for its own profit. Today, new mine exploitation and the spread of motor and air transport has relegated somewhat the once majestic route of the river. The DRC is developing especially its urbanization of the southern plateaus, but a new urban axis is also emerging from Uvira to Bunia and beyond. By reading this book, the reader in some ways visits one of the largest building sites in human history.’

Matonge - Matonge (exhibition catalogue) Author: Jean-Dominique Burton Available in English, French and Dutch 176pp. with 160 pictures ISBN:  978-9-0209-9156-7 Retail price: 35,95 euro Lannoo editions in partnership with the RMCA

Through his lens, Photographer Jean-Dominique Burton has observed the twin districts of Matonge Brussels and Matonge Kinshasa.

From these two entities that are thousands of kilometres apart, he is now delivering many captivating and intriguing photographs: a real mosaic of colourful images illustrating everyday life, punctuated by sensitive portraits of inhabitants of the two Matonges.

Geo-graphics. A map of art and practices in Africa, past and present Authors: Anne-Marie Bouttiaux (RMCA) & Koyo Kouoh Only available in English 384 pp. with more than 300 pictures ISBN: 978-8-8366-1658-9 Retail price: 39 euro Silvana Editoriale, Bozar & RMCA

Geo-graphics is based on a concept developed by artistic director David Adjaye, in which the artworks are grouped according to their geographic zones.

This novel approach allows curators Anne-Marie Bouttiaux and Koyo Kouoh to place ethnographic masterpieces and works of contemporary art along a continuum, thereby creating a dialogue between the pieces from the Royal Museum for Central Africa and from other Belgian collections, both public and private, and the work of the 8 art centres selected for the active role they are playing in the development of Africa’s artistic landscape. These centres and the artists they work with throw new light on the ethnographic pieces, which we can now approach through a more urban perspective and with heightened awareness of their contemporary manifestations.

David Adjaye’s scenography and his photographs of African capitals suggest the subtle but intimate way’s through which cultural output and the urban environment intertwine. What emerges from the meeting of these various elements is e new, and different, history and cartography of Africa.

Si les murs pouvaient parler. Le musée de Tervuren 1910-2010 Author: Maarten Couttenier (RMCA) Bilingual publication French-Dutch 168 pp. in color including 200 photo's ISBN: 978-9-0747-5276-3 Retail price: 25 euro

2010 est une année exceptionnelle pour le Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, puisque il fête le centième anniversaire de son bâtiment public !

Le MRAC, en tant qu’institution, a été fondé en 1898. Il s’appelait alors « Musée du Congo » et avait pris place dans le Palais des colonies. Le bâtiment s’avéra vite trop étroit pour accueillir des collections à croissance galopante, une recherche scientifique qui ne cessait de s’amplifier et un public intéressé. C’est alors que sous l’impulsion du roi Léopold II, un nouvel édifice fut érigé et inauguré solennellement le 30 avril 1910. Le centième anniversaire de cette ouverture officielle, que nous célébrons en ce 30 avril 2010, est l’occasion désignée de publier un livre qui n’a pu résister à l’envie de raconter les pages moins sues de l’histoire de l’édifice et du quotidien de ses occupants.

Au fil des ans, le MRAC s’est développé et affirmé sur la scène internationale en tant que centre de référence quant à l’Afrique centrale. Depuis sa fondation en 1898, le MRAC exerce une double fonction, muséale et scientifique. Il s’est voué dès ses premières années à la constitution de collections, si bien qu’il conserve à présent les collections les plus remarquables d’Afrique centrale, tant en sciences humaines qu’en sciences naturelles.

Après cent années d’existence, le Musée est à la veille d’une révision en profondeur tant du contenu de son exposition permanente que de sa présentation muséographique et de son infrastructure. En 2010 sont lancés les travaux d’un processus de rénovation de grande ampleur du musée et du site entier. Le musée dans sa nouvelle mouture doit être prêt en 2014, et l’achèvement du plan général est prévu pour 2020.

Ce livre décrit principalement la vie du musée au cours du xxe siècle. Elles sont rédigées dans une perspective historique, sur base d’une étude des archives, de publications, d’interviews et de nos collections. Les développements plus récents, les modifications des dix dernières années et l’ensemble du processus de rénovation seront décrits plus en détail dans une publication ultérieure.

Fleuve Congo. 4700 km de nature et culture en effervescence (exhibition catalogue) Scientific direction : Thierry De Putter (RMCA) Available in French and Dutch 96 pp. including 120 photo's ISBN: 978-90-0747-5274-9 Retail price: 12 euro

In 2010, as the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates 50 years of independence, the great Congo River flows into the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

The exhibition Congo River is devoted to the many facets of this fascinating, remote river. Majestic and powerful, it produces the world’s second greatest discharge and is surrounded by an immense equatorial forest of remarkable biodiversity – a fitting subject for 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity. But it’s also a river to experience, that millions of Congolese use to travel, fish and transport all sorts of merchandise. Its vast river basin receives one-quarter of Africa’s total precipitation: water for drinking, farming and powering hydroelectric turbines, such as those at Inga. It also remains a mysterious river, shrouded in myth from its Katanga sources to its mouth.

This book complements the exhibition, whose themes it addresses through brief texts and rich photographs of people, animals, countryside and RMCA collection objects, many never before exhibited. The whole family will enjoy discovering the world within these pages.

Guide des espèces ligneuses de la Casamance (Sénégal) Authors : Joris De Wolf & Patrick Van Damme (UGent) Editor: H. Beeckman, RMCA Available in French 176 pp. ISBN: 978-90-747-5258-9 Retail price: 29 euro

 
This guide is the culmination of an in-depth study of the vegetation of Moyenne Casamance, which covers roughly the administrative territory of Kolda in Senegal. The guide is based on botanical knowledge acquired on-site over two years: almost all ligneous species encountered (156) are described. This does not restrict the guide’s utility to Moyenne Casamance, whose flora is quite similar to that of the entire region and subject to the same Sudano-Guinean climate.

Fieldwork drew largely on an identification key of major African tree species in Casamance, created by J. De Wolf and other collaborators of Professor P. Van Damme of the University of Ghent, and improved during field expeditions in Senegal and Mali by the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

The authors aimed to create a practical field guide with an identification key based on plant vegetation characteristics. Moreover, species descriptions include information on flowers and fruits, species budding and ecology, and even uses. A partial key based essentially on floral characteristics proved a necessary addition for identifying flowering species stripped of their leaves.

Journal of Afrotropical Zoology – Vol. 6 (2010)                                                   128 pp., with b/w photo's + quadri ISBN: 978-9-0747-5273-2 ISSN: 1781-1104 Retail price: 22,50 euro

Open your eyes A children's tour at the Royal Museum for Central Africa                                               Authors: Brigitte Cornet & Bart Deputter Editor: RMCA                                                                                                                        48 pp ISBN: 978-9-0747-5270-1 Retail price: 5 euro

 
This booklet is intended for children aged eight and up. Booklet and pencil in hand, the child follows a tour of the Museum’s rooms in 11 stages. Guided by a map and drawings, the child searches for animals and objects. He observes his surroundings, looking attentively for information to complete drawings or answer questions.

He uses his creativity to complete his booklet. Before or after visiting the Museum, the child can take up his booklet to read short texts on Africa and learn where Museum objects come from. One chapter offers the chance to learn about the work of eight researchers of the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

The many photographs that illustrate the booklet provide the child with an overall image of present-day Central Africa.

Congo belge en images   Authors: Johan Lagae & Carl de Keyzer                Available in French and Dutch Editor: Lannoo, in partnership with the RMCA ISBN: 978-90-209-8708-9 Retail price: 45 euro

In association with ‘Congo belge en images’ (‘The Belgian Congo in Photographs’) at Antwerp’s FotoMuseum (22 January 2010 - 16 May 2010), Lannoo Publishing has issued a magnificent catalogue that captures this unique exhibition of 100 photographs from the period 1890-1920, selected by curators Carl De Keyzer and Johan Lagae from the archives of the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

Lexique yoómbe-français avec index français-yoómbe                                                   Author: Jan De Grauwe  Editor: K. Bostoen, RMCA In the new series "Tervuren Series for African Language Documentation and Description" Available in French 216 pp ISBN  978- 9- 0747-5262-6 Retail price: 25 euro

In both academic and non-academic circles, there is a growing awareness of our responsibility to document and describe languages as vehicles of intangible cultural heritage, especially endangered languages. It has become widely recognised that at least half of the world’s languages are threatened to disappear. This is also the case in Africa, which is by far the linguistically most diverse continent of the world.

As a world centre of research and knowledge dissemination on Africa, the Royal Museum for Central Africa wishes to play an important role in raising awareness about Africa’s linguistic diversity and the conservation of its intangible cultural heritage. In this regard, the “Tervuren Series for African Language Documentation and Description” is launched as an important vehicle for the diffusion of knowledge on African languages.

This new series intends to publish scientifically high quality books that contribute to both the description and documentation of hitherto poorly or non-described African languages. It will be complementary to Africana Linguistica, the RMCA’s journal of African linguistics, in that it aims at scientific contributions which do not fit the format of a research article. It welcomes not only lexical and grammatical descriptions of variable length (lexicons, dictionaries, full-fledged grammars, grammatical sketches), but also annotated text materials in African languages whose interest is larger than language description.

In harmony with the editorial policy of the RMCA, all contributions to the new series will be peer-reviewed. Contributions can be in English or French and should be submitted, both electronically to Isabelle Gérard and in hard copy to Publications Service, RMCA, Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium.

For more info regarding the contents of the new series sen an e-mail to: lingui@africamuseum.be

About the publication
Yoómbe is a Bantu language spoken by approximately 1,100,000 inhabitants of Mayombe territory in Bas-Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The lexicon includes more than 5,000 lemmas. It contains a great quantity of everyday vocabulary but also many specialized terms that sometimes occur only in proverbs. Even though this volume is not a complete dictionary, it is the first lexical study of this scale for Yoómbe.

About the author
Jan De Grauwe, born in Sint-Amandsberg in 1929, is a graduate of Ghent University, where he specialized in Roman philology. He began his work on Yoómbe when he lived in Bas-Congo from 1950 to 1960. He taught at Ghent’s Sint-Barbara secondary school until 1991. His great research passion is history and the spirituality of the order of Carthusian monks in Belgium.

Réforme au Congo: attentes et désillusions                                                                                  Directed by Theodore Trefon In the series « Cahiers africains », n° 76, co-edition L’Harmattan / RMCA. Available in French with English summarizes 288 pp ISBN  978-2-296-10204-0 Retail price: 30 euro

La République démocratique du Congo est un vaste laboratoire où se rencontrent de nombreux partenaires internationaux. Motivés par l’ambition de réhabiliter ce vaste État en faillite, tous visent le rétablissement de la sécurité, la réduction de la pauvreté, l’amélioration de la gouvernance et de la gestion macroéconomique, la réhabilitation des infrastructures. Toutefois, malgré l’importance des financements octroyés par la communauté internationale, la compétence des experts et le désir de changement affiché par les dirigeants politiques congolais, rares sont les signes tangibles de succès en matière de reconstruction.

La volonté d’orchestrer les réformes du Congo est freinée par plusieurs obstacles. Historiquement, la crise est implantée. Elle est complexe sur le plan social et le monde politique y est totalement enlisé. S’il est difficile de savoir par où commencer en matière de planification, il est financièrement impossible de répondre simultanément à l’ensemble des besoins.

Le message principal de cet ouvrage est peu optimiste. Il fait le constat suivant : « nous avons identifié les problèmes, nous en connaissons les causes et les solutions… mais les choses vont de mal en pis ». Les contributeurs montrent que la responsabilité de cet échec est partagée par la communauté internationale, faute d’accord sur un schéma directeur, et par les autorités congolaises, qui s’accommodent le plus souvent d’une situation de statu quo.

Sans être prescriptif, ce livre analyse d’une manière critique les efforts menés pour la réhabilitation de l’État depuis l’ascension au pouvoir de Joseph Kabila. Il poursuit la réflexion entamée dans deux autres ouvrages de Theodore Trefon déjà parus dans la collection « Cahiers africains » : Ordre et désordre à Kinshasa (2004) et Parcours administratifs dans un État en faillite (2007).

Biographies des acteurs de la Troisième République                                                                                 Authors: Jean Omasombo et al. Preface by G. Gryseels   Available in French ISBN  978-9-0747-5259-6 Retail price: 29 euro

Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the first half of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007 validated the administration of Joseph Kabila. Several of his main followers and advisors earned posts as deputies or senators, thereby obtaining popular legitimacy. At the same time, however, the elections brought several new players to power in assemblies, national and especially provincial executive administrations, and state enterprises.

The profile of the senators contrasts with that of the national and provincial deputies. They are, on average, older, and fewer are newcomers. The Senate is actually gaining several political actors from past eras, including those of Mobutu, the ‘democratic transition’, the AFDL, etc. This is due in part to the nature of the indirect ballot (election of Senate members by provincial assemblies), but also to a situation rendered still more complex by the reorganization of the country into 26 provinces. Each constituency was attributed a quota of four senators per new province (Kinshasa, with eight, is an exception). Several pioneers of independence and/or of the First Republic (1960-65), having taken part in various phases of the ‘transition’, were pushed aside (J. Bomboko, C. Rwakabuba, J. Mukamba, A. Kalonji, A. Kithima, C. Kamitatu, etc.). And it was Antoine Gizenga, whom the aforementioned pioneers excluded from power after the First Republic’s initial government (in which he was Lumumba’s vice prime minister), who reappeared, like a meteor, to fill the prestigious post of prime minister of the government marking the country’s entrance into the Third Republic.

 Also of note: despite the dominant regrouping around Kabila, the political trajectories of the actors vary significantly, and those who gained an administration post are much more numerous than before.

This biographical anthology follows a first collection, published in 2006, on actors in the transition resulting from the December 2002 Pretoria Accord. Both volumes cover in a systematic fashion specific and various timelines.

The book offers a panorama of the Congolese political class. Individual careers that reveal biographical details clarify past political history and provide analytical tools for current developments in the country and the perspectives they create.

The book is divided into two parts. The first gathers national actors (the head of state, government members, principle army and police leaders, national deputies and senators, business representatives, etc.) in alphabetical order. The second contains assembly and provincial executive members by province and in alphabetical order.

Nouvelle histoire du Congo. Des origines à la République démocratique                                          Author: Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem Forword by G. Gryseels Preface by Elikia m’bokoloAvailable in French ISBN  978-2-8710-6506-7 Co-edited by Le Cri (Brussels) and Afrique Editions (Kinshasa) In partnership with the RMCARetail price: 35 euro

Collections of the RMCA. Musical insturments                                               Author: Jos Gansemans Mini book including 200 colour photos, 160 p. Available in English, Dutch and French ISBN  978-9-0747-5229-9 Retail price: 20 euro

 
The organological collection at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren currently comprises more than 8,000 musical instruments, three-quarters of which are from Central Africa, the Congo in particular.

These harps, drums and slit drums, lamellophones, bells, flutes, whistles and other wind instruments were collected as from the late 19th century, which means that some items are now more than a hundred years old. So these instruments are also examples of the rich, centuries-old culture of the African continent.

In this publication we open the doors to the reserves and showcases at the RMCA so that, although you cannot hear them being played, you can nevertheless wonder at the beauty and variety of these superbly crafted instruments.

Atlas of African Freshwater Sponges                                                   Authors: Renata Manconi & Roberto Pronzato  In the Series Studies in Afrotropical Zoology, Tervuren, Belgium, no. 295. Book in English 216 pp ISBN  978-9-0747-5255-8 Retail price: 59 euro

The present atlas provides the first complete overview of the freshwater sponges found from Algeria to the Cape and is therefore a historical document. It not only summarizes the knowledge of spongillofauna of the African continent but provides new as well as historical illustrations and distribution maps for all the species, most of which are endemic to Africa.

A comparative analysis based on original diagnoses, holotypes and materials from historical collections is performed to supply detailed descriptions on 58 African species of the suborder Spongillina (order Haplosclerida) belonging to the families Spongillidae (9 genera), Malawispongiidae (2 genera), Metaniidae (1 genus) Potamolepidae (4 genera) and 1 incertae sedis genus.

In view of the rapid decline of the biodiversity of Africa’s freshwater fauna as a result of climate change and other man-made influences, this publication will remain a milestone for the knowledge on the distribution of these animals. As filter feeders, they are extremely subject to even low levels of pollution and may therefore constitute an ideal gauge for the evaluation of the quality of surface waters.

The authors, Renata Manconi and Roberto Pronzato work in Italy, but this book is for a large proportion based on the study and collections of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, in Tervuren, Belgium.

Persona–Masks of Africa. Identities Hidden and Revealed  Catalogue of the temporary exhibition Persona. Ritual masks and contemporary art. (24 April 2009 - 3 January 2010) Author: Anne-Marie Bouttiaux with a text by Roger Pierre Turine Available in English, French and Dutch 304 pp. including 250 color photos. Published by RMCA and 5 Continents Editions (Milan) ISBN 978-88-7439-513-2 Retail price: 39,90 euro

 
Avec 180 masques exceptionnels – dont beaucoup sont publiés ici pour la première fois – et des œuvres d’artistes contemporains africains, cet ouvrage fascinant propose une nouvelle interprétation du masque en tant qu’objet universel qui cache autant qu’il révèle.
En étudiant l’usage, les danses et les rituels qu’il anime et le système de pensée qu’il met en scène, le livre explore tout à la fois les rôles effectifs et symboliques du masque en tant qu’objet « dévitalisé » lorsqu’il est exposé hors contexte, mais qui suscite néanmoins des questions sur l’identité, l’estime de soi et la perception de l’« Autre » dans la société occidentale.

Journal of Afrotropical Zoology – Vol. 5 (2009)                                                   180 pp., with b/w photo's + quadri ISBN: 978-9-0747-5257-2 ISSN: 1781-1104 Retail price: 22,5 euro

Table of contents
SEYFULINA, R.R. & JOCQUÉ, R. 2009. Venia kakamega gen. n., sp. n., a new, canopy-dwelling, Afrotropical erigonine (Araneae, Linyphiidae).
STAREGA, W. & SNEGOVAYA, N. Yu. 2009. Report on a Southern African collection of harvestmen in the Royal Museum for Central Africa: Family Assamiidae (Arachnida: Opiliones).
DE MEYER M. & COPELAND R.S. 200x A new sexually dimorphic Ceratitis species from Kenya (Diptera: Tephritidae).
HANSSENS, M. 2009. A review of the Clarias species (Pisces; Siluriformes) from the Lower Congo and the Pool Malebo.
MAES, K.V.N. 2009. A checklist of the Pyrausta species of Africa with description of new species (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea, Crambidae, Pyraustinae).
OPITZ, W. 2009. Revision of the African beetle genus Romanaeclerus (Coleoptera: Cleridae: Korynetinae).
PURCHART, L. 2009. A new Prunaspila Koch (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Adelostomini) from Zimbabwe, with species key to the genus.
JOCQUÉ, R. 2009. Some keep it short: on the radiation in the Afrotropical spider genera Capheris and Systenoplacis (Araneae, Zodariidae) without male pedipalp complexity increase.
VANDENSPIEGEL, D. & PIERRARD, G. 2009. Review of the genus Prionopetalum (Odontopygidae, Diplopoda) and description of new species from East Africa.
DALL'ASTA, U. 2009. Description of a new species of Eudasychira Möschler, 1887 (Lymantriidae, Lepidoptera) with a taxa checklist of the genus.
AZARKINA, G.N. 2009. Two new species of the genus Aelurillus Simon, 1885 (Araneae, Salticidae) from Africa.

République démocratique du Congo De la guerre aux élections L'ascension de Joseph Kabila et la naissance de la Troisième République Author: Gauthier de Villers In the series« Cahiers africains », n° 75, co-edition L’Harmattan / RMCA. .Available in French 480 pp ISBN: 978-2-296-07750-8 Retail price: 42 euro

Cet ouvrage est l’histoire politique de la République démocratique du Congo dans la période qui va de l’assassinat de Laurent Désiré Kabila en janvier 2001 à la mise en place d’un régime issu des élections générales du second semestre 2006. Il s’arrête en août 2008. Depuis cette date, le nouveau pouvoir politique congolais fait difficilement face d’une part au surgissement de la crise mondiale, d’autre part à un regain menaçant, surtout à l’Est du pays, d’affrontements et de violences. L’avenir de la RDC reste profondément incertain. La compréhension des événements en cours impose de revenir sur ces années cruciales qui ont vu, dans le cadre d’une semi-tutelle internationale, le dénouement de la guerre régionale et civile déclenchée en 2008, et la transformation de confrontations armées en compétition électorale.
 
L’ouvrage cherche, en démêlant un écheveau particulièrement complexe d’événements dramatiques et confus, à établir les faits et leurs connexions, à discerner le profil et le rôle de multiples acteurs. Il ouvre aussi des pistes pour l’élaboration d’un cadre général d’interprétation des changements qui s’opèrent en RDC. Renvoyant à de nombreuses sources, fournissant des points de repère chronologiques et factuels, donnant des listes d’acteurs avec des indications biographiques, il se veut enfin un outil de travail pour les chercheurs qui reviendront avec plus de recul sur les événements et les phénomènes analysés.
 
Tout en pouvant être lu de manière indépendante, cet ouvrage est le quatrième de la série consacrée par les « Cahiers africains » à l’époque de la transition d’un régime de parti unique à un régime pluraliste, transition que Mobutu avait été amené à ouvrir en avril 1990.

L'auteur
Gauthier de Villers, sociologue, est collaborateur scientifique de la section d’Histoire du Temps présent du Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale. Il a été le directeur de l’Institut africain et du Centre d’études et de documentation africaines (CEDAF).

Masques bobo Vie, formes et couleurs Author: Guy Le Moal Preface by Anne-Marie Bouttiaux Available  in French 128 pp. ISBN: 978-2-35119-050-0 Published by Biro Editeur (Paris) in partnership with the RMCA & IRD-Paris Retail price: 35 euro

In 1999, the RMCA republished Bobo. Nature et fonction des masques, first published in 1980 by ORSTOM (the present-day IRD, Institut de Recherche et de Développement), and signed an author’s contract to publish or co-publish the next volume, which was in the process of being written. Today it is now complete, and the RMCA supported this interesting project in the framework of a partnership with the Parisian publisher Biro and IRD publishing. Since then, the book has been distributed through the Museum’s established channels: Shop, website, etc., and in bookstores managed by Biro publishing.

‘The book restores Bobo masks to their context in accordance with their local importance. Thus wooden masks, so appreciated in the West for their market value and durability, are relegated to the back of the book, precisely reflecting their place among the Bobo, which is certainly essential but to a much lesser degree than that of the very sacred masks made of leaves and fibers.

A detailed first part explains the role of masks within different Bobo groups. The author draws on ancient written sources but also and above all on oral tradition that recounts the creation of the universe and the necessary cohabitation of men and supernatural entities.

The combination of unpublished texts and photographs inspires admiration and fear, which are appropriate given the uses of masks and the ambiguous forces they incite, simultaneously benevolent and dangerous’.

Guy Le Moal, an ethnologist by training, founded and directed the Institut français d’Afrique noire [French Institute of Black Africa] at Ouagadougou in Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso) until independence in 1960.

On his return to France, he was posted to Orstom (currently IRD), then transferred to CNRS where he continued his work until 2004, participating in ‘Laboratoires de pensée en Afrique noire’.

Adrar Bous Archeology of a central Saharan Granitic Ring Complex in Niger  Authors: General editors: J. Desmond Clark & Diane Gifford-Gonzalez In the series: Human Sciences, vol.  170 Available in English 404 pp. ISBN: 978-9-0747-5243-5 Published by the RMCA Retail price: 35 euroJ. Desmond Clark & Diane Gifford-Gonzalez

This monograph presents climatic, geochronological, radiometric, and archaeological evidence for hominin activities around the Adrar Bous massif on the western edge of today’s Ténéré Desert, Niger. It documents a Late Acheulean lithic industry, a generalised Middle Paleolithic, and an Aterian displaying technological affinities to equatorial African industries.

Table of contents
Ch. 1: Preface, David Hall
Ch. 2: Introduction, J. Desmond Clark and Andrew B. Smith with Diane Gifford-Gonzalez
Ch. 3: Geology, Geomorphology and Prehistoric Environments, Martin A. J. Williams
Ch. 4: The Late Acheulian Assemblages, J. Desmond Clark et al.
Ch. 5: The Aterian of Adrar Bous and the Central Sahara, J. Desmond Clark et al.
Ch. 6: Epipalaeolithic Aggregates from Gréboun and Adrar Bous, J. Desmond Clark
Ch. 7: The Kiffian, Andrew B. Smith
Ch. 8: The Tenerian Andrew B. Smith
Ch. 9: The Ceramics from Adrar Bous and Surroundings Areas, Elena A. A. Garcea
Ch. 10: Technology and Classification of the Grinding Equipment, Diana C. Crader
Ch. 11: The Fauna from Adrar Bous and Surrounding Areas, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez with James Parham
Ch. 12: The Adrar Bous Cow and African Cattle, J. Desmond Clark, Patrick L. Carter, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Andrew B. Smith,
Ch. 13: Burials and Human Skeletal Materials from Adrar Bous Andrew B. Smith, Elizabeth G. Agrilla, Alison Galloway
Ch. 14: Holocene Flora from Adrar Bous, Andrew B. Smith and James N. Coil
Epilogue, J. Desmond Clark
Summary, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez

Teinturières à Bamako Quand la couleur sort de sa réserve Author: Patricia Gérimont Preface by Anne-Marie Bouttiaux Available  in French 224 pp. Published by Ibis Press with the partnership of the RMCA ISBN: 978-2-910728-82-3 Retail price: 32 euro

A cultural and economic phenomenon of utmost importance in Bamako, resist dyeing draws on a long tradition. Over the past 50 years, the practice spread owing to the importation of industrial fabrics and synthetic colourings that have supplanted woven strips of local cotton and natural indigo. But this proliferation did not affect quality – far from it, in fact, as the craft has proven its vigour, combining ancestral resist techniques with modern dyeing processes.

Richly illustrated with colour photographs, this book sheds light on the great variety of resist techniques whose long, meticulous processes create brilliant motifs reflecting inexhaustible creativity. Behind these luxurious fabrics we discover a world of women and men constantly at work in difficult social conditions.

To more deeply penetrate this world of dyeing, Patricia Gérimont immersed herself in a small dyer’s shop that she depicts through portraits of its employees: fasteners, dyers, pounders…for this book is also a story of friendships and mutual discovery.

The RMCA offered to support this interesting project through a partnership with the Parisian publisher Ibis Press. Henceforth, the book is also distributed via the Museum’s usual channels: shop, website, etc.

OMO. People & design Catalogue of the temporary exhibit (7 November 2008 - 3 January 2010) Author: Gustaaf Verswijver Photos by Hans Silvester Available in English, French and Dutch 260 pp.  including 230 colour photos. Published by the RMCA and La Martinière (Paris) ISBN 978-2-7324-3904-4 Retail price: 35 euro

This catalogue offers a fresh look at the peoples of the Omo Valley and surrounding regions. It is the first work dedicated to their everyday objects, and showcases their refinement. In addition, author Gustaaf Verswijver reveals the meaning ascribed to each object by the society that produces and uses it. He also explains social and geopolitical challenges and recent problems confronting these pastoral communities.

Africana Linguistica – Vol. XIV (2008) Editors: K. Bostoen, , M. Devos, B. Janssens, J. Maniacky 192 pp. Book in French and English ISBN 978- 9- 0747-5244-2  ISSN 0065-4124 Retail price : 18 euro

Table of contents
- Devos, Maud 
         The expression of modality in Shangaci  
- Kawasha, Boniface
         Relative Clauses and Subject Inversion in Chokwe, Kaonde, Lunda and Luvale
- Kutsch Lojenga, Constance
         Nine vowels and ATR vowel harmony in Lika, a Bantu language in D.R. Congo
- Nzang-Bie, Yolande
         La dérivation causative dans les langues bantu du groupe A70 
- Ricquier, Birgit & Bostoen, Koen
         Resolving phonological variability in Bantu lexical reconstructions: the case of ‘to bake in ashes’
- Seidel, Frank
         The hodiernal past domain and the concept of recentness in Yeyi
- Van de Velde, Mark 
        Un cas de changement phonologique par réanalyse morphonologique en éton

Atlas des oiseaux nicheurs de la Grande Comore,de Mohéli et d'Anjoua Authors: Michel Louette, Hachime Abdérémane, Ibrahim Yahaya & Danny Meirte With: Garin Cael, Hugh Doulton, Charlie Marsh, Bart Meganck & David Monticelli In the Series: Studies in Afrotropical Zoology, Tervuren, Belgique, n° 294. Book in French (summary available in English) 240 p ISBN  978-9-0747-5237-4 Price: 35 euro Free: CD Guide sonore des Oiseaux nicheurs des Comores, Marc Herremans, 2001. Répertoires complets.

Observations from 1981 to 2006 by RMCA ornithologists and collaborators were used to produce the present Atlas of breeding birds of the Union of the Comoros, consisting of the three islands named below (the fourth island, Mayotte, while claimed by the Union, is at present administered by France). This part of the archipelago, which is situated between the African mainland and Madagascar, is home to a total of 59 breeding birds: 47 on Grande Comore, 44 on Moheli and 39 on Anjouan, including no less than 15 endemic species and 51 endemic taxa (see Tables 1-4 for their French, English and scientific names and their distribution).

It is the first atlas of this archipelago’s breeding bird species and habitats, featuring grid maps that locate where each species was recorded. ‘Ecological envelopes’ around these locations delimit potential ranges in distribution and altitude. For this analysis, maps were scanned and georeferenced, while features of special interest (altitude, forested/non-forested areas, rainfall, rivers, lakes, villages and roads) were encoded. Maps grouping the ecological envelopes of all taxa, endemic taxa and endemic species show that the principle habitats for endemic birds are situated at higher altitudes on each island. On Grande Comore, this means the main forest. But on Moheli, the smallest island, intermediate altitudes also contain much endemism, while on Anjouan the forest is restricted to a ‘network of patches’ that, along with agricultural areas (mostly plantations), are inhabited by (the residual) endemic taxa.

As in many parts of Africa, the Comoros suffer from significant conservation problems. Population growth has adversely influenced habitat and species richness. Environmental problems, legal issues, the need to involve local populations in bird and habitat conservation, and prospects for ecotourism are documented in some detail.

Targeting naturalists, teachers and scientists, the book’s aim is to serve as a tool for biodiversity capacity-building and to contribute to the conservation and management of terrestrial communities and birds.

Funded in part by the Belgian Cooperation Agency, the Atlas is the result of a cooperative project between the Royal Museum for Central Africa of Tervuren, Belgium, and several collaborating partners, notably the Convention for Biological Diversity-Comoros and the National Museum of the Comoros (CNDRS).

Gouvernance et environnement en Afrique centrale : Le modèle participatif en question  Directed by : D. Arnoldussen, A. Bino, D.V. Joiris & T. Trefon Edition: RMCA Special issue  Book in French ISBN: 978-9-0747-5238-1 Price: 25 euro

This original work addresses the question of the ‘participative approach’ in natural resources management and development in Central Africa. The contributions collected here are relevant to the current debate on environmental governance in the region’s countries: Cameroon, Gabon, Central Africa Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad.

The texts are based on the interdisciplinary study of concrete initiatives applied to social forestry, community forestry, protected areas and urban outskirts. An original analysis of associative endogenous movement and potentialities that offer participative approaches in the field is also proposed in the work’s conclusion.

This publication is a result of the research programme entitled ‘Enhancement of the Process of Environmental Governance in Central Africa’ (GEPAC), financed by the European Commission and carried out by the Centre d’Anthrolopologie culturelle de l’ULB, with the participation of the CIRAD.