Residency of Prof. Placide Mumbembele Sanger
As part of his residency, Prof. Placide Mumbembele Sanger (University of Kinshasa) is studying the provenance of Yaka masks kept in the AfricaMuseum. He explains this choice by the low representation of these masks in the collections of the Institut des Musées nationaux du Congo.
This research has two main objectives:
- to understand the provenance of the Yaka masks in the collections of the AfricaMuseum
- to identify the archives corresponding to the different actors (local and colonial) involved in the movement of these masks from Congo to Belgium.
Biography
Placide Mumbembele Sanger holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the Université libre de Bruxelles where he defended a PhD thesis in 2015 entitled, Les musées, témoins de la politique culturelle, de l'époque coloniale à nos jours, en République démocratique du Congo. He currently teaches the history of museums in Congo at the University of Kinshasa. His research deals with the issue of museums and cultural heritage in the African (post)colonial context. His current interest is in the issue of restitution of cultural property between Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
