Guided tour

During this interactive tour, students will discover how art and propaganda intertwined to create a colonial illusion. Like true investigators and fact-checkers, they will decipher the messages hidden within the artwork.

What makes this tour unique:

• Active participation: observation, discussions, and analysis in small groups.
• Hands-on workshops: handling archival documents, contemporary quotes and testimonies.
• Critical thinking: from colonial propaganda to AI-generated images—how can we recognise manipulation?
• Creative reflection: students connect past and present through contemporary art and discussion.

After the tour, classes can explore the museum freely and contemplate the panorama in the Crocodile Room – a perfect opportunity to reflect on what they have seen and felt.
 

A combination of learning and experience

This tour is an ideal activity for exploring the topics of history, representation, critical thinking, and global citizenship.

Book your school visit and give your students a unique opportunity to open their eyes – to both the past and the present.
 

The tour examines what the image shows and what it hides. Which voices are heard, and which ones are silenced?

Learn how the panorama obscures violence, exploitation, and uprisings, and how it functions as ‘fake news’ well before the term was coined. 

Through contributions from artists, experts, and researchers, the exhibition brings the official narrative up against long-muted voices. It invites you to deconstruct the colonial imagination by observing it critically, questioning propaganda, and reflecting on the legacy of colonisation whose influence is still widely felt today.

Prepare yourself for a visit that blends art, history, and reflection, and for an open dialogue on how images shape our perception of the world.
 

The tour examines what the image shows and what it hides. Which voices are heard, and which ones are silenced?

Learn how the panorama obscures violence, exploitation, and uprisings, and how it functions as ‘fake news’ well before the term was coined. 

Through contributions from artists, experts, and researchers, the exhibition brings the official narrative up against long-muted voices. It invites you to deconstruct the colonial imagination by observing it critically, questioning propaganda, and reflecting on the legacy of colonisation whose influence is still widely felt today.

Prepare yourself for a visit that blends art, history, and reflection, and for an open dialogue on how images shape our perception of the world.
 

Only in Dutch or French.

Only in Dutch or French

Only in Dutch or French.

Only in Dutch or French

In 2023, the Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum) will be 125 years old.  It also reopened its doors 5 years ago after a renovation. It's a perfect time for the museum to explore its role in the past, present and future – with you!

The guided tour 'AfricaMuseum today' starts in the Grand Rotunda. It goes through several galleries, touching on Belgian colonial history in Central Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi), Patrice Lumumba, the war in Eastern Congo, the African presence in Belgium and restitution. The guide will also reflect on the impact of colonization on society today, taking examples from current events.

After the tour, you can join an informal conversation in the presence of a museum staff member. What did you think of the tour? How do you feel? Do you still have questions?

Who are the guides?

François Makanga guides the tours in French. He is a guest speaker, artist and activist.

Paul Vossen guides the tours in Dutch. He studied bioengineering and Conflict & Development and has worked in Botswana, Burundi, Congo, Niger and the Sahel.

More information about the programme: in French or Dutch.