Lecture

Studying the construction of railway lines across the African continent is crucial for understanding the logic of land colonisation, the exploitation of people, the extraction of natural resources and the transportation of goods to and from metropolises. The development of quintessential modern transport in Africa at the end of the 19th century had a lasting impact on the landscape, but also on the urban planning of cities and it still plays a role in the mobility of people, goods and ideas today.

AfricaMuseum Day of case studies and workshops - Programm

During one evening and a day of conferences, researchers and artists will offer alternative views on railway transport in Africa by confronting the diversity of narratives linked to it from a post-colonial and transnational perspective. All these narratives need to be examined in order to understand the scale and complexity of such an undertaking and its human, geographical, urban, political and social consequences. Contributions will not only focus on the past but will also take stock of the present and future of these railway lines — some still in service, others abandoned, some being restored — and of the railway infrastructure.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, artists Alexandre Kyungu Mwilambwe will be in residency at Wiels (Brussels) and Arnaud Makalou at the AfricaMuseum (Tervuren). During the conference, these artists will share their viewpoints and explain the influence of the railways in their work. Curator Anne Wetsi Mpoma develops and follows up the artistic interventions. By entering into dialogue, artists and researchers will stimulate new approaches to this important aspect of history. A work-in-progress exhibition, created by Professor Johan Lagae, doctoral student Robby Fivez and their students from the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ghent University, will offer a new cartographic reading of mobility based on five railway lines across the African continent.

Johan Lagae is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Ghent, where he obtained a PhD in 2002. His research focuses on colonial and post-colonial architecture and urbanism in Central Africa, and he has also published on colonial building heritage and colonial photography. In 2007, he was chercheur invité at the Institut National de
l’Histoire de l’Art in Paris, and more recently, a fellow at the Institut des Études Avancées in the same city. He has compiled two books about the history and architecture of Kinshasa and has curated numerous exhibitions relating to the Congo and Africa, from The Memory of Congo: The Colonial Era (2005), and Congo belge (in images) (in collaboration with Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer, 2010), to A chacun sa maison. Housing in the Belgian Congo 1945-1960 (Brussels, 2018).

Robby Fivez graduated in 2015 as an architect and engineer. From the fall of 2015 onwards, he has been employed as a PhD researcher at Ghent University, first in the framework of the FWO-funded project ‘Tout le Congo est un Chantier’, now as a research and teaching assistant. In his current research he confronts the fields of construction
history and colonial history, understanding the material processes behind the production of the colonial built environment. He is currently writing his PhD-dissertation under the working title A Concrete State. Building Ambitions in the (Belgian) Congo, 1908-1964. In a side-track of this research, he started to investigate the transformation of the landscape along the Matadi-Kinshasa railway line. Robby participated in international conferences and workshops and published research papers and articles, among others in the Architecture Beyond Europe journal and the Journal of Landscape Architecture.

Anne Wetsi Mpoma is an art historian, curator, author, and gallery owner. She proposes solutions to deconstruct and reinvent the arts and the imaginary for a more inclusive society. Director and founder of the Wetsi Art Gallery (2019, asbl Nouveau Système Artistique), an interdependent space that builds bridges with diverse audiences, particularly institutional ones, by showing the work of artists marginalized because of their "race", gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin and/or "disability". In her essay Resisting in the arts and culture in a postcolonial context (in Being Imposed Upon, 2020), she analyses the power relations between Belgian Afro descendent women artists evolving on the margins and the holders of dominant power on the contemporary art scene. The exhibition project Through her (True her) addresses the same theme by bringing the works of these marginalized artists into dialogue with those that have joined the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the City of Ghent (S.M.A.K.), following research carried out by the co-curator of the project, Pascale Obolo. She is currently participating in the work of the experts appointed to draft a first report to guide the members of the House of
Representatives participating in the commission charged with analysing Belgium's colonial past and its current consequences.

A production of: UGent, AfricaMuseum and EUROPALIA Arts Festival with the support of Wiels and Bistro Tembo.

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum is hosting the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. The age of colonial exhibitions. The exhibition shows images of black women and tells the tragic story of the South African Saartjie Baartman, also known as Hottentot Venus or Black Venus. In this MuseumTalk, black women let their voices be heard. What is the legacy of Baartman's story? How do black women create a decolonial image? And what is the importance of role models like Beyoncé?

On Wednesday 23 February 2022 at 7.30pm, podcast creator and moderator Reine Nkiambote will talk to Modi Ntambwe and Tracy Tansia. Ntambwe is a community worker, journalist and social entrepreneur. She wrote about feminism in the book Being Imposed Upon, a collection of reflections on being a black woman in Belgium. Political scientist and writer Tansia contributed to Afrolit: moderne literatuur uit de Afrikaanse diaspora.

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum is hosting the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. The age of colonial exhibitions. The exhibition pays special attention to contemporary racism in Belgian society. This MuseumTalk adresses racism and football. Why is racism such a problem in (Belgian) football? What steps has the Pro League taken to combat racism? With which insights can a new generation of football players and fans start working for a racism-free sport?

On Wednesday 9 February 2022 at 7.30pm, professor Jeroen Scheerder (KULeuven) will address these questions together with Beloy Beloy, author and ex-soccer player, Nadège Bibo-Tansia, actress in the series 'Panna' about girls playing football, and Stijn van Bever, spokesman of the Pro League.

The extraordinary and tragic story of 267 Congolese brought to the Brussels World's Fair in 1897, a four-month journey to Belgium to be exhibited before a million visitors. The crushing gaze of the "Whites" and the cold; for many, disease and death for some... The dead, hastily thrown into a mass grave, triggered a huge controversy in Belgian society. A disproportionate but necessary project in the eyes of the first colonisers who claimed to domesticate the distant savages... One hundred years later, Congolese compatriots return to the place of memory and question the "Whites" of today about the incredible history of this "human zoo". They perform the ritual of "returning to the land" as a way of repairing a wound that is too deep... The film revives a century of stereotypical perceptions of Africans. The question is almost haunting: "What has changed today?".

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum is hosting the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. Several European countries are conducting a debate on colonisation and decolonisation. In response to the Black Lives Matter protests, Belgium set up a Parliamentary Commission 'colonial past' in 2020, also known as the 'Congo Commission'. A year later, a group of ten experts published a first report.

What are the most important conclusions of the experts' report? How can former colonial powers develop a reparations policy? What role should African countries and the diaspora play in the search for historical truths and reparations?

On Wednesday 19 January 2022, writer David Van Reybrouck (Congo. Een geschiedenis) holds a discussion with Nanette Snoep (director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Germany), historian Gillian Mathys (Ghent University) and art historian Anne Wetsi Mpoma (Wetsi Art Gallery). Mathys and Wetsi are members of the expert group of the Parliamentary Commission in Belgium.

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum is hosting the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. The exhibition pays special attention to the link between colonialism and racism. The display of Africans in human zoos was a racist phenomenon that also took place in various Belgian cities. But what about contemporary racism in Belgium? Why is a political action plan against racism important? And how can citizens support the anti-racism movement?

On Wednesday 2 February 2022, the museum organises a discussion with diversity consultant Omar Ba, European project officer Amina Odofin (LEVL) and Priscilla Keuppens (youth advisor at the Flemish Youth Council). The evening starts with an introduction by author Naima Charkaoui about racism, wounds and resilience. Moderator is Salomé Ysebaert (AfricaMuseum).

On Saturday 29 January 2022 Naima Charkaoui will be signing her book 'Racisme: over wonden en veerkracht'/'Racisme: une histoire de blessures et de résilience' in the museum.

Until 6 March 2022, the AfricaMuseum hosts the exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions. During the Belgian colonial period, millions of Congolese were victims of violence. In Belgium, Congolese were exhibited in human zoos. At least fourteen of these Congolese died in Antwerp (1894) and Tervuren (1897).

On Wednesday 12 January 2022 at 7.30 p.m., doctoral student Baudouin Mena Sebu (University of Antwerp) will enter into discussion with historian Maarten Couttenier (AfricaMuseum, Congo tentoongesteld), Georgine Dibua (Bakushinta) and Brussels MP Kalvin Soiresse (Ecolo).

The following questions are central: what do we know today about the (fatal) victims of colonisation? How do governments and museums play a role in the commemoration? What initiatives are the African diaspora taking?