Lies Busselen. 2023. ‘Déterrer le passé à Feshi : les traces des ancêtres à Feshi’. Sarah Van Beurden, Didier Gondola & Agnès Lacaille (ed), Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities 181, special issue : (Re)Making Collections Origins, Trajectories & Reconnections : 328. Tervuren : AfricaMuseum. ISSN: 9789464596366. URL: https://www.africamuseum.be/en/research/news/remakingcollections  (PR).

Article in a scientific Journal / Article in a Journal

The aim of this chapter is to critically examine the context in which Congolese bodies were disinterred under the orders of Belgian colonial agent Ferdinand Van de Ginste (1912-1947) after the Second World War between 1945 and 1946 in today’s provinces of Kwango and Kwilu. Provenance studies of this text were carried out as part of the ‘HOME’ (Human Remains Origin(s) Multidisciplinary Evaluation) project. Based on research using archives and oral histories, we attempt to trace the process in which targeted communities became scientific objects. Oral testimonies show how the past and present are inextricably linked through memory. Taking this social (memorial) dimension into account is essential in provenance analyses to truly understand the ‘dehumanising’ nature of museum collections of human remains. ‘HOME’ was a Belgian federal scientific project which ran from December 2019 through December 2022. The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) collaborated with six other partners: three institutions in Brussels (the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the Institut national de Criminalistique et de Criminologie, and the Royal Museums of Art and History) and three universities (the Université libre de Bruxelles, the Université de Saint-Louis, and the University of Montreal). The aim of the project was to generate a complete inventory of public collections of human remains in Belgium and to examine different avenues for repatriation.