[Article by Ms Françoise Moehler-De Greef to appear in issue 59 of the association's journal Memories of the Congo. The original article is accompanied by a rich iconographic file.]

In the blur caused by "decolonial" discourses, cancel culture and repentance, museums are searching for themselves and ICOM (International Council of Museums) is working on revising the official definition of their role. The simple presentation and enhancement of artifacts is no longer enough. The dThe discourse must be part of the "politically correct" and excessive guilt-tripping. The MAS (Museum aan de Stroom: ethnographic, anthropological and maritime museum in Antwerp) unfortunately fits into this movement.

A very beautiful exhibition that is certainly worth a visit but from which one leaves with very mixed feelings. Certainly, its original concept is more than commendable. Recalling the centuries-old links between Europe (Antwerp mainly) and Africa (the Congo in particular), highlighting the century-old Antwerp collection of Congolese artifacts and revealing the significance of flagship works superbly highlighted. A major drawback, however: apart from a few general inserts, there is no explanation alongside the works presented. You have to look for them in a free booklet of about a hundred pages... almost unreadable in the ambient darkness unless you have sharp eyes or a good battery for your mobile phone lamp. No guided tour due to the pandemic but also no audio guides, although they are available in other museums.

To find your way around both the exhibition and the booklet, you should know that this retrospective is divided into two parts. The key works are arranged in the centre of the space, superb in their well-lit display cases, but their beauty is tarnished by pernicious allusions as to their provenance. All around, pre-colonial history, the first contacts between Europe and Africa, the first representations of Africans by the Antwerp masters, and finally Belgian colonisation with an emphasis on international exhibitions of which only the human zoos and the number of victims are noted.

First contacts between Europe and Africa… and first spoliations

At the end of the 15th century^e century, the Portuguese developed a barter trade with flourishing African kingdoms such as Kongo and Benin. From the 16th century^e century, Antwerp became a hub of world trade (gold, ivory, pepper and sugar) supported in this by the contribution of its cartographers. The Portuguese developed the slave trade to the Americas and brought some of them back to their service in Antwerp as evidenced by their representations by local artists. Accounting books of the slave trade are exhibited without specifying of course that they are Portuguese registers.

Representations of Africans

The first paintings depicting Africans appear under the brush of Albrecht Dürer, such as Katharina, a servant in the Portuguese household, or the Magi King Balthazar. The 17th century^e century will bring some notable works, such as Studies of a Moor by Rubens copied by Constantin Meunier, Moses' Ethiopian Wife of Jordaens or the Queen of Sheba from Boeckhorst.

Traces of Antwerp's colonial past

The explanatory booklet does not mince its words and sets the tone: "The politicians, the bourgeoisie and the businessmen of Antwerp supported the colonial project of Leopold II. They pocketed fortunes by plundering Congolese riches, such as ivory and rubber." And an eloquent shortcut: "In response (to the criticisms), the Belgian Parliament decided to take back Leopold's private property."

From the universal exhibitions in Antwerp, we only remember the "human zoos" (12 Congolese in 1885 and 144 in 1894) and their victims (44 Congolese seriously ill in 1894, 8 of whom died). A tragedy "kept secret" until now and to which the exhibition devotes several panels. The 8 bodies were first buried in the Kiel cemetery, partly destroyed during the 2^e war and then transferred to the Schoonselhof cemetery in Wilrijk in a common grave… with 360.000 other anonymous people. An investigation is requested for the 8 Congolese alone. Emphasis is also placed on the theft by Delcommune of a “statue of power” belonging to the Kongo chief Ne Kuko, whose return President Mobutu had already requested. To re-establish the truth, one can only recommend reading the memoirs of Alexandre Delcommune: Twenty Years of African Life – Accounts of Travel, Adventure and Exploration in the Belgian Congo: 1874-1893.  The 1930 World's Fair was notable for the absence of a "human zoo" at the initiative of Belgium (the African village this time being a French initiative) and above all for the colonial propaganda and the stereotypical image given of the Congolese population.

1920. First Congolese objects in an Antwerp museum

"From 1900, the Congo cruise ships moored more often in Antwerp, carrying goods from the colony. As well as weapons, art objects and utilities belonging to the Congolese people. These goods were taken during military campaigns, Christian missions and scientific expeditions. Situations that were often accompanied by violence or abuse of power. »… « the colonists, once back in the country, exhibited objects at home as “trophies” »… (extracts from the booklet). As if it were inconceivable that whites could appreciate works for the love of art, ethnographic interest or simply as a souvenir of their stay in Africa. All the comments are in keeping with this.

The African collections in Antwerp are based on those of Pareyn (art dealer) and Franck (colonial minister and founder of the colonial university).

While missionaries are accused of burning centuries of ritual, artistic and utilitarian objects on pyres, one of them is given some leniency: Jan Vissers, an anthropologist who saved, collected and documented many works of art. Why not mention that some ritual objects were used only once and were then destroyed or relegated to the scrap heap and would no longer exist if the missionaries had not saved them?

The crucifixes

The crucifixes brought to the Kongo Kingdom between the 16th and 17th centuries^e and XVIII^e centuries, have mainly left their mark on people's minds because of their spiritual charge and have constituted a new source of inspiration tolerated by missionaries who imagined that it could replace fetishism. But very quickly, the objects of worship were diverted and integrated into various rituals: enthronements of chiefs, court judgments, funeral ceremonies, therapeutic practices or intended to ensure a successful hunt. Father Jan Vissers, active among the Kongo peoples since 1946, collected from clan chiefs about ten of these crucifixes now preserved at the MAS. These objects served to prove that the clan chief had converted to Christianity while legitimizing his power in the same way as canes or fetishes. They came to be associated with magical rites and to be considered as clan heritage transmitted from generation to generation.

Missions and arts and crafts in Congo

Kuba velvets are known to all, but what is less well known are the lace Congolese introduced at the end of the 19th century^e century by Catholic women's congregations by combining local materials (raffia and bark) and imported techniques. Young girls learned various types of crafts, textiles and others, often based on local traditions (basket weaving, carpet weaving, ceramics, etc.). The term "lace" covers various hand-woven fabrics: spindle, knots or needles. The Congolese technique derives from rosette lace, known as Tenerife lace, which appeared in Spain in the 16th century.^e century, which did not require sophisticated equipment but allowed the use of new materials such as raffia or bark. From 1935, as girls' education evolved, this technique became more the preserve of older, unskilled girls or women. This lace was a typical gift from missions for important visitors, including several members of the Belgian royal family, and its export generated a significant income.

The men's missions also relied on artistic craftsmanship as an educational, economic and civilizing tool. For example, the Brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes in Oostakker with their ivory and wood carving and textile production. Art dealers and collectors consider these artifacts as not authentic because outside of local traditions and customs. The aim of the missions was to teach techniques and to ensure a source of income through sales to the Belgians or in missionary exhibitions and not to promote local cultures and crafts. This resulted in what the colonizer would be criticized for as a certain standardization and acculturation while the artists, once trained, could have served and promoted their different cultures.

Le world in the art of Congo

During colonization, artists in urban centers adapted their style to new consumers (the Whites) and new places of sale, with culture and tradition giving way to commercialism. The foreigner, the White, and his culture thus served as sources of inspiration, sometimes with a certain irony and disguised criticism. This new artistic production used various media (ivory, ceramics, pyrographed gourds, murals, on paper or canvas, basketwork and textiles) and represented various functions revealed by characteristic details.

From the beginning of the 19th century^e century, ivory carvers from the coastal region of Loango integrated Europeans into their productions by documenting multiple situations in the manner of a comic strip (professions, scenes from daily life, the dog as a companion, relations between whites and blacks). Thus this mask surmounted by a canoe in which a missionary and his bible are carried in tipoy by two Congolese or this sculpted defense which integrates European and African characters and the accessories of their functions.

Under the black/white mask

To close the historical part of the exhibition, a film Under the white mask by Matthias De Groof, re-editing of the documentary Under the black mask: The soul and life of the black man revealed by his art in the Belgian Congo by Belgian filmmaker Paul Haesaerts. In 1966, a UNESCO catalogue described the film as a brilliant study in which the "rich collections of Belgian museums" alternate with "images of the natural setting of indigenous life". In 1967, a catalogue of ethnographic films even described it as "the most rigorous cinematographic analysis of African art". Haesaerts avoids giving the voice off the preeminence on the camera thus allowing the spectator to fully enjoy the visual effects which highlight the objects presented.

On the contrary, in Matthias De Groof's version, the commentary is delivered in a thunderous, aggressive voice, in Lingala, with French and Dutch subtitles that absorb all the attention to the detriment of the visual support intended, in principle, to magnify the works presented. In his article published in the exhibition catalogue, Matthias de Groof himself speaks of "affirmative sabotage" of Haesaerts' film and openly refers to the most anti-colonialist films that have ever existed. He bases his commentary on the Speech on colonialism by the Martinican writer and poet Aimé Césaire, written at the height of his period of communist commitment. He only retains the worst, highlighting the racial hatred prevalent in the colonies and comparing, among other things, colonization to Nazism.

"Yes, it would be worth studying, clinically, in detail, the actions of Hitler and Hitlerism and revealing to the very distinguished, very humanist, very Christian bourgeois of the 20th century^e century that he carries within him a Hitler who does not know it, that Hitler lives in him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he vituperates him, it is through lack of logic, and that deep down, what he does not forgive Hitler for is not the crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man in itself, it is the crime against the white man, it is the humiliation against the white man, and having applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until now only affected the Arabs of Algeria, the coolies of India and the Negroes of Africa […]"

He also denounces the slave trade and slavery, which Leopold II wanted to put an end to.

The fact that such an outrageous and caricatured speech is used to illustrate Congolese art and relations between Belgium and the Congo, the themes of the exhibition, is more of an imposture than a piece of research.

100 x Congo: the key pieces of the MAS collection

The retrospective is not constructed by themes but by origins and takes us to meet about twenty peoples and their culture. It is introduced by a painting by Chéri Samba, one of the masters of popular Congolese painting known for enriching his paintings with texts with messages. Here he addresses the ancient creators whose strength and supernatural powers still permeate certain works. [A reproduction of this painting by Chéri Samba, "Homage to the ancient creators", is available on this page.]

We cannot reproduce here the entire presentation of the works, which are very well described in the booklet and the exhibition catalogue as well as in the multimedia project. In many hands: Antwerp – Kinshasa in which 25 Belgian and Congolese personalities each express themselves on a piece of their choice selected from the 100 artifacts presented. Congolese art in its complexity and symbolism certainly deserves a more in-depth study through specific articles.

To conclude, it must unfortunately be noted that "decolonial ideology" has never so deserved the description "imposture and imaginary science" (cf. Pierre-André Taguieff: The decolonial imposture) that is used in this way, in the face of the beauty of the works presented... which would probably never have been possible without the colonial fact which made it possible to preserve and enhance these treasures.