[Article by Ms. Françoise Moehler-De Greef to be published in issue no. 59 of the journal of the association Mémoires du Congo . The original article is accompanied by a rich collection of images.]
In the confusion created by "decolonial" discourse, cancel culture, and repentance, museums are searching for their identity, and ICOM (International Council of Museums) is even working on revising the official definition of their role. Simply displaying and showcasing artifacts is no longer enough. The discourse must conform to "political correctness" and excessive guilt-tripping. Unfortunately, the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom: an ethnographic, anthropological, and maritime museum in Antwerp) is part of this trend.
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 , the Portuguese developed a barter trade with flourishing African kingdoms such as Kongo and Benin. By the 16th century , Antwerp had become a hub of global trade (gold, ivory, pepper, and sugar), bolstered by the contributions of its cartographers. The Portuguese expanded the slave trade to the Americas and brought some slaves back to Antwerp to serve them, as evidenced by depictions of them by local artists. Account books related to the slave trade are on display, without, of course, specifying that they are Portuguese records.
Representations of Africans
The first paintings depicting Africans appeared under the brush of Albrecht Dürer, such as Katharina, a servant in the household of the Portuguese, or the Magi King Balthazar. The 17th century produced some remarkable works, such as Rubens's Studies of a Moor, copied by Constantin Meunier, Jordaens's The Ethiopian Woman of Moses, and Boeckhorst's Queen of Sheba .
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."
Of the World's Fairs in Antwerp, only the "human zoos" (12 Congolese in 1885 and 144 in 1894) and their victims (44 Congolese who were seriously ill in 1894, 8 of whom died) are remembered. This tragedy, "kept secret" until now, is the subject of several panels in the exhibition. The 8 bodies were initially buried in the Kiel cemetery, which was partially destroyed during World War II, and then transferred to the Schoonselhof cemetery in Wilrijk to a mass grave... along with 360.000 other anonymous individuals. An investigation was requested concerning the 8 Congolese alone. The exhibition also highlights Delcommune's theft of a "statue of power" belonging to the Kongo chief Ne Kuko, whose return President Mobutu had already requested. To set the record straight, we can only recommend reading Alexandre Delcommune's memoirs: Twenty Years of African Life – Travel, Adventure and Exploration Stories in the Belgian Congo: 1874-1893. From the 1930 Universal Exhibition, we will remember the absence of a "human zoo" at the initiative of Belgium (the African village being this time a French initiative) and above all the colonial propaganda and the stereotypical image given of the Congolese population.
1920. First Congolese objects in an Antwerp museum
“From 1900 onwards, the Congo steamships docked more frequently in Antwerp, carrying goods from the colony, as well as weapons, works of art, and utilitarian objects belonging to the Congolese people. These goods were seized during military campaigns, Christian missions, and scientific expeditions—situations often accompanied by violence or abuses of power.”… “Once back home, the colonists displayed these objects as ‘trophies’”… (excerpts from the booklet). As if it were inconceivable that white people could appreciate works of art for their love of art, their ethnographic interest, or simply as a memento of their time in Africa. All the comments echo this sentiment.
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 18th centuries made a strong impression primarily due to their spiritual significance and constituted a new source of inspiration tolerated by missionaries who imagined it could replace fetishism. However, these objects of worship were quickly repurposed and integrated into various rituals: the enthronement of chiefs, court judgments, funeral ceremonies, therapeutic practices, and practices intended to ensure a successful hunt. Father Jan Vissers, active among the Kongo people since 1946, collected about ten of these crucifixes from clan chiefs; these are now preserved at the MAS (Musée d'art contemporain de la Sant Mamma). These objects served to prove that the clan chief had converted to Christianity while legitimizing his power, much like walking sticks or fetishes. They came to be associated with magical rites and considered part of the clan heritage, passed down from generation to generation.
Missions and arts and crafts in Congo
Kuba velvets are widely known, but less so are Congolese laces, introduced at the end of the 19th century by Catholic women's congregations. These laces combined local materials (raffia and bark) with imported techniques. Young girls learned various crafts, both textile and otherwise, often based on local traditions (basket weaving, carpet weaving, ceramics, etc.). The term "lace" encompasses various handwoven fabrics: bobbin lace, knotted lace, or needle lace. The Congolese technique derives from rosette lace, also known as Tenerife lace, which appeared in Spain in the 16th century . This technique does not require sophisticated equipment but allows the use of new materials such as raffia or bark. From 1935 onward, as girls' education evolved, this technique became primarily the domain 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 male missions also relied on artistic crafts as an educational, economic, and civilizing tool. For example, the Brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes in Oostakker focused on ivory and wood carving and textile production. Art dealers and collectors considered these artifacts inauthentic because they fell outside local traditions and customs. The missions' goal was to teach techniques and secure a source of income through sales to Belgians or at missionary exhibitions, not to promote local cultures and crafts. This resulted in what would later be criticized as a form of homogenization and acculturation, whereas the artists, once trained, could have served and promoted their diverse 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 , ivory carvers in the coastal region of Loango incorporated Europeans into their work, documenting a multitude of situations in a comic-strip style (professions, scenes of daily life, the dog as a companion, relations between whites and blacks). Examples include this mask surmounted by a dugout canoe in which a missionary and his Bible are carried by two Congolese men, and this carved tusk that integrates European and African figures and the accessories of their roles.
Under the black/white mask
To conclude the historical section of the exhibition, a film, Under the White Mask by Matthias De Groof, is shown, a re-edited version 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 cinematic analysis of African art." Haesaerts avoids giving the voice- over preeminence over the camera, thus allowing the viewer to fully appreciate the visual effects that 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 attention to the detriment of the visuals, which are supposed to enhance the works on display. In his article published in the exhibition catalog, De Groof himself speaks of an "affirmative sabotage" of Haesaerts' film and openly references the most anti-colonialist films ever made. He bases his commentary on the Discourse on Colonialism by the Martinican writer and poet Aimé Césaire, written at the height of his communist activism. He retains only the worst aspects, highlighting the racial hatred prevalent in the colonies and comparing, among other things, colonization to Nazism.
“Yes, it would be worthwhile to study, clinically and in detail, the actions of Hitler and Hitlerism, and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanist, very Christian bourgeois of the 20th century that he carries within him an unwitting Hitler, that Hitler dwells within him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he vilifies him, it is due to a lack of logic, and that, deep down, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not the crime itself, the crime against humanity, not the humiliation of humanity itself, but the crime against white people, the humiliation of white people, and for having applied to Europe colonialist methods that until now had only been applied to the Arabs of Algeria, the coolies of India, and the Black people 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 structured thematically but by origin, taking us on a journey to discover some twenty peoples and their cultures. It opens with a painting by Chéri Samba, a master of popular Congolese painting known for enriching his canvases with texts carrying 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 exhibition booklet and catalogue, as well as in the multimedia project " In Many Hands: Antwerp – Kinshasa," in which 25 Belgian and Congolese personalities each comment on a piece of their choice selected from among the 100 artifacts presented. Congolese art, in its complexity and symbolism, certainly deserves further study through dedicated articles.
In conclusion, it is unfortunately necessary to note that "decolonial ideology" has never more deserved the label "imposture and imaginary science" (cf. Pierre-André Taguieff: The Decolonial Imposture ) than when 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 value these treasures.
