FOR MY PARENTS
Contents
A Note on Names and Translations
Introduction. Congolese History and the Politics of Culture
Chapter 1. The Value of Culture: Congolese Art and Belgian Colonialism
Chapter 3. The Art of (Re)possession: Heritage and the Cultural Politics of Congo’s Decolonization
Chapter 4. Mobutu’s Museum: Authenticity and Guardianship
Chapter 5. Civilizing Citizens?: Museums as Brokers of Postcolonial Zairian Modernity
Conclusion. Colonial and Postcolonial Legacies
Appendix. Expeditions IMNZ Kinshasa, 1970–90
Color Plates
Illustrations
FIGURES
Figure 1.1. Émile Storms’s home, with Lusinga’s statue centrally displayed, 1929
Figure 1.2. A collection of minkisi brought to the Kangu mission post, 1902
Figure 1.3. Art collector Jeanne Walschot, ca. 1940
Figure 1.4. Colonial Exposition 1897, salle d’honneur
Figure 1.5. Indigenous art room, ca. 1937, with Kuba royal statue, or ndop
Figure 1.6. Map of Olbrechts’s style areas, 1946
Figure 1.7. Congo art room, 1963
Figure 1.10. Memorial Hall, 1955
Figure 1.11. Visit of the Yaka king to the Tervuren museum, 1959
Figure 2.1. Robert Verly in one of the Tshikapa workshops, 1957
Figure 2.2. Musée de la Vie Indigène, 1946
Figure 2.3. Musée de la Vie Indigène, Salle Province de Lusambo, 1946
Figure 2.4. Musée de la Vie Indigène, corner representing the provinces Stanleyville, Elisabethville, and Costermansville, 1946
Figure 2.5. Musée de la Vie Indigène, crafts shop, 1946
Figure 2.6. Musée de la Vie Indigène, 1946
Figure 2.7. Back view of the museum in Lubumbashi, 1971
Figure 2.8. Museum of Art and Folklore, Luluabourg, 1959
Figure 2.9. 1956 Biennale
Figure 2.10. The sculptor Kaluesha, who worked in one of Robert Verly’s workshops, 1957
Figure 3.1. The return of a ndop to the IMNZ in 1976
Figure 4.1. Sculptor Kaseya Tambwe Makumbi with a statue commissioned by the IMNZ, 1974
Figure 4.2. Second IMNZ mission, Kiadi and Charlie Hénault, near Mushenge, 1970
Figure 4.3. Kabongo-Kabalo route, Luba area, February 1974
Figure 4.4. IMNZ mission, location unknown, 1970
Figure 4.5. Museum employee Epulu among the Mbuti, northeastern Zaire, March 1973
Figure 4.6. Museum employee Ngamba and a Songye mask, fallen victim to a rat, May 19, 1974
Figure 4.7. Nzembele among the Mbole in zone Opala, April 1974
Figure 5.1. Mont Stanley, Leopoldville, 1957
Figure 5.2. Le Bouclier de la Révolution (The shield of the revolution), by Liyolo
