Critical Museology, (Post)Colonial Communication, and the Gradual Mastering of Traumatic Pasts at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA)

Abstract

This essay provides a critical analysis of some of the public and museological debates that have swirled around the rediscovery of a Congolese holocaust. The authors of the essay highlight some of the evolutionary changes that have taken place in the exhibitions that are presented in the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren, Belgium, and they highlight some of the difficulties that attend the “mastering” of some complex colonial pasts. For more than a decade some harsh critics of the museum have complained about the exclusionary practices of the museum and elision of Léopoldian memories.