Reinventing a colonial-era Africa Museum

It will take almost $100 million to renovate Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa.

Persona (buy the catalog)  Anne-Marie Bouttiaux…

TERVUREN, Belgium — Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Congo’s independence from Belgium, but the Royal Museum for Central Africa still seems lodged within the colonial era.

Dusty cabinets are cluttered with moldering stuffed wildlife, mementos of expeditions led by pith-helmeted officers and jumbles of tribal artifacts with little explanation of their function or meaning.