Bilembo ya Congo

Bilembo Ya Congo

Reconnecting Communities With Their Cultural Heritage

This website was created as part of the Transformative Heritage (AFRISURGE) research project in collaboration with the University of Uele in DRC, the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Ghent University, and the University of Antwerp. The project provides a digital restitution through which citizens and the diaspora of the DRC can access information about their cultural heritage that left the country during the colonial era, which was previously impossible. The goal is to provide an interactive tool that allows users to share, add, and modify data, create digital galleries, and stimulate debate about heritage among the citizens of the DRC and its diaspora.

Initially, this site will focus on Northeastern DRC, or the former Orientale province, because the Royal Museum for Central Africa holds an important collection from this region. The “Armand Hutereau” collection, gathered during a scientific expedition to Northeastern Congo between 1911 and 1913, includes over 8,000 objects, 800 photographs, audio and audiovisual recordings. For this collection, the provenance of objects and photographs is exceptionally well documented, including the names of the chiefs involved, so people from Northeastern DRC can easily search for objects from their communities. However, the aim is to add further data for the whole DRC, including heritage that remains within the country.