Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:36:26.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reviving the Remains of Colonization – The Belgian Colonial Archives in Brussels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Abstract

Since 1997, all the archives of Belgian Congo are deposited at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels and are opened up the public. For more than fifteen years, researchers have consulted and scrutinized its documents produced by the colonial authorities between 1908 and 1960. Still several collections have not been explored. This article relates of the history and the organization of the archives of Belgian Congo.

Résumé

Depuis 1997, les archives coloniales belges sont déposées aux archives du ministère belge des Affaires Étrangères et sont ouvertes à la consultation. Dès ce moment, les chercheurs ont dépouillé et exhumé les documents produits par les autorités coloniales belges entre 1908 et 1960. Malgré cela, de nombreux fonds restent peu ou mal connus. Cet article se propose de mettre en lumière l’histoire et l’organisation de ces archives coloniales ainsi que de cartographier les fonds qui les composent.

Type
Archival Reports
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

De Clerck, Louis, “L’organisation politique et administrative,” in: Lamy, Émile and de Clerck, Louis (eds.), L’ordre juridique colonial belge en Afrique centrale. Éléments d’histoire (Brussels: Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, 2004), 121195.Google Scholar
Deslaurier, Christine, “La documentation africaine à Bruxelles. Les fonds du ministère belge des affaires étrangères (Burundi, Congo, Rwanda),” Afrique & Histoire 1 (2003), 223234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickerman, Carol, and Northrup, David, “Africanist Archival Research in Brussels,” History in Africa 9 (1982), 359365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagnon-Arguin, Louise, “La création,” in: Couture, Carol and Caron, Robert (eds.), Les fonctions de l’archivistique contemporaine (Québec: Presses universitaires de Québec, 1999), 69101.Google Scholar
Jeurgens, Charles, and Kappelhof, Ton, “Colonial Archives,” in: Jeurgens, Charles, Kappelhof, Ton and Karabinos, Michael (eds.), Colonial Legacy in South East Asia. The Dutch Archives (The Hague: Stichting Archiefpublicaties, 2012), 725.Google Scholar
Jewsiewicki, Bogumil, “Les archives administratives zaïroises de l’époque coloniale,” Annales Aequatoria I (1980), 169184.Google Scholar
Luwel, Marcel, Inventaire des documents provenant de la mission Franz Cornet au Congo (1948–1949) et conservés au Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale (Brussels: Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, 1960).Google Scholar
Mban, Albert, Le problème des archives en Afrique. À quand la solution? (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007).Google Scholar
Piret, Bérengère, “L’organisation judiciaire du Congo belge. Essai de synthèse,” in: van Schuylenbergh, Patricia, Lanneau, Catherine and Plasman, Pierre-Luc (eds.), L’Afrique belge aux XIXe et XXe siècle. Nouvelles perspectives en histoire coloniale (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2014), 163178.Google Scholar
Tallier, Pierre-Alain, and Cornelis, Sabine (eds.), Africa Europe Archives. Requirements? Collaborations? Plans? DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Belgium (Brussels: National Archives, 2013).Google Scholar
Van Reybrouck, David, Congo. The Epic History of a People (New York, HarperCollins, 2014).Google Scholar