For their part American missionaries put pressure on their government to step in. And in Belgium itself the Congo Question caused a great deal of tension between King and Parliament. In October 1908 King Leopold ii was forced to relinquish his colonial possession in favour of the Belgian state.
As a means of arousing some interest among Belgian nationals in his African politics, Leopold ii organised a large colonial exhibition at Tervuren in 1879. The Palace of the Colonies was built in Tervuren park, on the site where the pavilion of the Prince of Orange had once stood. The palace made an important contribution to the breakthrough of Art Nouveau in Belgium; the interior was a splendid example of that style, though unfortunately nothing remains of it today.
This colonial exhibition was planned on a grandiose scale and attracted a great many visitors, not only to the main exhibition but also, even more, to its subsidiary features. For instance, several African villages were built in the park. As a special attraction 267 Congolese were brought to Tervuren. One of them died on the way, and six others succumbed to the wet summer of 1897. They lie in Tervuren churchyard, in the section once reserved for suicides and unbelievers. The park was also provided with a monorail which could reach speeds of 60-90 mph.
The exhibition was such a success that the Palace of the Colonies was turned into a permanent Congo Museum. The collections grew at such a rate that by 1900 the buildings had to be enlarged, and the French architect Charles Girault, who had designed the new Petit Palais in Paris for the 1900 World Fair, was assigned to the task. Leopold had great plans for this museum. He intended to set up an ‘Ecole Mondiale’ next to the Congo Museum which would become a training centre for compatriots going to work in the overseas territories. There was also to be an East Asian Museum. Of these, only the Congo Museum materialised; it was opened by Leopold ii's successor, King Albert i, in 1910.
Over the years the Museum at Tervuren has acquired the world's richest collection of art-historical objects from Central Africa. When the Congo achieved independence in 1960 the museum had more than 100,000 items. After 1960 and decolonisation, the museum diversified its collection and gradually ethnographic items from all over the world were added. The collection currently comprises more than 250,000 pieces, either given to the museum by colonial civil servants and missionaries, or acquired by purchase. Most of the items, including some first-rate pieces, have never been on public display because of the shortage of exhibition space. What is not on show is stowed away in the cellars of the museum, though this reserve is regularly drawn upon for temporary exhibitions. Some 250 of the best pieces were shown in 1995. This exhibition provided a fairly complete picture of Central African masks, ancestral images and carved utensils by various ethnic groups.
To celebrate its centenary the Africa Museum organised a number of exhibitions. Among these were
The Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren (Photo by Roger Asselberghs).
A Songye mask from the Tervuren collection (Photo by Roger Asselberghs).
exhibitions on the great West African masks from the collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva (29 May - 29 november 1998) and on Morocco (November 1998 - May 1999) - the museum aims to expand its horizons and demonstrate that its field of interest extends beyond Central Africa. And another exhibition, to centre on East Africa, is planned for 1999.
Besides having an ethnographic section, the museum also covers historical, geographical, geological, biological and other aspects of Africa. Indeed, the Museum at Tervuren does far more than just preserve and exhibit a rich collection. The Museum presently constitutes one of the most important centres in the world for scientific research relating to Africa. In researching types of wood used in African sculptures, specialists from the museum have amassed a vast expertise in the tropical woods used in African sculptures. The museum has the second largest collection of woods in the world and preserves more than 50,000 samples. Ethnographic and ethno-musicological research has been supported by archaeological and lin-