Boma was the first capital of the Congo Free State, and later of the Belgian Congo. This foundational status, long relegated to the margins of official history, is what the exhibition “Boma La Première” seeks to bring back to the forefront of the narrative.
Presented off-site, it is part of the BOMACAPITALE research project (2024–2029), which aims to study, document, and promote the history and heritage of Boma by combining academic research, co-creation, and outreach to Congolese and Belgian audiences.
Courtesy AfricaMuseum, Belgium
From the moment they enter, visitors are invited to examine colonial photography as a tool of power, shaped by choices of framing, staging, and classification.
“Colonial photography does not show life as it was in all its complexity: it is above all a perspective on certain realities of the time, and on what was desired to be recorded through images,” explains historian Hein Vanhee.
These images reveal as much as they conceal; they document an era while leaving entire aspects of colonial reality out of frame.
Discussions within the team led to a search for images depicting ways of life still relatively untouched by European imports, in order to suggest pre-colonial practices. This approach avoids a teleological interpretation that would portray Boma as merely a prelude to the colonial order.
In a context where the city has lost its central role to other urban centers, Boma La Première outlines a different perspective: that of heritage viewed not as a burdensome legacy, but as a potential lever for cultural, touristic, and economic revitalization.
Courtesy Hein Vanhee
Through this exhibition, colonial history ceases to be a static narrative; it becomes a living entity, open to questioning, reappropriation, and transformation by those to whom it belongs.
The BOMACAPITALE project (2024–2028) is a collaborative initiative by the Université Président Kasa-Vubu (UKV) in Boma, the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), and the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA). It aims to promote the history and heritage of Boma, a city in Lower Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as a means of fostering sustainable and inclusive development.
