[restitution matters]

“How to make statues speak again?”: Centering originating communities in international museum collaborations

Afrika Focus
24 Dec 2025
Congo DR
Belgium
RM* 27 Jan 2026

[mostly in French] Based on research in the DR Congo, Vicky Van Bockhaven explores a tension within contemporary museum and cultural policies, focusing on the decolonisation of colonial collections and associated knowledge production. These initiatives often remain under the control of Western institutions, leaving the concerned countries and communities unequally involved.

This exclusion perpetuates colonial trauma and provokes activism against museums and governments.

Based on research within the AFRISURGE project in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this study combines research on customary authority in contemporary governance with the perspectives of north-east Congolese communities regarding their heritage housed in the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

The article highlights the need for inclusive and co-creative socially responsible museology, offering insights into how people want to engage with their heritage and exploring approaches to overcoming exclusionary aspects in decolonising museum agendas.

In the same issue of Afrika Focus, Laureline Catelain discusses digital restitution projects that provide source communities with renewed access to their heritage, long scattered by colonization.

The AFRISURGE project embodies this approach through the creation of a database documenting collections from northeastern DRC, housed at the Tervuren Museum.

It integrates archival records and research on the geolocation and provenance of objects, including an ivory trumpet, whose study underscored the need to reassess certain data through cross-referencing sources.