After years of consultation between archive research in Belgium and field research in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), researchers, experts and members of civil society shared their conclusions.
Provenance research is relevant, but it must not condition or delay restitution. Today, Belgium and the DRC must move forward with concrete actions.
Courtesy AfricaMuseum
The main recommendations were:
Unrestricted physical and digital access to colonial archives, which are shared heritage between the two countries.
Sustainable institutional partnerships between Belgium and the DRC, with balanced funding and guaranteed mobility for researchers, to reduce power asymmetries.
Rethinking the legal framework: a logic of historical justice must replace the current approach based on documentary evidence.
Including civil society and citizens as stakeholders from the outset of the research, to broaden the notion of expertise and integrate endogenous knowledge.
