Institute of National Museums of Congo
[3][4][5] Strategically located within the Mont-Ngaliema Presidential Park in the Ngaliema commune on Avenue De La Montagne N°1, opposite the Groupe CHANIC shipyard, northwest of Kinshasa, IMNC's headquarters is adjacent to the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defence and Veterans.
[6] This structure was modified with the emergence of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL) in 1997, resulting in the suspension of the board of directors and its replacement with a Provisional Management Committee.
[3][9][11] In 1936, the AAI inaugurated the Musée de la Vie Indigène (Museum for Native Life) in Léopoldville and instituted workshops across the country to support Congolese artists.
However, the Belgian facilitators of these workshops, such as Robert Verly, often failed to comprehend the symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of traditional art, frequently dismissing it as "negra-ries," or "negro work".
[11] In 1953, the colonial government relocated the Musée de la Vie Indigène to the old Hôtel des Postes buildings near Boulevard du 30 Juin, subsequently attaching it to the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, where various objects and works of art, including masks, statues, spears, musical instruments, traditional clothing made of raffia, animal skins, beaten bark, etc., were exhibited.
[3][6][9] Following Belgian colonization, the Musée de la Vie Indigène amassed tens of thousands of pieces collected by many conservators, most notably by Jean van den Bosch, who structured the institution.
[9] This museum, however, suffered extensive looting during post-independence riots, with objects sold locally at minimal prices, only to be bought by a non-Congolese trader from Léopoldville, who resold them, among other places, in New York with substantial profits.
[9] The Museum of Coquilhatville, which initially housed 600 heritage pieces from cultural and traditional ethnic groups from Équateur Province, including hunting tools, baskets, fishing traps, canoes, photos of ethnographic interest, pottery, and books, also experienced significant depredations due to occupation by the Congolese army.
[9] However, in 1961, during the secession of Katanga, Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) troops, including Swedish forces, converted the museum into barracks, causing significant damage to buildings and destroying prehistoric and zoological objects.
[9] In 1964, the art market in Léopoldville remained rife with poachers, attracting an Anglo-American clientele eager to purchase anything at any price, unaware that in traditional African commerce, negotiations are always a verbal joust between seller and buyer.
[9] Lawyer Mario Spandre asserts that it was during this time that President Mobutu Sese Seko, realizing the potential value of statuettes and other objects, ordered the "emptying" of Congo's villages of any remaining works of art, thus planting the seeds for the concept of Authenticité and the creation of an umbrella organization for all museums.
[6] The Mobutu administration subsequently embarked on a comprehensive collection of art objects that had escaped systematic colonial appropriation, alongside the preservation of material and immaterial traditions, all of which were safeguarded within the newly constructed presidential park (Parc Présidentiel) in Ngaliema commune.
[9] Between 1971 and 1980, with financial and scientific backing from Belgium, France, UNESCO, the European Economic Community (EEC), and other entities, the Institute accumulated approximately 45,000 ethnographic and archaeological artifacts and documented 1,000 hours of intangible heritage.
