A museum devoted to Belgium’s colonial history in Africa has found itself involved in a dispute over access to documents pertaining to rich mineral deposits in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly colonized by the European country.
The Congolese government and KoBold Metals, a mining and artificial intelligence company backed by billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, are seeking access to documents, including geological records, which are housed at the Africa Museum In Tervuren, Belgium the Financial Times reports; the company inked a deal last year with the Congolese government to digitize the records. The institution was formerly known as the Royal Museum for Central Africa.
KoBold entered into a deal with the DRC in 2025 that positioned the firm to acquire the Manono lithium deposit, one of the world’s largest, and undertake large-scale exploration for minerals that are crucial for electric vehicle batteries, Reuters reported. The country is also home to rich reserves of copper as well as cobalt, which is used in mobile phones and batteries, notes the FT. Western countries are working to diversify their sources of crucial minerals away from China.
The Africa Museum says it is currrently at work on the digitizing project with funds from the EU, and that copies would be supplied to the Congolese authorities, says the FT. The documents are currently accessible to the public on site. A Belgian government spokesperson said discussions between the two countries are “sustained and ongoing,” but told the FT that Belgium “cannot grant privileged or exclusive access to a foreign private company with which it has no contractual relationship.”
The Royal Museum for Central Africa opened in 1897 in Tervuren, near Brussels, as a means for King Leopold II to demonstrate the wealth of cultural artifacts as well as natural resources obtained from the region. Reviewing a prominent display currently on view at the museum, the New York Times notes that “millions of Congolese people were subjected to starvation, mutilation and death while enslaved or otherwise forced to submit to Leopold’s extractive regime.” The museum re-branded in 2018 as part of a $73 million renovation.
In 2021, Belgium said it would transfer ownership of hundreds of objects from the DRC that were illegally added to the museum’s holdings, principally works from the collection of the Africa Museum. About one percent of its collection was obtained illegally, said the Belgian authorities at the time.
The museum found itself under harsh criticism in 2019, when people attending a party at the museum wore blackface and clichéd costumes including grass skirts, Artnet News reported, noting that the museum had recently undergone a modernization “that aimed to change its colonial image.” The museum issued an apology.
