We had breakfast with Adi this morning. He told us that “It is just such a wonderful day that I just had to get up and go for a bike ride.” We looked out and saw grey sky, but at least it wasn’t raining. We’re guessing that it is all a matter of relativity.
We had an interesting conversation about various aspects of the city and country. We found out that he comes from Israel and that he is not a dance instructor, but works in a Museum 19 hours per week. Evidently it is encouraged and supported for people to work short hours. It is also known and built into the taxation system that people hide 20% of their income in what is called ‘Black Money’.
Our objective today was the ‘Koninklijk Museum voorMidden-Afrika’ or in common language the Royal Museum for Central Africa. Whichever way you say it, it is still a mouthful. We made our way their via the number 44 tram, which is exactly how you imagine an old ‘street car’ to be, old, noisy, banging and squeaking it’s way up the inclines and shuddering to a halt at every stop. We made our way through the woodland of bare trees, fallen leaves and glimpses of buildings through the trees.
Our introduction to the museum was a series of life sized elephants that looked like they had been cobbled together out of old bits of worn scrap wood, and fallen branches, bolted together, and in fact, that is what they were. Very cool sculptures of elephants of various sizes, ages, and postures. They were set into the wide pebble pathway that passed between the palace-like structure on one side and the expanse of gardens, ponds and woods on the other.
To say this is a Palace, isn’t entirely accurate, as it was built by King Leopold II as a museum to house and display his spoils from his conquest into the Congo. Over more recent years there has been attention drawn to the slavery, abuse and atrocities that happened there under his rule, so perhaps it was the high point of his career that he would have liked people to believe, or that he presented to the public. It has been estimated that from 1885 to 1908 (when he was stripped of his playground) 10 million Africans died because of starvation, overwork, or murder carried out in Leopold’s quest for rubber, ivory and other commodities. Hmmm … he kept that one quiet didn’t he.
Amongst other things we came here to find out more about it. We walked through the revolving front door to be greeted by the receptionist selling tickets. We have learnt from previous experiences that you can’t always rely on there being English translations on the displays, or the audio-guides being in anyway informative, so we asked the appropriate questions of the receptionist. Her curt reply was, “I don’t know, I have never been through, I sit here.” What the …! She works in a museum, selling tickets to something she has never seen, and cannot recommend.
Having got through that, we entered the permanent exhibition halls. What greeted us was a 25m long dugout canoe (carved out of one piece of timber), and a large stuffed elephant. Much of what is presented in the first half of this museum is like a ‘dead zoo’ of African wildlife. It’s like the trophy room of a ‘Great White Hunter’. It is just a plethora of stuffed animals, large and small, including bugs, beetles, and snakes, “Lions, tigers, and bears … Oh my!” Birds of a size and proportions that we hadn’t imagined, elephant tusks of all sizes and shapes, with one pair weighing in at 80kg each.
We exited out of this and entered the section that we had come to see. The theme looked like it had been intended to show those times in a more positive light, however you can see that it has changed from the antiquated views on colonization that I am sure that it once expressed. There was quite a bit centred around Henry Morton Stanley, of “Doctor Livingston, I presume” fame. After all he was commissioned by King Leopold himself.
But the section of the museum that appealed to us the most was a temporary exhibition called ‘Omo’ which features the peoples from that region in Central Africa. It displayed their customs, their rituals, their wardrobe, their nomadic lifestyle, including their marriage ceremonies and the huge lip discs that they wear. All of this was backed up with some amazing photographic displays. It really was an incredible exhibition, and makes us want to go there (but not this year).
We left the museum and rattled home with another crowd of stern faced people that call Brussels home.
We had an interesting conversation about various aspects of the city and country. We found out that he comes from Israel and that he is not a dance instructor, but works in a Museum 19 hours per week. Evidently it is encouraged and supported for people to work short hours. It is also known and built into the taxation system that people hide 20% of their income in what is called ‘Black Money’.
Our objective today was the ‘Koninklijk Museum voorMidden-Afrika’ or in common language the Royal Museum for Central Africa. Whichever way you say it, it is still a mouthful. We made our way their via the number 44 tram, which is exactly how you imagine an old ‘street car’ to be, old, noisy, banging and squeaking it’s way up the inclines and shuddering to a halt at every stop. We made our way through the woodland of bare trees, fallen leaves and glimpses of buildings through the trees.
Our introduction to the museum was a series of life sized elephants that looked like they had been cobbled together out of old bits of worn scrap wood, and fallen branches, bolted together, and in fact, that is what they were. Very cool sculptures of elephants of various sizes, ages, and postures. They were set into the wide pebble pathway that passed between the palace-like structure on one side and the expanse of gardens, ponds and woods on the other.
To say this is a Palace, isn’t entirely accurate, as it was built by King Leopold II as a museum to house and display his spoils from his conquest into the Congo. Over more recent years there has been attention drawn to the slavery, abuse and atrocities that happened there under his rule, so perhaps it was the high point of his career that he would have liked people to believe, or that he presented to the public. It has been estimated that from 1885 to 1908 (when he was stripped of his playground) 10 million Africans died because of starvation, overwork, or murder carried out in Leopold’s quest for rubber, ivory and other commodities. Hmmm … he kept that one quiet didn’t he.
Amongst other things we came here to find out more about it. We walked through the revolving front door to be greeted by the receptionist selling tickets. We have learnt from previous experiences that you can’t always rely on there being English translations on the displays, or the audio-guides being in anyway informative, so we asked the appropriate questions of the receptionist. Her curt reply was, “I don’t know, I have never been through, I sit here.” What the …! She works in a museum, selling tickets to something she has never seen, and cannot recommend.
Having got through that, we entered the permanent exhibition halls. What greeted us was a 25m long dugout canoe (carved out of one piece of timber), and a large stuffed elephant. Much of what is presented in the first half of this museum is like a ‘dead zoo’ of African wildlife. It’s like the trophy room of a ‘Great White Hunter’. It is just a plethora of stuffed animals, large and small, including bugs, beetles, and snakes, “Lions, tigers, and bears … Oh my!” Birds of a size and proportions that we hadn’t imagined, elephant tusks of all sizes and shapes, with one pair weighing in at 80kg each.
We exited out of this and entered the section that we had come to see. The theme looked like it had been intended to show those times in a more positive light, however you can see that it has changed from the antiquated views on colonization that I am sure that it once expressed. There was quite a bit centred around Henry Morton Stanley, of “Doctor Livingston, I presume” fame. After all he was commissioned by King Leopold himself.
But the section of the museum that appealed to us the most was a temporary exhibition called ‘Omo’ which features the peoples from that region in Central Africa. It displayed their customs, their rituals, their wardrobe, their nomadic lifestyle, including their marriage ceremonies and the huge lip discs that they wear. All of this was backed up with some amazing photographic displays. It really was an incredible exhibition, and makes us want to go there (but not this year).
We left the museum and rattled home with another crowd of stern faced people that call Brussels home.
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