A delegation of archivists from the National Archives of DR Congo (INACO) recently visited Brussels at the invitation and initiative of the DIGICOLJUST-2 project and of the State Archives of Belgium. This initiative, aimed at fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange in archival management and digital preservation, facilitated insightful discussions on best practices and strategies for sharing archival heritage related to the colonial past in Belgium and in Congo.





Led by its general director, Mr. Aimé Kasongo Mande, the delegation from the INACO was welcomed for several working sessions at the States Archives of Belgium under the lead and coordination of DIGICOLJUST-2’s postdoctoral collaborator Reinout Vander Hulst. Discussions took place with the various teams and projects’ collaborators working on the management of colonial archives of the AGR. The delegation also visited the Africa Museum in Tervuren and its archival collections. Last but not least, a significant part of the visit was dedicated to workshops and meetings with team’s members from the ULB and the VUB, as DIGICOLJUST-2 partners, so as to exchange on the challenges and prospects of our mutual collaboration on Brussels’ and Kinshasa’s archival collections related to the history of the Force Publique.




These discussions also aimed to prepare for the DIGICOLJUST-2 team’s upcoming mission to the INACO archives in December, thanks to the support of the British Library and its Endangered Archives Program (with a new project/funding led by Reinout Vander Hulst (AGR) and co-supervized with DIGICOLJUST-2 co-promotors Benoît Henriet (VUB), Amandine Lauro (ULB) and Marie Van Eeckenrode (AGR), more information to come). Our team is looking forward this next step of our partnership with INACO around the “shared” archival heritage of the Force Publique and its disciplinary archives.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Amandine Lauro (November 18, 2024). Visit of a delegation from INACO to Brussels. DIGICOLJUST. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/12pjj