Archives Africaines (Belgium) Explained

The Archives Africaines of the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs in Brussels contains records related to colonial Congo Free State, Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, 1885-1962.^[1] The archives was transferred in 1960 to the Ministère belge des Affaires étrangères. In 2015 the archives went to the Belgian State Archives, an arrangement expected to continue until 2018.^[2] The Archives Africaines includes "the archives of the former Ministry for Colonies (5 km), the archives of the Governor-General of the Congo (4.5 km), and the files on former colonial personnel (1.4 km)."

Archives

Records prior to 1906 remain scarce. "As early as 1888 Leopold II created an archival service for his Congo Free State that operated as part of the Departement de l'Interieur at Brussels. The king established the archives as his personal property, however; and in 1906 the major part of the administrative records of the Congo Free State were systematically destroyed."^[3]

As of 2015 the extant records are organized by originating office ("fonds").

Fonds Ministère des Colonies

The following is a list of groups of records within the larger set of records from the Ministère des Colonies.

• 3e DG - Travaux Publics
• Actes officiels
• Affaires Étrangères
• Affaires Indigènes et Main-d'OEuvre
• Agriculture
• Bibliothèque
• Bien-Être Indigène
• Brevets
• Cadastre
• Service cartographique (maps)
• Colonat
• Colonisation et Crédit au colonat
• Cabinets ministériels
• Conseil Colonial
• Conseil Supérieur
• Contrôle financier
• Direction Générale des Services Administratifs
• Distinctions honorifiques
• Douanes
• École coloniale
• Enseignement
• Finances
• Force Publique (militarized police)
• Hygiène
• Institut Royal Colonial Belge
• Impôts des Sociétés
• Inspecteur Général du Service Juridique
• Jardin Colonial
• Justice
• Justice - Successions
• Justice - Kimbanguisme
• Mines
• Missions
• Office des Cités Africaines
• Office Colonial
• Personnalités civiles
• Plan décennal
• Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones
• Presse
• Rapports Annuels du Congo belge
• Rapports Annuels du Rwanda-Urundi
• Régime foncier
• Service social
• Statuts des sociétés administratives
• Sûreté
• Terres
  • Privés

Fonds Gouvernement Général de Léopoldville

These records arrived in Belgium in 1960. The following is a list of groups of records within the larger set of records from the Gouvernement Général de Léopoldville.

• Gouvernement Général de Léopoldville
• Association des Fonctionnaires et des Agents coloniaux (association of colonial officials)
• Affaires Indigènes et Main-d'OEuvre (indigenous affairs and labour)
• Bulletins d'Inscription
• Cabinet du Gouverneur Général (office of the governor general)
• Enseignement et Travail (labour training)
• Gouvernement Général de Léopoldville - Justice
• Missions et Enseignement
• Mobilisation Civile
• Service du Personnel d'Afrique
• Service du Personnel Indigène
• Successions
• Sûreté (security)

Fonds Ruanda-Urundi

The records in this group arrived in Belgium in 1961.

• Ruanda-Urundi
• Ruanda
• Burundi

Staff

Archivists of the Archives Africaines have included Claudine Dekais (circa 1996). Madeleine van Grieken-Taverniers was archivist of the Ministere des Colonies, circa 1955-1958.

See also

• Minister of the Colonies (Belgium)
• Bibliothèque Africaine, part of the Bibliothèque des Affaires Etrangères, overseen by FPS Foreign Affairs
• Belgian National Archives 2 - Joseph Cuvelier repository, which includes material related to Belgian Congo, etc.
• Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa, which includes archives

References

This article incorporates information from the Dutch Wikipedia and French Wikipedia.

Bibliography

in English

• Africanist Archival Research in Brussels . Carol Dickerman . David Northrup . . 9 . 3171618 . 1982. 359–365 . 10.2307/3171618 . 161432913 . .
• Guide to African Archives in Belgium . Hugues Legros . Curtis A. Keim . History in Africa . 23 . 3171951 . 1996. 401–409 . 10.2307/3171951 . 153497192 . .
• Reviving the Remains of Colonization: The Belgian Colonial Archives in Brussels . Bérengère Piret . 10.1017/hia.2015.1 . History in Africa . 42. 2015 . 419–431 . 159891525 . .

in other languages

• E. T. Neven . De Archiefdienst in Belgisch-Kongo . nl . Archives, Bibliothèques et Musées de Belgique . 2052930 . 21 . 2 . 1950. (part 2 in v.22, no.1, 1951)
  • (Includes bibliography)
• https://books.google.com/books?id=_uusaSfMLfoC&pg=PA365
• Bogumil Jewsiewicki . Les archives administratives zaïroises de l'époque coloniale . . 1 . 1 . fr . 25836252 . 1980. 169–184 .
  • Christine Deslaurier . La documentation africaine à Bruxelles. Les fonds du ministère belge des Affaires étrangères (Burundi, Congo, Rwanda) . . 1 . . fr . 2003 . .

External links

• Web site: SPF. Affaires étrangères - Archives africaines . AACfwb: Archives d'Architecture XIXe - XXe en Communauté française Wallonie - Bruxelles . . fr .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Archives africaines . fr . 22 August 2017 . Kingdom of Belgium . Affaires étrangères, Commerce extérieur et Coopération au développement .
2. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20171011115314/http://www.arch.be/index.php?l=en&m=news&r=all-news&a=2014-12-11-as-from-2015-the-fps-foreign-affairs-transfers-the-so-called-africa-archives-to-the-state-archives . 11 October 2017 . dead . As from 2015 the FPS Foreign Affairs transfers the so-called 'Africa Archives' to the State Archives . 11 December 2014 . .
3. Book: Peter Duignan. L. H. Gann. Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960 . 5: A Bibliographic Guide to Colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa. 1973. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-07859-7 . 42 . Libraries and Archives: Belgium.