Congo Great Lakes Initiative / September 2014-September 2015

Written by Carys Wilkins, MA Material and Visual Culture, UCL Anthropology



Working with the Congo Great Lakes Initiative community group, UCL Anthropology is partnered with the Horniman Museum, with funding provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund.


In the UK, there is a wealth of collections from the Democratic Republic of Congo held in museums. However, very often these collections remain largely unknown and underutilised by the Congolese community living here, owing to a lack of access or information. Often these collections reside in museum stores rather than on display, or the information relating to them is inaccurate or incomplete, making them even less accessible to members of the community. A further issue concerns a perceived lack of interest amongst young British of Congolese origin in their heritage, and what these collections could mean for them. Therefore, a central aim of the project is to encourage and strengthen greater intergenerational interest and engagement with aspects of their heritage amongst the participating group members and the wider Congolese community living in the UK.

Through a programme of workshops and volunteer training, the project aims to establish a framework through which to bring together and engage academic institutions, community leaders and the public with these collections, and to reassess and enhance them in the process. The workshops are intended to promote the co-production of knowledge between the partner groups as well as an exchange of knowledge and expertise. It is hoped that the project will enrich knowledge about Congolese objects in UCL’s collections, achieved through the transmission of knowledge from the community to the collection, and in return provide the community with training and collections-based expertise from cultural heritage and anthropology specialists. The aim is to develop an interactive digital platform which brings together the information gathered about the collections during the project in order to open up them up to both researchers and the public. The creation of a digital resource would invite community engagement through a single portal, which would allow users to develop online exhibitions as well as be a resource for traditional exhibitions to engage the public.



Members of Great Lakes initiative during first session at UCL

Athough the collections of Congolese objects are highly valued as a teaching resource at UCL, many of them cannot be put on public display as there is insufficient– or worse still– inaccurate information relating to them. Many of the objects in the UCL collection relate to Congolese currency, signs of power, religious and mystic artefacts and it is important that we improve our knowledge of these objects and fill in the current gaps. By reinterpreting and re-evaluating the knowledge and information related to our collections, it will not only be of benefit to the partners in the project but also the wider public. Focus is being given to objects in the collection dating from May 1885 when Congo became the Congo Free State, to June 1960 when Congo gained independence. During this period, missionaries, explorers and researchers brought objects from the Congo which form the basis of many UK-based collections, although frequently there was a lack of accurate or complete information accompanying the objects.