How an American company tried to get hold of century-old colonial geological records
Between 1885 and 1960, the country which is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, was a colony – first as the personal fief of Leopold II, King of the Belgians. The horrific nature of Leopold’s personal rule – which killed millions – made it a cause celebre in nineteenth century Europe; in 1908, after an uproar, Congo was annexed by the Belgian state instead. The territory was prized for its natural resources: principally for its rubber plantations, and mineral wealth. The mapping of those resources was essential to the colonial project. In the twenty-first century, those dusty maps still have value: particularly once digitised and combed through by AI. Who should benefit?
A fascinating article from earlier this year in the Flemish language publication Apache (a version of the same article is available in the French language publication Actualite.cd) explores one chapter in the saga: the attempt of an American company to gain exclusive access to the archive of maps held at Belgium’s African Museum, often referred to by the name of the Brussels suburb where it is situated, Tervuren. Kobold Metals, with backers such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, had already signed an agreement with the Congolese government to gain access to government archives; the museum archives would be a crucial addition. (The Apache article cites these as including 25,000 maps and 160,000 rock samples). Congo has some of the world’s richest deposits of rare minerals critical for “green transition” technologies – and defence.
Kobold was turned down. But, as the article makes clear, the question of what should happen to the records has not gone away.
The archives have a winding history. A huge quantity were expatriated from Congo at independence in 1960 (“enough to fill nine kilometres of storage racks”, Apache notes). Some of these were the archives of a Belgian state-owned company. Not all ended up in the same place (or even in Belgium). But what connects all the documents is the conditions under which they were collected. A scientist quoted by Apache recalls that Europeans were always viewed as those who “discovered” valuable minerals. Indigenous knowledge which led to those “discoveries” was rendered invisible.
Far from being a neutral, objective observer of colonialism, the Africa Museum was itself a colonial institution, closely tied to commercial interests. This cooperation continued far beyond independence. Apache notes a project from the 1990s in collaboration with an advisory firm which, amongst other things, led to a CD-ROM being made of Congo’s mineral resources sold for over €1000 (US$1,100) each time. Until recently, the museum website advertised access at a cost of €300 (US$340) a day (with the museum offering additional research services for a supplementary fee) – far beyond the means of Congolese researchers, and potentially at odds with the museum’s public service mandate. The article states: “the day after Apache asked for comment, this service was taken off the museum’s website”.
What, then, should happen? The article cites the example of geological archives already restituted to Rwanda in the form of two 14 terabyte hard drives. “How is it”, one person interviewed by Apache says, “that 60 years after independence, this data is still owned by the museum rather than by Congo?”
Summarised by editor Charles Emmerson
| Charles’ take: Mining has always been about data and information as much as about shovels in the ground. Knowledge has always been power – or, in this case, wealth. In my mind the article highlights three things. First, the way in which digitisation of archives – often expensive and laborious, and which should in theory open up tremendous research possibilities – also comes up against the fact that companies have money, whereas museums and archives generally don’t. AI supercharges this. Second, the unfinished business of decolonisation – where there is still such an asymmetry in the way that information about empire is organised and stored. From an archival perspective, the imperial metropole very much remains. Third, the way in which scientific or academic knowledge can obscure commercial interests or even advance them. |
The original article ‘De Congo-archieven: tussen de grondstoffenrush en de vraag naar restitutie’, was first published in Flemish by Janvier Murairi, Quentin Noirfalisse, Jack Wolf for Apache on March 3, 2026.
Apache is an independent Flemish-language publication based in Belgium.
