A Lens Into the Belgian Congo (Photography Exhibit/Brussels)
When Dr. Emile Muller returned to Belgium in 1938 after working for 15 years in the Congo, he didn't say much to his family about his time there. But he brought home a suitcase of nearly 3,000 photos. These black-and-white images -- 400 of which were painstakingly restored and 150 of which are now on display in the Ambre Congo gallery here -- offer a passport to daily life in the Belgian Congo of that era.
When Dr. Muller arrived in 1923, Belgium had been in the Congo for nearly 50 years. This unusual colonial relationship began with Sir Henry Morton Stanley's famous expedition in the 1870s, which set the stage for the Congo Free State, the personal possession of King Leopold II from 1885 to 1908. Leopold used forced labor to make the Congo one of the most profitable colonies in Africa and him one of the wealthiest men in the world. But outrage at the abuses in his domain spawned what later became the human-rights movement. Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and other critical accounts of exploitation forced the Belgian parliament to intervene in 1908 and take control of the king's personal fiefdom. Dr. Muller lived in the new Belgian Congo, working as a physician for the Belgian mining company, Société Internationale Forestière et Minière (Forminiere).
Whatever the reason for his silence when he returned in 1938, the doctor was not alone. Belgium stayed quiet about the way minerals and rubber continued to be extracted from the colony. So the Congo that Dr. Muller saw in the villages around Kusai, near the Angolan border, and depicted in these pictures, was unknown to all but a few at the time.
It took 70 years, two art dealers and modern technology to un-dim Dr. Muller's memories and bring them to our attention.
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When Dr. Muller arrived in 1923, Belgium had been in the Congo for nearly 50 years. This unusual colonial relationship began with Sir Henry Morton Stanley's famous expedition in the 1870s, which set the stage for the Congo Free State, the personal possession of King Leopold II from 1885 to 1908. Leopold used forced labor to make the Congo one of the most profitable colonies in Africa and him one of the wealthiest men in the world. But outrage at the abuses in his domain spawned what later became the human-rights movement. Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and other critical accounts of exploitation forced the Belgian parliament to intervene in 1908 and take control of the king's personal fiefdom. Dr. Muller lived in the new Belgian Congo, working as a physician for the Belgian mining company, Société Internationale Forestière et Minière (Forminiere).
Whatever the reason for his silence when he returned in 1938, the doctor was not alone. Belgium stayed quiet about the way minerals and rubber continued to be extracted from the colony. So the Congo that Dr. Muller saw in the villages around Kusai, near the Angolan border, and depicted in these pictures, was unknown to all but a few at the time.
It took 70 years, two art dealers and modern technology to un-dim Dr. Muller's memories and bring them to our attention.