January 12, 2026
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At the beginning of January, political scientist and essayist Nadia Nsayi (re)launched the debate on the dysfunctions of the Africa Museum; or this museum creation desired – 127 years ago – by Leopold II in order to glorify Belgian colonialism. Denouncing a “lack of innovation” and a “glass ceiling” for Afro-descendant experts, Nsayi weighed in on her possible resignation from the museum where she has worked since 2021. Remember that in Belgium, while we there is a lot of excitement around the “de-colonial” theories, the majority of Afro-descendant citizens see no real improvement in their living conditions which are likely to be weighed down by racism and discrimination… After 12 years of publicity, does the Leopoldian Museum stand today as a de-colonial and egalitarian example? No, the institution remains this place subject to a paternalistic and negrophobic vision. Interview with the initiator of a Belgian and European social debate.
Finkape Roots: You have managed to impose a debate on the dysfunctions of the Africamuseum, including the lack of innovation and respect for Afro-descendant expertise. Where are we two weeks after your column in the press? Do you feel like you have been heard by the museum management and the Belgian political world?
Nadia Nsayi: I would first like to emphasize that I do not regret having written this column [De Morgen, January 5, 2025]. Since then, I have received a lot of support and thanks. It makes me feel good to see that a large number of people support my position and the denunciations are shared.
Following the debate sparked, I had an interview with Bart Ouvry, the director of the Africa Museum. Unlike the public, they did not discover my criticisms which I had already shared with them, internally, in 2024. This new interview was not easy but, let’s say, quite constructive. A second meeting should take place soon…
Finally, I have not had any contact with political representatives or party presidents. I simply noted the reaction of Groen [Flemish environmentalist party] which I interpret as support for the content of my column. I suppose that there will also be, in the days or weeks to come, questions from Parliamentarians on this debate concerning the functioning and future of the federal museum. So, was I heard? I think it’s too early to tell. At this stage, what interests me are the initiatives taken showing that a will exists to address and resolve the problems identified in my column.
Finkape Roots: You point out “the absence of structural space for experts from the African community” within the Africamuseum. But for some, your commitment (in 2021) shows on the contrary an openness of this institution to Belgian-African expertise… Can you develop examples according to which the Africamuseum is not ready to give black people positions of power”?
Nadia Nsayi: The Africamuseum has around 200 employees. Without covering security guarding or maintenance services, my remarks are limited to the staff of the public service and the scientific department. In this part: there are not many Afro-descendant employees. And the fact that a person of Afro-descendant was hired there should not make one optimistic! I remind you that the Tervuren Museum is 127 years old; that the African presence in Belgium really began after the independence – more than 60 years ago – of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Consequently, there have been Afro-descendant experts in Belgium for a very long time: I am therefore not going to be satisfied with the current situation!
Second, the recruitment of people of Afro-descendants does not automatically mean defense of the position of Afro-descendants or the participation of external experts of Afro-descendants. Third thing, we must also observe the function of the Afro-descendants hired by the museum: there are very few of these people who are department heads. At the scientific center level, there is a person of Afro-descendant who holds a position of responsibility; in terms of services to the public, I don’t see any people of African origin.
Finally, as written in my column, I refer you to recruitment carried out in 2024. At the end of the procedure, the jury had to choose between two candidates, one of whom is of Afro-descendant. However, I know this person well who has a certain notoriety, undoubted expertise as well as a good profile. But she was not hired. I emphasize that it is not at all a question of greater skills in one case than in the other. So I asked questions internally, tried to see more clearly in this recruitment. Without success so far… I still don’t understand why this Afro-descendant expert was excluded? Even if, as is often the case, it was a slightly more militant profile. Is this what led the museum not to hire him? It’s very likely.
Finkape Roots: According to my experience as a Belgian journalist of Afro-descendant, your sentence (“The institution is not ready to give black people positions of power”) runs through all Belgian institutions. Political parties, media, cultural sector, education or judiciary: all are calling for “diversity” of their workforce as long as behind the scenes there persists a “glass ceiling” excluding competent and non-white people from decision-making positions… Estimate denounce, more broadly, a social problem, a colonial continuum, a structural racism, that our various leaders strive to deny, relativize or “commission”?
Nadia Nsayi: Because the Africamuseum belongs to Belgian society, it is logical that several problems of this society are found there. I want to talk about the underrepresentation of people of Afro-descendants, the problems of discrimination, racism, socio-economic downgrading, etc. All this also has repercussions at the museum! This institution is not an “island” but is fully part of Belgian society and remains the bearer of a colonial and racist heritage.
I am not the only one to point this out: the former director of the Africamuseum, Guido Gryseels, has often stated: “For more than a century, the Tervuren museum disseminated colonial and racist propaganda” . It is obvious that this past still has an impact on the functioning of the museum…
Yes, my article focuses on the Africamuseum but I invite everyone to read it in the Belgian and European contexts. On our continent, particularly in countries with a colonial past, we know that the situation of Afro-descendants is bad because of the persistence of problems of racism and discrimination.
Finkape Roots: Your call for “broad debate” has been the subject of significant coverage in the Flemish press (several articles and opinions in De Morgen, De Standaard, VRT, Bruzz, etc.) which contrasts with the “union minimum » from the French-speaking press (1 article and 1 opinion in Le Soir; 1 brief in La Libre)… How do you analyze this difference? Does respect for the decolonial and Afro-descendant expertise exist more in the North than in the South of the flat country?
Nadia Nsayi: I also note that this debate is much more present in the Flemish press than in the French-speaking press. I want to propose two hypotheses of explanation for this contrast.
First of all, I am a Dutch-speaking Afro-descendant woman whose commitment is focused on decolonialism in Flanders and whose column was published by a Flemish daily [De Morgen]; then, the director of the Africamuseum, Bart Ouvry, is also Flemish. In other words: in the eyes of the Dutch-speaking media, the two main protagonists of the “subject” are linked to Flanders and identified as such. Which may explain the quicker and greater repercussion of the debate on their part.
Then, on the decolonial side, there has always been a difference in treatment between the [Dutch-speaking] north and the [French-speaking] south of Belgium. If Afro-descendant civil society is much more active on the French-speaking side than on the Dutch-speaking side, we observe that in Flanders, Afro-descendant activists and opinion makers are much more publicized and interviewed by the Flemish media.
That’s interesting… and I don’t know what’s causing that? This is all the more strange as the Flemish political context is not conducive to this media interest. The two majority Flemish parties – which together received more than 40% of the vote in the last elections – are nationalist right [NV-A: 23.3%] and far-right [Vlaamse Belang: 17.5%]. It is in this very conservative context that most Flemish media continue to write articles, produce reports and relay various debates concerning decolonial and/or Afro-descendant citizens.
We cannot say the same about the French-speaking media… Is the problem with the editorial staff who refuse to cover/publicize this subject? I don’t know, I don’t know enough about the situation of the French-speaking media. However, I believe that when French-speaking political figures speak out on these decolonial issues then the French-speaking media will take action…
Finkape Roots: Your column came out against the backdrop of Belgian negotiations for the formation of the federal government. Many observers fear that negotiators will reduce subsidies to federal institutions, including those of the Africamuseum. Does your appeal risk weakening the financial situation of the museum?
Nadia Nsayi: No. For those who followed the federal negotiations closely, several months ago a “leak” reported a desire for savings targeting several institutions including the Africamuseum. Consequently, it is not the exit from my platform which “endangers” the future of the Africamuseum, as some of my detractors try to believe. That said, there is of course no coincidence in sending my column at the time of the resumption of negotiations to form a new Belgian government.
Seven years after the reopening of the museum [closed from 2013 to 2018 for renovation of the building and, supposedly, the realization of a “decolonial” approach], I remain convinced of the importance of the role of the Africamuseum. I am not pleading for the disappearance of a museum on colonization but for a strong institution, a strong museum, working on the colonial past and its contemporary effects on our society. Let’s not be naive: if the next Belgian government is indeed an “Arizona coalition” [coalition of the populist and conservative right], there will be a financial reform concerning the Africamuseum… So that was the momentum to have this debate and try to raise awareness among the negotiating parties.
Finkape Roots: Do you think that a museum on Belgian colonialism (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi) could one day exist in a country where the Authorities, like many citizens, refuse to confront, in depth, the crimes and spoliations perpetrated under the Belgian slavery and colonialism (1885-1960)?
Nadia Nsayi: Being based in Flanders and not in Brussels or French-speaking Belgium, I have a different reading. Despite the political dominance of the NV-A and Vlaams Belang, right-wing and far-right parties, I have noticed, for several years, a great interest in the Belgian colonial past; whether from the Flemish media or the Flemish political class.
In Antwerp – a city of which Bart De Wever [president of the NV-A] is mayor – there have been several initiatives in a decolonial direction and which have been politically supported.
This is the case of the “100XCongo” exhibition focusing on the so-called ethnographic collection of the MAS [Musee Aan de Strom: “Museum along the river”] in Antwerp or the curator’s “Congoville” exhibition. Afro-descendant Sandrine Colard. Just before the municipal elections, in August 2024, Bart De Wever took the initiative to work on a commemoration of the Congolese who died during the 1894 Universal Exhibition in Antwerp. There was also the Canon van Vlanderen initiative in which the figure and career of Paul Panda Farnana was highlighted.
In summary, even if we can find fault with it, the Flemish regional government recognizes that colonial history is part of the history of Belgium and even that of Flanders.
Finally, on the national level, we must not forget the federal parliamentary commission on the Belgian colonial past. Even if this commission [started during the summer of 2020 and completed in January 2024] did not conclude with the adoption of an official apology, its work has the merit of existing. Which shows real progress since the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brussels [June 7, 2020] and this, despite normal resistance coming from lobbies opposed to addressing all the questions posed by the Belgian colonial heritage.
Finkape Roots: What are the three essential advances that would make you give up on resigning; who would persuade you that the Tervuren Museum is moving, finally and resolutely, towards a decolonial operation?
Nadia Nsayi: If I decide not to resign this year, it is on the condition of prospects for improvement. Otherwise, there’s no point in staying! I defend and remain convinced that the museum has a social responsibility. For my part, I took my responsibilities by inviting dialogue and participating in the first and second interviews with the director of the Africamuseum.
The first step forward would be to organize a new debate on the vision and missions of the museum; internally and with the public. The second thing is to finally recruit a department head for the “public service” department; the latter is made up of around thirty people and there has been no department head for three years… It is urgent to launch a job offer to fill this role.
Third: take, in the very short term, initiatives to show the museum’s real commitment to the involvement of Afro-descendant experts in its operation. This can be done at the level of communication, educational activities, permanent exhibition or even temporary exhibitions… There are several initiatives, which can be taken directly, to recognize the expertise of Afro-descendants and give credibility to this desire. to involve them in the daily work of the museum.
Comments collected by Olivier Mukuna
© Finkape Roots
Graduated with a Master’s degree in Journalism and Communication from the Free University of Brussels (1997), Journalist and Essayist Olivier Mukuna has worked for around fifteen Belgian, French and Luxembourg media and signed several audiovisual productions. He specializes in themes linked to systemic racism, decolonial issues and the socio-political news of Afro-descendant citizens in Europe.