BOMA.- On the banks of the Congo River, in the port city of Boma – the first capital of the Congo Free State and later of the Belgian Congo – a new open-air exhibition presents, for the very first time, historical photographs of Boma in the very place where they were taken more than a century ago.

This is the first major collaborative achievement of the BOMACAPITALE project, a scientific partnership between the Université Président Kasa-Vubu (UKV, Boma), the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) and the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA, Tervuren), supported by Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD).

Installed in the public park opposite Boma’s City Hall, Boma la première – Histoires méconnues d’une capitale éternelle brings together more than seventy photographs dating from the 1880s to the 1930s, drawn from the archives of the RMCA and KADOC (Leuven).

The exhibition traces the profound transformation of Boma, from a cluster of riverside villages into a political, administrative and economic centre. Although this process was largely steered from Europe, the photographs also reveal the active roles played by the inhabitants of Boma and of the nearby Mayombe region.

“Shared heritage’ makes sense only through the act of sharing.”

The images invite viewers to look attentively: colonial photography is never neutral. Subjects, moments and compositions were mostly chosen by European photographers, yet a critical eye reveals traces of a living local past. In this sense, the exhibition stages what some have called “shared heritage”.

On this point, Hein Vanhee, the project’s coordinator for the RMCA, notes: “As with the very notion of ‘heritage’, its ‘shared’ nature can only emerge through a process. Here, that process begins with the visual restitution of these historical photographs to Boma, and continues through the critical and collective interpretations proposed by its residents.”

The exhibition invites visitors to question the images: what they show, and what they leave unsaid. Physical violence rarely appears; structural violence, however, is clearly visible – control of mobility, constant surveillance, racial hierarchies, segregation in education, healthcare and many other aspects of daily life.

A key feature of the project is that it was produced entirely locally. Nothing was imported: the wooden display structures were built by Boma’s craftsmen, the large-format prints were produced in a local print shop, and fifteen guides trained at UKV provide mediation in French and Kikongo. Researchers, students, technicians, cultural associations and residents contributed at every stage, rooting the exhibition deeply in its community.

This achievement marks the beginning of a broader trajectory. In 2026, BOMACAPITALE will launch a citizen science programme inviting the people of Boma to enrich the restituted photographic archives: identifying locations, sharing family histories, offering collective interpretations. This work will strengthen the links between visual heritage, local memory and academic research.