Colonial Masters of Ceremony
The staging of the évolués in the Belgian Congo
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51185/journals/rhca.2025.varia1Keywords:
Congo, Ceremonies, Decolonization, Elite, PhotographsAbstract
This article focuses on the public awards ceremonies organized to celebrate those members of the Congolese elite who successfully applied for a new legal status (through the carte du mérite civique in 1948 and the immatriculation in 1952). It argues that the colonial state’s official publications and photographs of these ceremonies aimed to present the évolués as perfect inhabitants of the model colony characterized by the cooperation between the colonial administration and the Congolese elite. The article then shows how the gap between the colonial project to ensure the subordination of the elite in the social order and the Congolese urge for self-empowerment widened. The question of which conflicts inherent in the elite politics were masked and how they nevertheless emerged will be addressed by comparing propaganda with other sources such as administrative documents, articles and letters written by members of the Congolese elite, and photographic self-portraits.
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