The Musée Africain de Namur also contains an imposing library with more than 20.000 books and periodicals concerning Central Africa and more particularly the former Belgian Congo.

It was originally conceived (in 1895) to inform, in a very general sense, people involved in the administration of the colony of Belgian Congo and the Territories under mandate of Ruanda-Urundi.

From the beginning of the Belgian venture in Africa, the administration of the colonised territories had a global character, almost encyclopaedic. Few domains escaped scrutiny. Emphasis was however placed on practical aspects: a minimum of « pure sciences », a maximum of « applied sciences ».

An important amount of space is dedicated to religions and to religious missions there. Stories of the daily life of the missionaries who, among the first, travelled far and wide, clearing the way and evangelising deepest Africa are to be found here.

Further, it is the important mass of the works dealing with the administration of the colony and colonial politics, its edification, its evolution, its problems. It is to be noted that the need was felt to compare what was done in the matter of colonial administration in the Congo with the experiences gathered in the other colonies and African countries. This had the happy result to lead to the inclusion in the collections of so many additional publications, covering French, British, German, Portuguese, Spanish colonies, not only works written in French but also in the language of the countries in question.

As many as six hundred works deal with applied sciences, mainly geology, medicine, communication routes and exploitation of all mineral and vegetal resources.

And now to the Arts who are but little represented in the library. Not that the colonials were not sensitive to Fine Arts. They were simply not part of the priorities ...

Many novels dubbed « colonial » are also part of the collections. They are an edifying source for the mentality at the time of their publication.

The historical and geographical part of the collection is probably the one most consulted. It stitches together in detail the captivating history of the exploration and the exploitation of this immense territory entrusted to Belgium, but also that of other African countries.

Finally, events of contemporary history are not forgotten. The library tries to acquire the main works relating to the events which, for five decades have taken place in central Africa.

The library is accessible on Tuesdays and Thursdays from14:00 to 17:00.

Publications can all be consulted on the premises and most can be borrowed for the sum of 0,25 eurocents per week, but always for a limited time (in principle, 15 days).