Aims and objectives
Kept at the Institut National des Archives du Congo (INACO) in Kinshasa are extensive collections of career files of individual African soldiers in the Force Publique, the armed forces of colonial Congo between 1885 and 1960. EAP1613 will document and survey this unexplored and essential part of the shared archival heritage of Belgium and Congo. By assessing the condition, scope and content of these personnel files, EAP1613 seeks to elucidate the connections among various archival collections of the Force Publique. This Pilot project will examine how the personnel files in INACO relate to the collections of the colonial military courts kept at the Belgian state archives in Brussels. The resulting survey will contribute to the ongoing research on colonial violence, the role of Congolese intermediaries and the social history of the Force Publique during Congo's colonial period.
