. | ||||||||
CÆ | ||||||||
| Home | Publications | Themes | Archives | Chronicles | Colonial schoolbooks | Tempels | Photos | Contact | | français | |||||||
home | ||||||||
The Centre Æquatoria is a research center, library, and collection of archives, annex
guesthouse, specialized in the languages, cultures, and the (pre-colonial and colonial)
history of sub-Saharan Africa, with special emphasis on the peoples of the central Congo
basin. It also produces a yearly africanist periodical, called 'Annales Æquatoria'. It is
located on the premises of the Catholic mission station of the Missionaries of the Sacred
Heart (Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur, MSC) at Bamanya, a village some 10 kms out of Mbandaka,
the capital city of the Equateur Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The current staff of the Centre Æquatoria consists of:
The last scientific editorial board of the discontinued journal Annales Æquatoria consisted of:
The history of the Centre Æquatoria began, strictly speaking, at its foundation in
1979-1980, but its origins date back to 1937. In that year, Fathers
Edmond Boelaert
(1899-1966) and Gustaaf Hulstaert
(1900-1990), two Belgian MSC missionaries, founded the africanist periodical 'Æquatoria',
which put emphasis on the linguistic, cultural, and historical particularities of the Mongo
peoples of the central Congo basin, as well as on those of neighboring populations. Social
consequences entailed by the imposition of colonial rule, jurisdiction, and education, and by
the introduction of Christianity, also figured among 'Æquatoria''s main topics of discussion.
The periodical 'Æquatoria' was ceased in 1962, but in 1979-1980 Fathers André Claessens and
Honoré Vinck (both MSC) revived it under the new name 'Annales Æquatoria'. In that context,
they brought together all the documentation, papers, library items, maps, and other materials
the founding fathers had accumulated during 50 years, and reorganized them. Since 1987, this
cultural and scientific patrimony has been sheltered in a new, publicly accessible location,
the Centre Æquatoria. |
||||||||
. | ||||||||