Royal Museum for Central Africa

The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA (Dutch: Koninklijk Museum voor Centraal -Afrika or KMMA; French: Musée royal de l’Afrique central or MRAC), also colloquially known as the Africa Museum, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside of Brussels. It was first built to showcase King Leopold II’s Congo Free State for the 1897 World Exhibition.It focuses on the Congo, a former Belgian colony. The sphere of interest however (especially in biological research) extends to the whole Congo River basin, Middle Africa, East Africa and West Africa, but tries to integrate Africa as a whole. Intended originally as a colonial museum, from 1960 it became more focused on ethnography and anthropology. Like in most museums, there is a research and public exhibit department.Not all research is pertaining to Africa, for example the research on the archaeozoology of Sagalassos, Turkey. Some researchers have strong ties with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.As of November 2013, the Museum is closed for renovation work (including the construction of new exhibition space) which is expected to last until May 2016 when the museum will reopen.

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