The return of a colonial-era statue to Congo is fueling environmental revival

LUSANGA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – Joyful singing and cheering echoed around the hills surrounding a small village in western Democratic Republic of Congo as a procession emerged from an underground cave carrying an antique wooden figure of a Belgian colonial officer.

The ‘Balot’ statue was made in the area in the 1930s, when Congo was under Belgium’s brutal colonial rule.

An artist collective led a long-running campaign for the return of an American museum as part of a project to reclaim lost heritage and restore depleted forests.

“It’s symbolic,” said Joel Kashama, a resident of Lusanga, where colonial-era plantation agriculture reduced once-dense rainforests to sparse areas.

The sculpture, which depicts a colonial administrator who was killed during a workers’ uprising on the plantation in 1931, is now considered a symbol of colonial resistance.

It is back in Lusanga for a six-month exhibition after more than 50 years at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The homecoming coincides with growing global pressure on Western institutions to repatriate colonial-era artifacts.

The proceeds are the culmination of years of activism by the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League (CATPC), a collective of Lusanga-based artists who use proceeds from their art, including the sale of digital images of the Balot statue, to fund reforestation projects around Lusanga to fund.

“Everywhere you looked there were huge forests, and when the white man came they cut down all the wood to use it,” says artist and CATPC member Alphonse Bukumba. “We wouldn’t be living like this if we hadn’t seen the world burn.”

CATPC’s efforts have already reforested 230 hectares around Lusanga, with ambitions to expand to 2,500 hectares to create a carbon sink, restore biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change.

According to the World Bank, Congo is among the world’s countries most vulnerable to climate disasters, with a population of 95.3 million people and a poverty rate of 62.3% in 2022.

The collective will exhibit their work at the 60th annual Venice Biennale in November, hoping to inspire global action on climate change and advocate for the recognition of African artists in environmental sustainability.