Recaptioning Congo places the colonial Congo’s photography history in new perspectives. Six writers and everyday Congolese urban voices take an African-centered look at imperial archival images and provide them with creative, contemporary and/or literary ‘captions’. The book, linked to an exhibition in the photography museum FOMU Antwerp, is based upon the extensive research of the photographic history of colonial Congo (1885 – 1960), conducted by Dr. Sandrine Colard. It contains a wealth of revealing images that highlight the relationship between past and present, Africa and Europe and Belgium and Congo.

Recaptioning Congo presents images from Congo’s long and turbulent history as a colonised country, showing also the contrasting perspectives of African and European photographers: they are revealing, at times disturbing, and shed light on the relationships between past and present, Africa and Europe, Belgium and Congo.

With works ranging from propaganda to amateur and studio photography, Recaptioning Congo is a chronological journey through the various media, historical events and communities that shaped the development of photography in colonial Congo.