It is difficult to provide a correct overview of the state of the museum documentation of a region in Africa. To do so, one would need precise up-to-date information, or carry out studies and draw up reports for each country before arriving at conclusions which could form the basis for propositions or a projected plan of action. As we do not have these means at our disposal however, we can only put forward some general considerations accompanied by a number of suggestions. This working document draws on our experience as a field anthropologist and as a museum professional - at the MRAC in Tervuren and at the MNR (formerly the INRS and the IRSAC), as a teacher in museology and museum management and as an active member of the ICOM, particularly in the framework of staff training.

The development of museums, both in the way they are conceived and the way that their collections grow, as well as in the way their various services are devised and extended, is fundamentally marked by the roots and history of the museums concerned. In Rwanda, as in several other African countries, museums remain under the influence of their position when they were once under the trustership's administration (or colonial authority in some other cases). In order to understand the present situation, it is advisable to have certain indications of how things used to be in former years. Here we will limit ourselves to museums of human science.

Public museums for the human sciences (or ethnographic museums) in Rwanda, as well as in Burundi, trace their origins back to the Institute for Scientific Research in Central Africa (IRSAC), which was founded in Belgium in 1947 under the auspices of the Ministry for the Colonies. The institute was founded to promote basic scientific research in a number of domains in the Belgian Congo as well as in Ruanda-Urundi, territories which were then under the mandate of the United Nations. Several centres for research were quickly set up: the main centre, the head office of general administration and the centre for physical research at Lwiro (to the north of Bukavu) in 1950. A number of regional centres were also founded, each with a particular purpose: the centre for hydro-biology at Uvira near lake Tanganika (1948-49), the centre for botany at Mabali (near lake Tumba) and the centre for medicine at Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi). Even though Lwiro and Uvira (in Zaire but very near Bujumbura) were close, only one centre was established in Rwanda-Urundi: the Astrida Centre (now Butare) which grouped research being carried out in both territories and also served as the head office of research into the human sciences. A number of researchers in the human sciences undertook research in these three countries into linguistics, social anthropology, physical anthropology, pre-history, ethno-musicology and ethno-history.

The constitution of ethnographic and prehistoric collections was begun on a voluntary basis, as an accessory to scientific work; an exhibition are held on the occasion of a royal visit; the research being carried out was explained by means of texts, diagrams and photographs and objects made by local craftsmen were put on display. Then these occasional exhibitis became permanent. The one in Butare became the "Museum of the Land of Ruanda"; at Gitega in Burundi, a permanent exhibition was set up and called "the Museum of the Land of Urundi". Both were under the ministry of the IRSAC in Butare where the apparatus of documentation, the stores and the senior staff were housed.
The two collections form part of the same whole and the catalogue card is the same for both (see Annex I), the filing system being both a scientific catalogue and an administrative inventory - there is no separate register for the inventory. The only distinction between the two countries is the source of their objects and their numbering system.

The collection stagnated for a few years following the end of the first period which was initiated by the departure of the founders in 1958-59. Activities came to halt and the museums were barely maintained.
Up until then, the two museums never figured in the IRSAC's research programmes and no account was given of their development in the institute's official annual reports (11 reports from 1948 till 1958). The beginnings of the museum were intelligently conceived but its situation as mentioned above explains why they were also timorous and why the means put into action and the staff made available were so limited.

From 1964 onwards, one researcher undertook studies - which were carried out intermittently - of the decorated basketwork and on aesthetics in former Ruanda. The collection at the "Museum of Ruanda" was very poor in wickerwork objects. Though the earlier basketwork in Rwanda had been very delicate and refined, it had to a large extent disappeared for various reasons. The researcher began simultaneously to study and collect information and to develop the collection at the museum.
He proceeded as follows:
1. He sought and began working with women who were reputed to have been highly-skilled basket weavers in their day. While they were providing him with information, he persuaded some of them to take up basket weaving again and to make traditional objects of the best quality. A small workshop was set up at the museum for making objects which, either because of their type or because of their ornamental motifs, were missing from the collection and therefore were assumed to be no longer findable.
2. Attached to the museum - which had remained open despite the vicissitudes - there was a small shop which sold scientific works published by the institute as well as some Rwandan handicrafts both new and used. Because it had few books and handicrafts, it ran at a loss however. From 1964-65 onwards it was reorganised: the keeping of a register of objects which were bought and sold became compulsory; the objects were numbered (the n=A1 entered into the register corresponded to its place in the series of purchases). A small profit was included where possible between the purchase price and the sales price. From then on, acquisitions for the permanent collection were paid for by the profits made in the shop.

Items were collected from a number of sources:

• rare missions to different regions of the country; they combined research work aided by informants with the collecting of objects;
• the acquisition of objects brought to the museum by artisans, travelling salesmen or by people wishing to sell some personal belongings;
• the works fashioned at the basketwork workshop.

The organisation, construction and arrangement of the new National Museum of Rwanda (MNR), from then on separated from the Institute of Research (on a separate site; government decision in 1972, passed in 1982; the creation of the Directorate of the National Museum of Rwanda by presidential decree on April 20th 1989) would lead to a reexamination of all the items and to the transfer of a number of items from their "waiting" position to position permanent one and to their being displayed in the new exhibition galleries. The museum was officially inaugurated and opened to the public in September 1989.
After the months needed to run in the new system as it were, documentation was one of the next items on the agenda. The problem of the library arose straight away (there was a library of science at the research institute and one at the nearby university). The matter of defining and programming the documentation of the collections in their new environment also came to the foreground. The computerisation project was well on its way when was the nation struck by the cataclysm of April 1994.
Four months later, the museum buildings and the collections were still almost entirely intact. The staff had succeeded in defending an essential part of the nation's memory and heritage. But the shop, the offices and the laboratories had been either destroyed or looted. The administrative documents had been destroyed - seemingly deliberately. What happened to the staff was even more dramatic: it is known that several of them were murdered and we are still without any news of a number of others. The two highly-qualified technicians who had looked after the preservation of the collections, the stores and the documentation for years are no longer there. In fact, the majority of the staff failed to turn up when notified. The acting director, absent in April 1994, succeeded in hiding and fleeing to the "Zone Turquoise" (May to July). He was able to return and reopen the museum in August 1994 and had to restart with new and unfortunately less-qualified staff.

The essentially ethnographic collection of the Museum of the Rwandan Episcopacy in Kabgayi (between Kigali and Butare, near Gitarama) was put together by interested Catholic missionaries starting from the 1930's. Some beautiful objects were donated by the Queen-Mother Kankazi and by Mwami Mutara Rudahigwa, among others. Begun earlier than the national collection, it is less complete though it does contain a number of unique and interesting objects and therefore forms a complementary collection of great interest.

Except for two small "concise guides" published (in 1946 & 1984) for visitors and a few small notebooks of personal writings by one or two missionaries (containing highly abridged notes which are hardly comprehensible for others), there is no written documentation of the collection. The missionaries who built the collection are now dead.

We have no precise information about the present state of the museum, but it seems that it has been pillaged.

1. The problems of documentation practically always depend on the particular problems facing the museum or museums concerned. In other words, when a museum lacks qualified staff, has a budget that is below the minimum and functions badly, it is inconceivable that its documentation would be properly managed. It is the same of course when the general economic, political and security situation is bad.
2. The apparatus of documentation can be run by technicians provided they have been schooled in museography and particularly in the work of museum documentation. For the section 'Inventory' or the documentary instrument used for administrative purposes, the technician will have to be supervised; or at least he should be able to ask the advise of someone with a university degree in that particular domain and who should also be an expert in the domain of collections. As far as the section 'Catalogue' or the instrument for scientific documentation is concerned, the technician should be guided by a researcher as much as possible.
3. The infrastructure can be quite basic. An attempt would have to be made to reach a minimum level and to maintain it, i.e. obtaining premises and furniture, office equipment, access to specialised services often from the private sector like printers, photographers and photo laboratories. Computers and appropriate programs will be adopted where it is technically and strategically possible - as long as reliable maintenance and repair services would be permanently available for the electronic equipment. It is obvious that a manual documentation system kept on registers and index cards, maintained in perfect order and kept up to date is vastly superior to any electronic system, as it cannot be guaranteed in the long term that it will continue to function perfectly.
4. Continuity is indispensable. An interruption due to the final and sometimes hasty departure of a person in charge (for another position for example or because of troubles, war, etc.) can cause serious damage to the "fabric" of the documentation.
5. Security. In order to ensure the permanence of their documentation, it is suggested that those in charge of the museum should conclude bi-lateral agreements of cooperation with at least one museum in another country. One of the clauses of that agreement should concern the depositing in a safe place and the safeguarding of the register of the inventory and the scientific catalogue (copies on paper and/or on floppy disks). The bringing up to date of that depot - every six months for example - is vital.
6. For the documentation in Rwanda in particular, we suggest the following:
   • (a) to adopt an appropriate information model;
   • (b) to systematically check the inventory of the whole MNR collection;
   • (c) to this end, to firstly begin by transferring the "Inventory" section of the parts of the MNR collection which are noted on index cards to computer memory (i.e. the objects acquired during the IRSAC and INRS periods); and at a second stage, to do the same with the data of the scientific catalogue.
   • (d) As far as the collection of the Episcopate in Kabgayi is concerned, an attempt should be made at drawing up an inventory - no matter whether the collection was pillaged or not. Even though the collection concerned is a private one (it being the property of the Episcopate), it does contain a number of objects which are irreplaceable for the history of Rwandan culture and it is therefore advisable to know them and to know where they can be found.

Dr. Jan-B. Cuypers
Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale
13, Leuvensesteenweg
B - 3080 Tervuren

Tel.: + 32 2 769 52 52 Fax: + 32 2 769 56 38         + 32 2 767 02 42

1.         Reference:
DESCRIPTION OF THE OBJECT
2.         Name:
3.         Analysis: (material, colour, form):
4.         Means of Manufacture:
5.         Traditional Maintenance:
ETHNOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION
6.         African Name:
7.         Made by (Tribe, Clan, Class,, Caste, Sex, Village, Social Role, etc.):
8.         Period of Manufacture:
9.         Used by (Tribe, Clan, Class,, Caste, Social Role, etc.):
10.       Transmission (from 7 to 9):
11.       Use:
12.       Context (ritual, economic, etc.):
ACQUISITION
13.     Place:
14.       Collector:
15.       Acquired from (donor's position, etc.):
16.       State of Object:
17.       Date:
18.       Price:

1.         Reference:
DESCRIPTION OF THE OBJECT
2.         Name:
            Measurements: H. L.     Size. D.
            Weight:
4.         Analysis: (material, colour, form):
5.         Means of Manufacture:
6.         Traditional Maintenance:
ETHNOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION
7.         Name in the Vernacular:
8.         Made by Name:                                        Clan:
                                        Sex:                                 Hill:
                                        Age:                                 Village:
                                        Ethnic Group:                    Prefecture:
                                        Social Role:
9.         Period of Manufacture:
10.       Used by Name:                                          Clan:
                                        Sex:                                 Hill:
                                        Age:                                 Village:
                                        Ethnic Group:                    Prefecture:
                                        Social Role:
11.         Transmission (from 8 to 10):
12.         Use:
13.         Context (ritual, economic, etc.):
ACQUISITION
14.         Place:
15.         Collector:
16.         Acquired from (seller, donor, the person's position, etc.):
17.         State of Object:
18.         Date:
19.         Price: