This documentary series will relieves the story of the colonization of Central Africa from 1480 to the present day, outlining the ties that continue to link the region to the West by exploring key historical stages: the arrival of the first Europeans in Africa and the establishment of trade; the religious conquest; the abuses of slavery; the dividing up of Africa between imperial powers; economic excesses; the controlling of local elites; failed independence movements, predatory dictatorships etc…

Treatment

This documentary series will be comprised solely of archival footage, iconographic documents, and animated sequences.
Most of these film archives have never been broadcast before. All of the film archives from the colonial period were recently digitized : a total of 300 hours from this area.This ambitious project has been made possible thanks to the efforts of the Tervuren Museum, the Belgian Cinematheque, the Kadoc-Kul, three Belgian universities and three African universities.

A large portion of the film will be made up of animated sequences, bringing emblematic figures to life, illustrating historic events that are not widely documented and recreating the sound and the look of the period.

Episode 1: La Course effrénée
Written and directed by Samuel Tilman
Through the vivid accounts of some Portuguese, French, Belgian and African pioneers, this first episode retraces the major stages of the European colonial occupation of the Congo… from the first Portuguese occupation in the 16th century to the victory of Leopold II and the establishment of a cruel system of exploitation in the 19th century.

Episode 2: The great illusions
Directed by: Daniel Cattier
Screenplay: Daniel Cattier, Samuel Tilman and Robert Neys
In 1908, crushed by criticism, Leopold II cedes the Independent State of Congo to Belgium. In this second episode, the newly created Belgian Congo witnesses and observes the clash of ideals that takes place before its eyes… between a white community full of certainty and convinced of doing the right thing, on the one hand, and a black community torn between mixing and self-determination, on the other.

Episode 3: The Unfinished Giant
Written and directed by Isabelle Christiaens & Jean-François Bastin
On 30 June 1960, the Congo became brutally independent. A historic symbol of hope and renewal, Patrice Lumumba is quickly taken out of the running and assassinated. He thus became a curious and attentive observer of the upheavals in his country (from the reign of Mobutu to that of Kabila’s son), which he tells us about with passion in this third episode.