Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the manner in which the materiality of colonial criminal law has filtered through to Western museums through a case-study of the Leopard Man statue in the newly renovated Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, in a ‘fictitious’ storage space.

Paper long abstract:

The colonial encounter with the Man-Leopard murders stand as a symbol of the way in which criminal law was practiced in colonial Africa. As with many other cases of colonial criminal law, such as witchcraft, slavery or the killing of twin children, the murders' investigation was hampered by colonial powers' inability to understand African communities. Also, they were sensationalized and underscored Western racist perceptions of Africa. The murders have been studied from an anthropological perspective, from the perspective of legal history and so has the popular imagery relating to the murders. What has remained neglected is the question to what extent the materiality of colonial criminal law has filtered through to Western museums as a way to illustrate the interconnectedness between colonial regimes and the law as a tool of oppression and control. This paper takes as a case-study the statue of the Leopard Man in the newly renovated Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, where it is put on display in a so-called ‘fictitious’ storage space, where it now remains as (not quite) part of the museum.