The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA , colloquially known as the Africa Museum, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was first built to showcase King Leopold II's Congo Free State in the 1897 World Exhibition. The museum focuses on the Congo, a former Belgian colony. The sphere of interest however extends to the whole Congo River basin, Middle Africa, East Africa and West Africa, attempting to integrate Africa as a whole. Intended originally as a colonial museum, from 1960 onwards it has more focused on ethnography and anthropology. Like most museums, it houses a research department in addition to its public exhibit department. Not all research pertains to Africa . Some researchers have strong ties with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. As of November 2013, the museum is closed for renovation work which is expected to last until December 2018 when the museum will reopen.
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