Rwanda and the Kingdom of Belgium are finalizing a process to facilitate handover of thousands of records of administrative decisions, geological data, artefacts and photos from the colonial era.

Marie Claude Uwineza, the acting director of the national archives, said the documents are pending digitalisation after which Belgium will surrender the same.

The collection, which cover about five kilometres in length are records of Rwanda’s history during kings Yuhi Musinga and Mutara Rudahigwa between 1900 and the 1950s.

A team set up by the former Ministry of Sports and Culture was tasked to peruse through all the documents and identify the most important pages to be given priority in the digitalisation.

Ms Uwineza added that they are waiting for the coronavirus crisis to pass over to resume work.

Rwanda Today wanted to know if Rwanda would fund the digitalisation in case the Belgians budget becomes insufficient. She said the Belgians were willing to fund the project “but if their budget does not suffice, we will intervene with our budget.”

In February, Belgium also surrendered geological data to Rwanda Mining Board, whose CEO, Francis Gatare, confirmed is helping to trace new potential mineral sites.

The file was digitalised over one year and gives detailed geological data of Rwanda dating from a century ago when the Belgian colonialists sent out an expedition to map mineral potential and in Rwanda.

 Further, over 2,000 artefacts and more than 4,000 photos taken by missionaries and colonialists in Rwanda, according to Robert Masozera, the Director General of the National Museums.

“We were supposed to hold a meeting between April 23 and 28 to finalise the initiative for their repatriation but this was postponed to until the coronavirus pandemic passes,” Mr Masozera told Rwanda Today last week.

“We have not talked about King Yuhi Musinga because they have not told us about the presence of his body in their museums but we are aware they have a lot of archives about Rwanda,” he added.

King Musinga who reigned from 1896 to 1931, resisted both colonialists and Roman Catholic missionaries who in turn banished him to Moba in the DR Congo where he died in 1941.