The shadow of a visitor is seen as he walks past a stuffed hippopotamus
at the Brussels Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren November
16, 2001. Conceived in 1897, by King Leopold II, as a temporary World
fair exhibition, its original purpose was to show off the Congo's
flora, fauna and natural resources, and illustrate how these benefited
Belgium's economy. To its critics, the Brussels Royal Museum for
Central Africa represents everything that is bad about Belgium. It is
bureaucratic, 50 years behind the times and, most of all,

reeks of old colonialism. REUTERS/Yves Herman TO ACCOMPANY FEATURE
STORY BELGIUM-CONGO-MUSEUM REUTERS