Today, cultural heritage plays an increasingly important role in local development projects. Considered as a specific resource, cultural heritage represents an asset for territories and for those who identify with them. It is in this area that we are interested in the notion of the cultural heritage economy, in the activation of this territorial resource, and therefore in the enhancement and protection of cultural heritage through the process of heritage development.

In its broad cultural sense, heritage is synonymous with history, culture, property, and architectural remains worthy of preservation and protection. Heritage confers important historical, identity, cultural, memorial, and artistic values on societies and communities. As a result, its scope is increasingly extended, amplified and complexified, and therefore falls into different categories, particularly architecture.

The history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is our field of research, gives it a rich cultural and natural heritage. Its territory is home to an exceptional variety of remains and buildings, the result of a succession of civilizations. Its heritage includes the rock paintings and engravings of ancient Belgian cities.

As for the colonial buildings dating from 1910 to 2015, they are a major feature of the heritage landscape in Haut-Katanga province. Today, these colonial buildings form the historic core of most towns, accounting for almost half of the territory’s housing stock.

In fact, the Belgian occupation left its mark on Lubumbashi from architectural, urban planning, and social points of view. From 1910 to 2015, the DRC inherited significant architectural and urban constructions from the Belgian colonial period, in various forms and styles. Western Belgian and European neoclassical architecture has long been the preferred style.

It seems, however, that the preservation and conservation of buildings from the colonial period are not a matter of course. Even if their use value is recognized, their care and preservation are not self-evident. This raises a number of questions.

This is true both in terms of the heritage policy pursued by the Congolese state and among the Congolese population, particularly in the case of neo-Moorish style buildings. While the latter do not represent a reinterpretation of the country’s traditional or local architecture and values, they remain a colonial legacy that traces a sensitive history of contemporary Congo.