Indonesia revives Bandung legacy to deepen Asia-Africa ties through people-to-people exchange

In a colonial-era building in Bandung, Indonesia, the chairs still sit where they were placed in April 1955. The flags hang nearby. Photographs line the walls. Typewriters and teleprinter equipment occupy display cases—the tools that 377 journalists used to transmit news of a gathering that would reshape how the developing world saw itself.

Seventy years later, the Museum of the Asian-African Conference is not simply a repository of memory. It has become an instrument of contemporary diplomacy. Indonesia is using the legacy of that 1955 gathering—when representatives from 29 newly independent Asian and African nations met to assert their sovereignty and challenge the colonial order—to build practical ties with Africa today. The museum's director, Hilda Kurnia, frames the institution as a bridge between peoples, not merely a chronicle of the past.

When the conference opened in 1955, it brought together leaders including Indonesia's Sukarno, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, China's Zhou Enlai, and Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser. They were united by a determination to assert independence and equality on the world stage. The conference produced the Ten Principles of Bandung—respect for sovereignty and human rights, equality among nations, peaceful coexistence, and international cooperation. The venue itself carried symbolic weight: Gedung Merdeka, or Independence Building, had been constructed in 1921 as Sociëteit Concordia, an exclusive social club for Dutch colonial elites. The Indonesian government acquired and renovated it before 1955, transforming a space of colonial privilege into the stage for a gathering centered on independence.

The journalists who covered the conference played a crucial role in carrying its significance beyond the conference hall. Their reports shaped international understanding of what Bandung meant. Today, the museum is asking a new generation of journalists—including Kenyan visitors on a familiarisation trip—to perform a similar function, carrying the spirit of Bandung back to their own countries through their reporting.

Indonesia's renewed engagement with Africa reflects a shift in how the Bandung legacy is being deployed. The language of solidarity remains, but the emphasis has moved toward practical cooperation: tourism, education, trade, and cultural exchange. Ani Widiani, a secretary at the West Java Provincial Tourism and Culture Office, articulated this approach, suggesting that Asian and African countries could contribute to global peace by working more closely together in concrete areas. The museum itself has begun working with universities to organize student gatherings and tours, creating opportunities for young Indonesians and Africans to meet around their shared history. Officials are discussing joint exhibitions with African museums, including institutions in Kenya.

The museum receives approximately 80,000 visitors annually, with attendance reaching around 1,000 per day during peak periods. Visitors come from Indonesia and abroad—China, the Netherlands, and Japan are among the leading international sources—though African visitors currently represent a smaller share. That is changing as Indonesia deepens its outreach. Kurnia acknowledged that the museum has not yet reached international standards, but emphasized that the institution is working toward those goals through temporary exhibitions, social media engagement, and planned modernization.

For Kenyan visitors, the museum offers more than a history lesson about another country's past. Kenya was not among the 29 nations represented at the 1955 conference; it was still under British colonial rule, engaged in its own struggle for independence. The museum therefore provides a window into the political world that shaped the generation of African leaders who would define the continent's post-independence diplomacy. It raises a question that extends beyond the walls of Gedung Merdeka: If Bandung was once about newly independent countries finding a collective voice, what should solidarity between Asia and Africa look like today?

The answer, for now, lies not in a single statement but in objects, photographs, stories, and people trying to connect them to the present. The delegates of 1955 are gone. The technology has transformed beyond recognition. The geopolitical map has been redrawn. But the room remains, and so does the idea that brought Asian and African countries together as equals. Indonesia's renewed interest in Africa is now giving that idea a contemporary test.