Jules Gérard-Libois was born in 1923. He studied law at the
University of Liège. In the wake of the
Second World War, he became editor-in-chief of the Belgian edition of
Témoignage chrétien, which placed him in the camp of progressive christians. He participated in the creation of
Esprit groups in Belgium under the auspices of
Emmanuel Mounier, with
Jean Ladrière,
Jacques Taminiaux and François Perin. He was a journalist at
La Cité from 1950 to 1957, but realised that he lacked the tools to analyse the Belgian political realities. This was why he founded CRISP. Gérard-Libois was, however, the only expert who had an extensive knowledge of the socio-political background to the events, as the only expert on African history. Gérard-Libois, 76 years old at the time, was not primarily an archival researcher. Known for his many publications about the history of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the era of the
Belgian Congo, Gérard-Libois set himself apart, together with
Benoît Verhaegen, from the colonial circles by writing the history of the DRC in a non-sentimental style. They managed to disseminate many sources on Congolese history: the
Congo series from 1959 to 1967, suspended by President
Mobutu Sese Seko after the establishment of the one-party rule by the
Popular Movement of the Revolution. == Centre d'études et de documentation africaines (CEDAF) ==