Jean Omasombo Tshonda is a professor at the University of Kinshasa and researcher in the contemporary history section of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. He is also Director of the Centre for Political Studies (CEP) in Kinshasa. At the Royal Museum, he directs the project ‘Provinces-Decentralization’ which deals with the decentralization process and the study of the new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as promulgated by the 2006 Constitution. Jean holds a PhD in political sciences from the Free University of Brussels.