The mixed-race children Belgium took from their mothers. Image source, Getty Images. Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial history The horrific consequences of rubber's toxic past.
What did King Philippe say? Image source, EPA. Belgians have taken down or vandalised statues of King Leopold II in recent weeks. What's the history? This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The mixed children Belgium took from their mothers under colonial rule. In return European leaders, gathered at the Berlin Conference, granted him 2m sq km , sq miles to forge a personal colony where he was free to do as he liked.
He called it Congo Free State. It quickly became a brutal, exploitative regime that relied on forced labour to cultivate and trade rubber, ivory and minerals. Archive pictures from Congo Free State document its violence and brutality. In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. They belonged to his five-year-old daughter, who was later killed when her village did not produce sufficient rubber.
She was not unique - chopping off the limbs of enslaved Congolese was a routine form of retribution when Leopold II's quotas were not met. Colonial administrators also kidnapped orphaned children from communities and transported them to "child colonies" to work or train as soldiers.
Killings, famine and disease combined to cause the deaths of perhaps 10 million people, though historians dispute the true number. Leopold II may never have set foot there, but he poured the profits into Belgium and into his pockets. He built the Africa Museum in the grounds of his palace at Tervuren, with a "human zoo" in the grounds featuring Congolese people as exhibits.
But rumours of abuse began to circulate and missionaries and British journalist Edmund Dene Morel exposed the regime. By , Leopold II's rule was deemed so cruel that European leaders, themselves violently exploiting Africa, condemned it and the Belgian parliament forced him to relinquish control of his fiefdom.
Belgium took over the colony in and it was not until that the Republic of the Congo was established, after a fight for independence. When Leopold II died in , he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing.
This makeover of Leopold's image produced an amnesia that persisted for decades. The current protests are not the first time Belgium's ugly history in Congo has been contested in the streets.
In , the cities of Kortrijk and Dendermonde renamed their Leopold II streets, with Kortrijk council describing the king as a "mass murderer". This is what happened in DR Congo. This vicious cycle can therefore only be broken through the appropriate psychotherapy. Another factor lies within the lack of transition from colonial administration to a non-corrupt, peace-oriented government. The Belgian colonial administration, acting in its own interest, had promoted policy in the country that was based on patronage and particular interests.
Belgium exploited existing divisions and conflicts became bloodier. Only one person during this time embodied the hope for a peaceful, self-determined future: As the first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba endeavored to unite the DR Congo.
But this was swiftly dashed when Lumumba was murdered in Cobalt and coltan are abundant in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But, paired with regional instability, the minerals attract militia, exploitation and violence. Got an opinion about the stories making headlines? International SMS charges apply. Please make sure to include your name and your country.
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The people of the Congo did not suffer these injustices without fighting back. Several rebellions were mercilessly put down under Leopold's direction. As the realities and suffering within the Congo Free State became more widely known, many European people spoke out against these abuses.
Demonstrations and protests demanded that Leopold end human rights abuses in the Congo Free State. In , international pressure forced the king to turn the Congo Free State over to the country of Belgium.
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