Video, California man 'kills fellow Covid patient with oxygen tank', Chrissy Teigen 'sad she will never be pregnant again', Deepfake queen to deliver Channel 4 Christmas message, Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, Brexit: Boris Johnson set to unveil trade deal with EU, Stella Tennant: Stella McCartney, Naomi Campbell and more pay tribute, Airline fires pilot blamed for Taiwan's first Covid case in months, Sharp rises in infection levels in England, says ONS, Trump vetoes 'unconstitutional' defence bill, US black man George Floyd in police custody, statues of racist historical figures vandalised or removed, "rape, mutilation and genocide of millions of Congolese". La colonisation du Congo s'opéra durant la période comprise entre la première exploration du Congo-Kinshasa par Henry Morton Stanley (1867) jusqu'à l'annexion du pays par la prise de possession par le roi Léopold II de Belgique (1885). It quickly became a brutal, exploitative regime that relied on forced labour to cultivate and trade rubber, ivory and minerals. VideoDid that octopus just punch a fish? Statues have been daubed with red paint in Ghent and Ostend and pulled down in Brussels. Leopold II, Holy Roman emperor from 1790 to 1792, one of the most capable of the 18th-century reformist rulers known as the “enlightened despots.” The third son of the Habsburg Maria Theresa and the emperor Francis I, Leopold succeeded his father as … For 20 years, he “owned” the Free State of Congo in central Africa, a 3,000-square-mile section of resource-rich interior jungle and savannah. It was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who explored under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. Those resistant to change are likely to come under more pressure when a Hollywood film, based on a best-selling book 20 years ago that highlighted Leopold’s bloody rule of the Congo Free State, is released. RDC : Du Roi Léopold II à Joseph Kabila — Une Histoire de Pillage, Destination Inconnue — L’impunité Continue ... De la traite des esclaves à la brutale colonisation belge, en passant par la manipulation de la guerre froide et les guerres qui ont suivi, ceux qui ont le plus souffert sont les citoyens congolais. 1. Leopold II, king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. Leopold’s men eventually discovered that the rainforest had a plentiful supply of rubber trees. ... adopta ce principe de ‘colonisation moderne’, hâtivement mis en vigueur au Congo. The council of Kortrijk, in west Flanders, has said it is renaming its Leopold II Laan [avenue] on the grounds the monarch was a “mass murderer”. After all, destroying the iconography of Adolf Hitler did not mean the history of Nazi Germany was forgotten, she points out. Around 20,000 children born to Belgian settlers and local women were forcibly taken to Belgium to be fostered. 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. "Civilisation" was at the core of Leopold II's pitch to European leaders in 1885 when they sliced up and allocated territories in what became known as the Scramble for Africa. Last week it was announced Ben Affleck would be producing and directing the film inspired by Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost. “If other cities start with it, it could trigger a chain reaction, but there are no plans yet,” he told the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper. EU-UK on verge of Brexit trade deal announcement, Santa explains what a Covid Christmas looks like. In 2010, former Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel and the father of future prime minister Charles Michel, called Leopold "a hero with ambitions for a small country like Belgium". In return European leaders, gathered at the Berlin Conference, granted him 2m sq km (770,000 sq miles) to forge a personal colony where he was free to do as he liked. Wrote a letter directly to Leopold and another to the president of the US 2. What happens to your body in extreme heat? Last year a UN working group called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities committed during the colonial era. The king’s stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. .css-1xgx53b-Link{font-family:ReithSans,Helvetica,Arial,freesans,sans-serif;font-weight:700;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;color:#FFFFFF;}.css-1xgx53b-Link:hover,.css-1xgx53b-Link:focus{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}Read about our approach to external linking. Appealed to the countries that had signed the Berlin Act to create a commission to investigate this 3. UK and EU negotiating teams talked through the night to finalise a post-Brexit trade deal. Last week a statue of Leopold II in the city of Antwerp was set on fire, before authorities took it down. Video, The poet, the queen and 120-year-old chocolate, Did that octopus just punch a fish? This empire was known as the Congo Free State and Leopold II stood as its undisputed slave master. Did the colonisation of Congo by Leopold II benefit the congo in the post-colonial period in terms of infrastructure? They belonged to his five-year-old daughter, who was later killed when her village did not produce sufficient rubber. This was like stumbling across a gold mine. Elsewhere, a working group in Ghent is considering the city’s role in Belgium’s colonial past and whether it remains appropriate to have a Leopold II Laan. Yet debate over his legacy has remained muted in Belgium, where hundreds of roads are named after the king along with memorials dedicated to his memory and glory. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In 2018, the United Nations called on the Belgian government to apologize for the crimes committed during its colonization and to … In a TV debate this week, a former president of the Free University of Brussels, Hervé Hasquin, argued there were "positive aspects" to colonisation, listing the health system, infrastructure, and primary education he said Belgium brought to Central Africa. Leopold's British biographer, Barbara Emerson, agrees: 'I think it is a very shoddy piece of work. 4. King Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) was the reigning king of Belgium from 1865 until his death in 1909. A petition calling on the city for its removal has reached 74,000 signatures. VideoThe poet, the queen and 120-year-old chocolate, Five families; five very unusual Christmases, Catwalk icon Stella Tennant's career in pictures. Video, Santa explains what a Covid Christmas looks like, The poet, the queen and 120-year-old chocolate. BBC Culture: The TV shows that helped us through 2020. “Not a priority? For decades, colonial history has been barely taught in Belgium. Lastly, the opposition forces against King Leopold II’s colonization of Congo helped pave the way for future justice on the continent as well as internationally. Statues of Leopold II should now be housed in museums to teach Belgian history, suggests Mireille-Tsheusi Robert, director of anti-racism NGO Bamko Cran. Read about our approach to external linking. says Ms Kayembe. King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy . Leopold II truly was paying for all of the startup expenses to colonize The Congo out of his own pocket. Most of them were paid with brutal exploitation of Congo Capital of Belgium, Brussels, is the seat of European Union Last modified on Sat 23 Nov 2019 18.40 GMT. I never imagined this happening in my lifetime," Ms Kayembe adds. Many classrooms still have Hergé's famous cartoon book Tintin in the Congo, with its depictions of black people now commonly accepted as extremely racist. The museum is largely protected by heritage law but, in the streets outside, monuments to a monarch who seized a huge swathe of Central Africa in 1885 have no such security. playDid that octopus just punch a fish? He built the Africa Museum in the grounds of his palace at Tervuren, with a "human zoo" in the grounds featuring 267 Congolese people as exhibits. By 1908, 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. King Leopold the II’s colonisation of the Congo resulted in labour forced upon the natives, blackmail, abuse and eradication of tradition. In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. VideoSanta explains what a Covid Christmas looks like, playThe poet, the queen and 120-year-old chocolate. When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. One visitor to the Africa Museum, where an outdoor statue was defaced last week, disagreed with the idea of removing them - "they're part of history," he explained. Il rêvait de voir la Belgique, pays de dimension modeste, certes, mais disposant de capacités techniques et économiques, s'intéresser à des territoires outre-mer qui pourraient contribuer à valoriser ses capacités commerciales, lui assurer l'accès à des matières premières et à des produits de la terre dont elle ne disposait pas, ou encore servir d'exutoire pour ceux -nombreux à l'époque- qui vivaie… But taking the monument away does not solve the problem of racism, she believes, while creating one museum devoted to the statues would not be useful either. He led the first European efforts to develop the Congo River basin. Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. He managed the throne after the death of his father, Leopold I. Inauguration of a square in Brussels, dedicated to the memory of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after independence from Belgium. A renewed global focus on racism is highlighting a violent colonial history that generated riches for Belgians but death and misery for Congolese. This makeover of Leopold's image produced an amnesia that persisted for decades. Leopold II built commissioned a lot of buildings and urban projects. Statue of King Leopold II This statue was placed in the Democratic Republic of Congo to remind Congolese the horrors of the Belgian colonization. Leopold financed development projects with money loaned to him from the Belgian government. It had taken 10 years of campaigning by the Congolese diaspora and others for the city authority to give its approval. He did however apologise for the kidnapping of thousands of mixed-race children, known as métis, from Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda in the 1940s and 1950s. In DR Congo itself, no-one has really noticed the Belgian protests, says Jules Mulamba, a lawyer in the south-eastern city of Lubambashi. We will support companies and residents who may be affected by the new street names in the future.”, A century after millions died in Congo, attitudes (and street names) are changing. The current protests are not the first time Belgium's ugly history in Congo has been contested in the streets. Leopold II and the Colonization of Africa: Leopold II of Belgium lived from 1835 to 1909 and reigned as King of Belgium from 1865 until his death. Entre 1874 et 1876, le bush, au centre du continent africain, est encore pour les Européens une terre mystérieuse dans laquelle seuls des aventuriers se rendent. The royal palace is yet to give its own response. Nevertheless, Leopold II eventually appointed Tip as a provincial governor in exchange for his noninterference in the king’s colonization of the western regions. For activists the holy grail is the giant statue of Leopold II on horseback at the gates of the Royal Palace in Brussels. Leopold did not start genocide. Colonization of the Congo refers to the period of Henry Morton Stanley's first exploration of the Congo (1876) until its annexation as a personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium (1885). As part of a belated reckoning with its colonial history, museums are showcasing sins that were previously overlooked, the tone of history books in school is shifting and, in a development unthinkable until recently, cities have started to remove street signs commemorating Leopold II and openly denounce his legacy. King Leopold II (1835-1909) of Belgium created the Congo Free State in 1885 as part of a professed desire to bring civilization and modernity to Africans. Colonization of the Congo. En 1879, après son grand voyage d’exploration de l’Afrique centrale, l’explorateur britannique Henry Morton Stanley entre au service de Léopold II, roi des Belges [].Quelques années plus tard, la Conférence de Berlin, de novembre 1884 à février 1885, jette les bases d’un « partage » de l’Afrique entre les puissances européennes []. Of the Europeans who scrambled for control of Africa at the end of the 19th century, Belgium's King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all. It would be "really significant for Congolese people, especially those whose families perished," she explains. Alderman Axel Ronse said: “Leopold II was a mass murderer and Cyriel Verschaeve a collaborator. Colonisation du Congo. The remnants of these events still haunt the congo to this day. Like statues of racist historical figures vandalised or removed in Britain and the US, Leopold II's days on Belgian streets could now be numbered. On Monday the University of Mons removed a bust of the late king, following the circulation of a student-led petition saying it represented the "rape, mutilation and genocide of millions of Congolese". Les régions du cœur … Colonial administrators also kidnapped orphaned children from communities and transported them to "child colonies" to work or train as soldiers. He called it Congo Free State. In Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, Leopold II's statues were moved to the National Museum. Leopold II ruled Congo Free State as a personal fiefdom. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. For over a century, Belgium turned the Congo into a slave state governed by Leopold II. Belgium made at least $20 million for rubber and ivor y. And in 2018, Brussels named a public square in honour of Patrice Lumumba, a hero of African independence movements and the first prime minister of Congo, since renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2019, the cities of Kortrijk and Dendermonde renamed their Leopold II streets, with Kortrijk council describing the king as a "mass murderer". Joëlle Sambi Nzeba, a Belgian-Congolese poet and spokesperson for the Belgian Network for Black Lives, says the statues tell her she is "less than a regular Belgian". 1693. In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. … Warning: This piece contains graphic pictures. Avant d'accéder au trône de Belgique, Léopold II qui était alors Duc de Brabant, s'intéressait déjà à l'idée de colonisation. Estimates suggest more than 50% died there. "Everyone is waking up from a sleep, it's a reckoning with the past," explains Debora Kayembe, a Congolese human rights lawyer who has lived in Belgium. Earlier this year a UN working group concluded in its preliminary report that, nearly six decades after the newly named DRC gained independence from Belgium, many of the country’s institutions remained racist and the state needed to apologise for the sins of its past as a step towards reform. Leopold’s rule lead to the genocide of the Congolese, and restriction of the Congo’s development. Charles Michel, prime minister at the time, declined. At the time, there was a huge demand for natural rubber in order to make tires, but there was a very small supply. They were beaten and tortured in order to quickly extract as much rubber from the region as possible. Beyond removal of statues, far more work is required to dismantle racism, protesters and black communities argue. "I will dance if it comes down. © 2020 BBC. He appointed governor generals to manage the various territories of the country. Activists say an important step towards acknowledging the past was made last year when Brussels named a square in honour of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the DRC, who was assassinated in 1961 with the connivance of the Belgian government. In the last years of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo Free State with a tyranny that was peculiarly brutal even by the cruel and deeply racist standards of European colonialism in Africa. "It's a good thing that everyone is waking up, looking around and thinking 'is this right?'" King Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) ruled for over 40 years. Belgium's education minister announced this week that secondary schools would teach colonial history from next year. There are at least 13 statues to Leopold II in Belgium, according to one crowd-sourced map, and numerous parks, squares and street names. Recommended US take the lead in pressuring Leopold to change the nature of Congo. "Leopold II certainly does not deserve a statue in the public domain," agrees Bambi Ceuppens, scientific commissioner at the Africa Museum. He promised a humanitarian and philanthropic mission that would improve the lives of Africans. Standing close by, one visitor said, "I didn't know anything about Leopold II until I heard about the statues defaced down town". King Leopold II and the CongoThe European colonization of Africa was one of the greatest and swiftest conquests in human history. The then prime minister Charles Michel said the government would respond when the UN filed its final report, although he expressed some surprise at the findings.