Brussels monument to be made into memorial for Congo victims

Brussels monument to honor Belgian King Leopold II is reportedly set to be melted and made into a memorial for Congo victims. Experts have suggested creating an ‘open-air statue park’ instead of destroying the statue.

According to international media reports, the statue which is situated in Ostend, Belgium has garnered massive criticism for King Leopold II’s connection to thousands of Congo victims, who were murdered under the tyrannical rule of the European ruler. Historians have asked to instead relocate the historical monument to an open-air park, along with other ‘controversial’ figures of the past, especially the ones who have played a part in the global colonial past.

In a report titled “decolonisation”, two scenarios have been presented to decolonize the Belgian capital of its colonial past. According to the approximately 256-page long report, the move is necessary in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests across Belgium, since 2020. According to a British daily, The Guardian, the Leopold II statue has become a “flashpoint for protestors” for protestors organizing demonstrations against racism.

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Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is known for the large number of monuments celebrating the men who have ‘built Belgium’s empire’ in the late 19th Century. In particular, King Leopold II is remembered for the brutal treatment and death of millions. The European state’s colonial history is not just limited to Leopold II, however, it includes at the forefront, violence against African populations who were left to die of hunger and disease, because the colonizer wanted to acquire their natural resources. Based on the report, these are all documented facts from history and are not only “recognized” but also “fully acknowledged” by Belgium.

In addition, the report has argued that the purpose is not to tear down the statues, rather it is to remove some while renaming others. This move according to experts, will be a means to moving forward by freeing of elements that promote the relation between a colonizer and the colonized, between the ‘civilizer’, and the non-civilized, respectively.

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Belgium’s Minister for Urban planning in Brussels, Pascal Smet, has claimed that removing all statues would have been the “easiest thing” but the experts are against the approach. According to Smet, the notion behind rewriting history is not a matter of “culpability”, instead, it is a matter of taking “collective responsibility”. He added, that it is essential we understand history rather than being stuck in it.