Abstract
The Belgian Congo has a controversial and violent history. In 1960, the delusion of a “managed” decolonization (that would have left all substantial power in the hands of the white settlers) was quickly shattered by increasingly violent conflicts. A large part of the white population had to be evacuated in a hurry while colonialism quickly disappeared from the metropole public discourse. For long time the memories of the settlers remained confined to their private lives, while their public image, albeit minimal, preserved a positive, civilizing, interpretation of their historical role. The situation changed radically at the end of the ’90s, when a wave of controversies challenged such positive view. While previously the private memories of the settlers had been complex and sometimes critical, many settlers —and their associations —reacted to these controversies claiming a heightened public role. They even tried to write their own “authentic” history of Belgian colonialism.
This chapter has been translated from the Italian by Alessandra De Marco (Ph.D. American Studies, University of Sussex, UK).
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Notes
- 1.
Several studies on the oral memory of the Anciens have been conducted by scholars from various fields and by journalists in the 2000s: Dembour (2000), Gillet (2008), Giordano (2008), Helbig (2005), Licata and Klein (2005), Rubbers (2009), and Verlinden (2002). A brief overview is available in Giordano (2008: 12–17). An innovative, constant work on the Belgian-Congolese memory was carried out in the years 2000–2010 by Projet Mémoire de Lubumbashi, led by Bogumil Jewsiewicki (Univ. Laval, Québec—Canada) and by Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu (Univ. de Lubumbashi, Congo RD), whose most significant results have been published in the series “Mémoires lieux de savoir—Archive congolaise”, Paris, L’Harmattan.
- 2.
At the beginning of the 1890s, Leopold II established the State monopoly on the rubber and ivory trade, violating the Berlin Conference which contemplated free trade and free navigation of the Congo river. The State granted concessions to some companies who could exploit and manage entire regions: these were subject to violent predatory system functional to the rubber production and trade. The red rubber regime was founded on forced labor and unheard-of abuses, such as dismembered limbs, women and children taken into hostage, punitive expeditions, resulting in entire villages razed and whole areas depopulated. The Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR) was one of the concessionary companies infamous for the terror regime it established (Marchal 1996; Vangroenweghe 2010 [1985]).
- 3.
The évolués were a heterogeneous group of people with higher education and Christian values. They lived close to the Whites, for whom they served as auxiliaries. Others had gained significant social and economic positions in the colony thanks to their resourcefulness. They saw themselves as “réussi” (successful people), “dark-skinned Europeans” who tried to distinguish themselves from the indigenous by adopting “civilized” behaviors and lifestyles. Since 1945 they have demanded an official recognition of their status (Ndaywel è Nziem 1998: 451–464; Mutamba Makombo Kitatshima 1998: 157, 278ff.). At the end of the colonial era, the estimated number of évolués for the whole Congo was less than 200,000.
- 4.
A commentary by Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem (1998: 462) clearly explains the working of the racial system in everyday life. The boats that sailed along the rivers had four classes: the first for the Whites, the second for the Asians, mulattoes, Black priests and seminarians; the third for the évolués; the fourth for the “indigenous.”
- 5.
The figure is provided by the Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman (Les métis, enfants oubliés de la colonisation belge, in Le carnet de Colette Braeckman, July 21, 2014, https://blog.lesoir.be), in a text summarizing her preface to a testimony denouncing the mixed-race segregation and ensuing tribulations (Budagwa 2014). The issue has recently received attention, especially involving the Catholic Church for its treatment of the mixed-race children in the religious institutions in Congo and Ruanda-Urundi. The Belgian media released many autobiographical testimonies, documentaries and news. The episode involving 20,000 mixed-race was considered a “matter of State”, unacknowledged history. In April 2017, the Belgian Catholic Church formally apologized to the mixed-race children born during the colonial period. Cf. Métis/Enfants oubliés de la colonisation, https://information.tv5monde.com; Ni noirs, ni blancs, les enfants métis durant la colonisation belge, https://rtbf.be.
- 6.
- 7.
The “extraordinary enterprise” was made possible thanks to the commitment of the national Belgian airline, Sabena. Two ex-flight attendants, in an autobiographical memoir recently published, still enthusiastically speak about it (De Mets 2017: 162ff., 178ff.). The memory of the “painful” condition of the rapatriés and of the violence endured, visible in their eyes, is still alive. The editor of the volume also stresses the figures that marked, “the most important humanitarian airlift in history”: number of people saved, of flights operated, of total flying hours (Id.: 189).
- 8.
The Commission report: Congo Juillet 1960. Témoignages, Ministère de la Justice, Bruxelles, 1960.
- 9.
- 10.
46 hommes en colère. Les 46 médecins d’Elisabethville dénoncent les violations par l’ONU au Katanga, préface de M. Paul Struye, Président du Senat de Belgique, s.n., 1962.
- 11.
I refer in particular to the following journals: Kisugulu, périodique trimestriel des anciens étudiants du Congo, Bruxelles, 1982–2008; Sous les Palmes, Bruxelles, Association des Anciennes IMJ.
- 12.
Information and data on the association available at https://memoiresducongo.org.
- 13.
Kisugulu, 78, 2002: 18; Pour la Vérité sur la Colonisation Belge, s.d., https://infotervuren.be/colonisation.htm.
- 14.
Mémoires du Congo et du Ruanda-Urundi, Le Service Territorial. Témoignagnes, DVD, s.l., s.d.; Id., Agronomes et Vétérinaires. Témoignagnes, DVD, s.l., 2006; Id., L’Enseignement au Congo Belge et au Ruanda-Urundi. Témoignages, DVD, s.l., 2008; the fourth volume is dedicated to Father Raphaël, missionary of the Scheut Mission, who lived in Congo in the years 1917–1956: Id., Tata Raphaël. Témoignages, DVD, s.l., s.d.
- 15.
A more recent volume deals with the issues of “manipulated” history and of the “denied counter-truths” (De Maere d’Aertrycke et al. 2015). Other books are available in the Livres section at https://memoiresducongo.be.
- 16.
- 17.
Some more ambitious Anciens are more interested in the writing of “history” rather than the re-elaboration of memory, as they try to fill out the void left by professional historians. However, this is a common interest to the whole group, who is the recipient of published material both online and offline. A grey zone between memory and history has emerged, which is made of silences and implicit discourses, exchanges and meetings between historians and Anciens. This is a theme that has received little attention here, but which I believe is crucial for the events regarding the Anciens in the last decade. This theme affects the legitimation of the colonial experience, the attempt at rewriting the history of the past, and thus at redefining one’s position within contemporary Belgian society.
- 18.
I will briefly provide the example of a rapatrié’s daughter Martine Decol, editor of a digital Bulletin Périodique (https://congo-1960.be). Her interest in the past arises from watching a documentary on a Dutch TV channel in 2002 by the journalist Verlinden, the author of two volumes on the rapatriés (Verlinden 2002). There, the reporter talked about the existence of a un “rapport de recherche” on Congo rapatriés, an investigation on the violence suffered by white women in 1960 and “accurately silenced by the Belgian government.” Surprised by the news, and with her mother’s stories still fresh in her memory, Mrs Decol decided to act. She created a website in her mother’s honor: “To elaborate the trauma that invested our family, writing becomes therapeutic.” She recounts that her mother was embittered by the lack of understanding following her return, and her regret at failing to talk about “the greatest trauma of her life.” The bulletin publishes autobiographical memoirs, documents and photos. The title and the presentation of one collection of 16 autobiographical testimonials (in a hesitant French) passionately evoke a painful past “Darkness, the Black Heart of Africa. Sixteen Testimonies Collected by the De Post Journalist Gust Verwerft, Translated from the Dutch, Published for You, so that the Life of the Anciens and the Exodus of All the Belgians May Not Be Forgotten!”.
- 19.
- 20.
Africa Museum, L’histoire revisitée à la sauce révisionniste: https://memoiresducongo.be.
- 21.
UROME, Introduction, par Oscar Libotte, Président Honoraire d’Urome, https://urome.be.
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Giordano, R. (2020). Beyond the “Trauma”: Legitimization and Revenge of the “Anciens du Congo” (Belgian Congo 1908–1960). In: Eyerman, R., Sciortino, G. (eds) The Cultural Trauma of Decolonization. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27025-4_5
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