Belgium’s Colonial legacy
Bibliography
Waterfield, Bruno, King Philippe of Belgium apologises to Congo for colonial atrocities, The Times, (2020)
Chiwanza, Takudzwa Hillary, UN Says Belgium Should Apologise and Pay Reparations for Dark Colonial Past and Racism, The African Exponent, (2019)
https://www.africanexponent.com/post/9792-will-belgium-ever-apologize-to-drc-and-pay-reparations
Dubois, Laurent, World Cup 2018: How Belgium Became Cool, New York Review of Books, (2018
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/06/22/world-cup-2018-how-belgium-became-cool/
Belgium’s Golden Generation of footballers burst onto the scene in the mid-to-late 2010s. They went into the 2018 World Cup ranked third, and ultimately finished in the same position, their best ever result. The team was also their most ethnically diverse. As Professor Laurent Dubois noted, this ‘golden team’ is a manifestation of post-colonial histories (DuBois, NYT, 2018). A large core of players have roots either in the former colony of the Congo, or in neighbouring France’s former colonies, like Mali and Morocco. Belgium’s occupation of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was particularly violent and destructive. Right up to present day, Belgium has continued to benefit from their nefarious and despicable interference in the Congo.
During the recent Black Lives Matter protests, a bust of King Leopold II was emblazoned with George Floyd’s words “I Can’t Breathe”. This has led to the current Belgian King, Phillippe, ‘express(ing) regret’, for his country’s horrific rule (Waterfield, The Times, 2020). Leopold in fact held the Congo as a personal possession from 1885-1908, engaging in systematic torture and murder. A potent example of his sadism was the practice of cutting off hands for failure to fulfil rubber supply quotas. During Leopold’s reign an estimated 10 million Congolese died. It was in this context that the phrase ‘crimes against humanity’ was coined. An estimated $1.1 billion in rubber and ivory was stolen from the country in this period. Under international pressure in 1908, Belgium took control out of the hands of their monarch and placed it under governmental supervision. Due to control emanating from Brussels, Congolese independence in 1960 resulted in a complete vacuum of power, leaving the governance open to corruption. King Phillippe’s ‘regret’ seems to be an ineffectual, tokenistic response to his ancestor Leopold’s destruction.
The first democratically elected Prime Minister of the DRC was Patrice Lumumba, a staunch anti-colonialist. Upon the UN rejecting an appeal for aid from Lumumba in 1960, he turned to the USSR for help. For this he was assassinated by a union of Belgium, the USA and the UN. This trio then further interfered in the democracy of the Congo, by instilling anti-communist military leader Joseph Mobutu. For 30 years he cultivated a regime of corruption, kleptocracy, and economic and social instability. He embezzled an estimated $4-15 billion. This led to an exodus of Congolese to Belgium, the country that was inextricably linked to their suffering. Belgium’s legendary captain Vincent Kompany’s family fled Mobutu’s regime. As did the family of Belgium’s all-time top goalscorer Romelu Lukaku. Christian Benteke was born in Zaire, and came to Belgium as a young child to escape Mobutu. While Mobuto was then ousted in 1997, the country fell into two wars, lasting until 2003 and claiming 5.4m lives. The lion’s share of the misfortune and instability of the Congo can be laid at the feet of their former colonial masters, Belgium. And so, their golden generation of footballers, and any success they achieve, can be traced back to imperialism.
The diversity of Belgium’s 2018 team was facilitated in 2002 by their new technical director Michel Sablon. He acknowledged the rise in immigration in the 1980s, and charged anthropologist Johan Leman to develop policies for using football as a tool for social integration. They achieved this partially through the building of cement pitches in city neighbourhoods. As well as more inclusionary policies, Sablon developed a new approach that focused on teaching excellent technique and ball control in tight spaces (Dubois, NYR, 2018). After a decade, this new, Johan Kruyff-style approach led to a crop of technically talented footballers hailed as the golden generation. Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, Toby Alderwerield, Thibaut Courtois, Mousa Dembele, Romelu Lukaku are the prime examples of Belgium’s best ever team.
So what does Belgium’s dark colonial history mean in the context of their 2018 team? The brilliance of Premier League winning captain Kompany, the heights he has led Belgium to, are in spite of the war-torn background Belgium contributed to. Belgium has provided both the oppression and suffering for himself and his family, but paradoxically also the outlet through which they have achieved success. His father, Pierre, was elected the first Black mayor in Belgium.
Belgium owes significant debt and reparations to the Congo. The UN has also raised concerns about the situation of African people in Belgium who experience endemic racial discrimination, a leftover effect, they say, of the violence and injustice of colonisation (Chiwanza, African Exponent, 2019). Phillippe’s statement of regret was an initial step in an acknowledgment and reconciliation policy that demands more work.
To say that this team’s success in becoming the third best in the world is solely down to colonialism is incorrect. They are all Belgian, and have excelled due to hard work and improved infrastructure in the Belgian national set up. But as Sablon acknowledged, ‘migrant communities [have] enlivened and improved Belgian soccer as a whole’, and in my opinion reached peaks that the small European country has never before achieved (Dubois, NYR, 2018). It is time, however, that Belgium and other colonialists make meaningful steps to address their destructive histories.
Written by - Harry Russell