While it’s a good thing to remember and learn from our past, I don’t agree with the use of the Belgian flag.
The worst atrocities were begun and perpetuated when Congo was private property of Leopold II and not part of the Belgian colonial property nor under its rule. After the Belgian state took over control a lot of effort was put into quelling these abhorrent practices. Laws were passed that kings could no longer own private colonies just that atrocities such as this could not repeat.
We should feel bad about what happened there under a Belgian king, but it’s also quite unfair to put responsibility on the Belgian state or government when they weren’t involved.
It’s a travesty any of these L2 statues are still around..
The irony of King Philip’s diplomatic & recognition/”apology” visit to Congo s few months, while still having a huge statue of his grandfather behind his Brussels Palace is almost laughable.. (not withstanding tgst inside of the palaces there are likely still many paintings and busts of him too)
I much prefer this to just taking away Leopold II statues.
If there is any artistic or historic value to the statue, it doesn’t take away that value, cause it’s obvious this is a more recent addition and somewhat separate from the original art. That it’s an addition, also signifies that we, as a country, have later realized the terrible things associated with Leopold II. This even gives the statue more artistic and historic value.
I really don’t understand why people want to keep Leopold II statues in public.
Rather than downvoting this, I invite you to try and explain why we should keep those.
They should put statues of his 14 year old “lovers” next to the statues.
This is the way.
That is a great addition!
Problem with the whole Congo-history is that loads of context is forgotten and a lot of stuff is exaggerated. I’ve seen figures of locals getting killed that exceed the guessed total inhabitants of the region. It’s hard to discuss topics when starting with wrong facts. Most figures are all guesstimates at best yet “sold” as accurate figures. Don’t get me wrong: what happened there is absolutely disgusting. Cutting of people’s hands, rape, killing. It’s gruesome. But I’ve seen people comparing Leopold II to Hitler and I find that absurd. Hitler deliberately wanted to annihilate Jews, gays, gypsies, … Leopold II wanted a big return on investment and local “managers” decided that cutting of hands would set a nice example. The king never set foot in Congo for example. Was it ok what happened there? Obviously not, but compare him to Hitler? Let’s keep it real, shall we?
De stoete Ostendenare is were op pad!
Ok here we go again. Bashing ourselves. I have yet to see the first post like this about Churchill in some British Reddit. Why aren’t we just a tad more proud of our country ffs.
Let’s acknowledge what he did, but I’m not fond of trying to be more woke than other colonial powers.
Nobody likes him and belgians arent like him, stop this stupid bullcrap and remove that statue of leopold on the horse
Nice to see that the Belgians are beginning to hate themselves as the anglosaxon do, you will have for sure a certain place in the hierarchy of the new globalized world
We are so hypocrit. Removing the statue is not enough. We need to repay the spoliations with interest. We need to dismantle and sell our houses, buildings, our roads, our museums, schools and make for it. Or… we can acknowledge it was bad, apologise, say we won’t do it again and move one. In this case, we must admit Léopold 2’s awful acts are one of the reasons we are living in such a rich country built on colonies (and they aren’t)
History is not always nice and shiny, that’s how you build civilisations.
It’s time to look this fact in the eyes. Sorry to be harsh.
When Belgium will start compensations like germans doing to jews? Or blackies are less valuable humanbeings?
16 comments
Will this addition be removed soon ?
Striking, I quite like it
While it’s a good thing to remember and learn from our past, I don’t agree with the use of the Belgian flag.
The worst atrocities were begun and perpetuated when Congo was private property of Leopold II and not part of the Belgian colonial property nor under its rule. After the Belgian state took over control a lot of effort was put into quelling these abhorrent practices. Laws were passed that kings could no longer own private colonies just that atrocities such as this could not repeat.
We should feel bad about what happened there under a Belgian king, but it’s also quite unfair to put responsibility on the Belgian state or government when they weren’t involved.
It’s a travesty any of these L2 statues are still around..
The irony of King Philip’s diplomatic & recognition/”apology” visit to Congo s few months, while still having a huge statue of his grandfather behind his Brussels Palace is almost laughable.. (not withstanding tgst inside of the palaces there are likely still many paintings and busts of him too)
I much prefer this to just taking away Leopold II statues.
If there is any artistic or historic value to the statue, it doesn’t take away that value, cause it’s obvious this is a more recent addition and somewhat separate from the original art. That it’s an addition, also signifies that we, as a country, have later realized the terrible things associated with Leopold II. This even gives the statue more artistic and historic value.
I really don’t understand why people want to keep Leopold II statues in public.
Rather than downvoting this, I invite you to try and explain why we should keep those.
They should put statues of his 14 year old “lovers” next to the statues.
This is the way.
That is a great addition!
Problem with the whole Congo-history is that loads of context is forgotten and a lot of stuff is exaggerated. I’ve seen figures of locals getting killed that exceed the guessed total inhabitants of the region. It’s hard to discuss topics when starting with wrong facts. Most figures are all guesstimates at best yet “sold” as accurate figures. Don’t get me wrong: what happened there is absolutely disgusting. Cutting of people’s hands, rape, killing. It’s gruesome. But I’ve seen people comparing Leopold II to Hitler and I find that absurd. Hitler deliberately wanted to annihilate Jews, gays, gypsies, … Leopold II wanted a big return on investment and local “managers” decided that cutting of hands would set a nice example. The king never set foot in Congo for example. Was it ok what happened there? Obviously not, but compare him to Hitler? Let’s keep it real, shall we?
De stoete Ostendenare is were op pad!
Ok here we go again. Bashing ourselves. I have yet to see the first post like this about Churchill in some British Reddit. Why aren’t we just a tad more proud of our country ffs.
Let’s acknowledge what he did, but I’m not fond of trying to be more woke than other colonial powers.
Nobody likes him and belgians arent like him, stop this stupid bullcrap and remove that statue of leopold on the horse
Nice to see that the Belgians are beginning to hate themselves as the anglosaxon do, you will have for sure a certain place in the hierarchy of the new globalized world
We are so hypocrit. Removing the statue is not enough. We need to repay the spoliations with interest. We need to dismantle and sell our houses, buildings, our roads, our museums, schools and make for it. Or… we can acknowledge it was bad, apologise, say we won’t do it again and move one. In this case, we must admit Léopold 2’s awful acts are one of the reasons we are living in such a rich country built on colonies (and they aren’t)
History is not always nice and shiny, that’s how you build civilisations.
It’s time to look this fact in the eyes. Sorry to be harsh.
When Belgium will start compensations like germans doing to jews? Or blackies are less valuable humanbeings?