“Sorry for Congo, Let’s Make Amends”: Belgians’ Ideological Worldviews Predict Attitudes Towards Apology and Reparation for its Colonial Past

Abstract

Belgium has a peculiar colonial history. By the time the country became independent in 1830, most other European powers already had colonies. From 1840 to 1850, Belgium's first king, Leopold I, made several unfruitful attempts to acquire overseas territories. A deal to colonize the Kingdom of Hawaii fell apart (Hunnewell 1869), and an effort to settle in Guatemala did not last long (Feys 2003), but these endeavors sparked the colonial enthusiasm in his son, King Leopold II. Because the Belgian government viewed colonial expansion as economically and politically risky, Leopold II pursued his ambitions without the support of the government after he was crowned (Ewans, 2017).Out of a 'longlist' of 54 potentially interesting territories, 1 Leopold II picked a region rich in natural resources such as ivory and rubber, roughly 76 times larger than Belgium, the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin (Viaene, 2008). From 1885 onwards, King Leopold II of Belgium de facto owned the Congo Free State under his personal rule. During those decades, many well-documented atrocities occurred, ranging from unjustified imprisonments to brutal mutilations. Furthermore, forced labor (and the displacement of the population that it involved) was one of the major causes of the huge population fall during this period (Goddeeris, Lauro, & Vanthemsche 2020). By the turn of the century, the violence against indigenous Congolese and the system of economic exploitation led to diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control (Gann 2015). Hence, Congo became a Belgian colony from 1908 until its independence in 1960.

Attitudes shape implicit temporal trajectories: A quantitative test of the narrative structure of collective memories of colonialism

“…The impact of individual attitudes on implicit temporal trajectories should be highest in countries in which a strong controversy about their colonial past is ongoing, and lowest in countries in which collective memories of colonialism are more consensual. It would also be worth investigating whether public apologies for colonial crimes could lead to more convergence in these trajectories (Lastrego & Licata, 2010;Van Assche, Roets, Haesevoets, & Noor, 2021). Second, the shapes of narratives about other historical events or periods may also vary as a function of attitudes.…”

How and why decolonial activists mobilize or challenge the victim status: The case of Belgium's Afro‐descendants

“…It colonized the Congo and administered Rwanda and Burundi after World War I. Recently, Belgium's colonial action and its consequences were put under the spotlight (Demart et al, 2017; Hochschild, 1998), resulting in a recent and partial acknowledgment by Belgian authorities of its responsibility for the suffering of the Congolese people (Van Assche, Roets, Haesevoets, & Noor, 2021). Presently, Belgium counts over 250,000 people of African descent, 1 which is the most discriminated community in Belgium in terms of employment, education, and housing (UNIA, 2017).…”