Brazilian expert: Humiliation of Africans in Belgium still persists

The humiliation of Africans in Belgium continues to this day across cultural, media, and public spheres, Brazilian expert Louis Philippe Patrick de Jong Filho said at the international conference “Belgian Colonialism: Acknowledgement and Responsibility” held in Baku.

According to de Jong Filho, the legacy of Belgian colonialism has merely changed form over time but has never truly ended.

“The overt brutality of the regime of King Leopold II of Belgium eventually turned into bureaucratic control and moral patronage. However, the violence continued,” he noted.

He explained that the colonial administration had introduced programs such as the Ten-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, which was presented as an effort to modernise the Congo. In reality, the expert said, this plan only served to further empower Belgian officials while completely excluding the local population from participation in decision-making processes.

“The Church presented colonialism as a divine mission, and the colonisers, depriving Africans of freedom, justified their domination with knowledge,” de Jong Filho emphasised.

The conference “Belgian Colonialism: Acknowledgement and Responsibility,” organised by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), has brought together representatives from Belgium’s former colonies — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi — along with diplomats, officials, and international experts.

Participants include specialists in international law, historians, researchers, civil society activists, and experts on reparations from eight countries. Discussions are focusing on the atrocities committed during Belgium’s colonial rule in Africa — including policies of ethnic division, mass killings, and the plundering of cultural heritage — as well as the enduring consequences of colonialism for these nations.

In addition, the conference is addressing Belgium’s ongoing neocolonial practices, the continued exploitation of natural resources in its former colonies, and the importance of placing the issues of reparations and accountability on the international agenda.

By Tamilla Hasanova