He built the Africa Museum in the grounds of his palace at Tervuren, with a "human zoo" in the grounds featuring Congolese people as exhibits. But rumours of abuse began to circulate and missionaries and British journalist Edmund Dene Morel exposed the regime.
By , Leopold II's rule was deemed so cruel that European leaders, themselves violently exploiting Africa, condemned it and the Belgian parliament forced him to relinquish control of his fiefdom. Belgium took over the colony in and it was not until that the Republic of the Congo was established, after a fight for independence.
When Leopold II died in , he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. This makeover of Leopold's image produced an amnesia that persisted for decades. The current protests are not the first time Belgium's ugly history in Congo has been contested in the streets.
In , the cities of Kortrijk and Dendermonde renamed their Leopold II streets, with Kortrijk council describing the king as a "mass murderer". And in , Brussels named a public square in honour of Patrice Lumumba, a hero of African independence movements and the first prime minister of Congo, since renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last year a UN working group called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities committed during the colonial era. Charles Michel, prime minister at the time, declined.
Around 20, children born to Belgian settlers and local women were forcibly taken to Belgium to be fostered. After all, destroying the iconography of Adolf Hitler did not mean the history of Nazi Germany was forgotten, she points out.
But taking the monument away does not solve the problem of racism, she believes, while creating one museum devoted to the statues would not be useful either. In DR Congo itself, no-one has really noticed the Belgian protests, says Jules Mulamba, a lawyer in the south-eastern city of Lubambashi. He attributes colonial crimes to the king himself, rather than the Belgian people or state. Beyond removal of statues, far more work is required to dismantle racism, protesters and black communities argue.
For decades, colonial history has been barely taught in Belgium. Mathys points to the example of cities such as Ostend and Brussels, where many buildings were commissioned and paid for by Leopold II. His many construction projects funded by the wealth he took from the Congo earned him the name "Builder King". He never visited the Congo, but ruled it from Belgium, until he sold it to the Belgian state, under pressure from reformers.
From then, it was a colony of the Belgian state, known as the Belgian Congo. As the longest-reigning monarch, and with his "Builder King" moniker, a number of statues were erected in his honour in Belgium. Here, Leopold poses with his honorary sash. Regions are the basic units of geography. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. That could change soon. Armed only with history and an online petition, year-old Noah is determined to bring Belgium's controversial "Builder King" crashing down. Noah's parents are from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the late 19th century, the country -- then personally owned by Leopold II -- was a place of extraordinary cruelty , where hundreds of thousands of Africans died in slavery. As statues linked to slavery and racism began to tumble in the US and Europe, Noah set up an online petition to have Brussels' memorials to Leopold torn down. He called it "Reparons l'histoire" Let's repair history ; it has 80, signatures and counting.
An American policeman killed George Floyd. Now Europe is re-examining its colonial history. Read More. CNN agreed to Noah's request not to use his last name due to the current tense political climate.
Noah says not enough Belgians understand the history of what was ironically called the Congo Free State. Those in authority may now be listening. Last week, Belgium's parliament approved a national inquiry into Belgian colonialism.
Els Van Hoof, a Belgian MP who leads the chamber of representative's foreign affairs committee, says the inquiry may tackle the question of what to do with statues of Leopold II, though the exact scope of work has yet to be determined. It will be the first time that Belgium has embarked on such a broad effort to confront its colonial sins. When Leopold took the throne, he was desperate for Belgium to become a colonial power.
The Belgian parliament, however, did not share the same goal. So instead, Leopold convinced European powers and the United States to recognize a massive swath of Africa as his own privately-owned colony. It only became a Belgian colony after he was forced to relinquish control. Leopold sent in a private army to force local people to collect ivory and rubber.
Those who resisted, or were unable to meet the impossible work quotas imposed on them, faced mutilation, amputation or execution. Historians estimate that at least half a million people died under Leopold's misrule, but its horrors have received little attention in modern Belgium. Belgium's 'human zoo'. Just outside Brussels, in the small, affluent suburb of Tervuren, a burial site is tucked inside the courtyard of the church of St John the Evangelist, just a few steps away from a square lined with quaint cafes and shaded outdoor patios.
People shuffle past, rarely stopping to visit, unaware of the history beneath their feet.
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