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"L’Afrique belge", land of historical explorations
6/10/14

Explaining the nuances

When reading the book, it quickly becomes apparent that the colonial past is making a big comeback in today’s reflections. But as one of the authors, Patricia Van Schuylenbergh, quite rightly says, “this renewed enthusiasm does little to conceal the ambiguities in the content of colonialism and the ways of dealing with it, which crystallise the ideological and political divisions and bear witness to the difficult weight of this past” in our country and elsewhere.

Catherine Lanneau is in full agreement: “In a context that is currently increasingly marked by a tendency towards a global, transnational and interconnected history, the rewriting of colonial times also involves collusion, and often a marked confusion between the professional writing of history, the essay or journalistic lampoon, non-fiction, the novel, the life story, and personal or group memoirs of former colonials. It’s not easy to find your way among this profusion where the undiscerning apology rubs shoulders with the virulent denunciation, whether it’s a matter of colonisation in general or a facet of it, such as the Leopoldian era”. It is true that at the moment, a sort of expiatory memory of colonisation is being widely expressed in discussions, as though, after a phase of denial and repression, the former colonising countries were currently tending towards what Benjamin Stora refers to as “memory overload”. Beware of the clash between history, political stakes and memories, with one commanding the other to tell the truth.

It is therefore an education in nuance and precision which the historians of colonialism offer us. A laudable challenge which they take up with brio throughout “L'Afrique belge aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Nouvelles recherches et perspectives en histoire coloniale

From “genius”...

In her contribution, Patricia Van Schuylenbergh, head of the History and Politics section at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, first re-examines the historiography of colonialism in depth. Her report is enlightening.

Leopold 2As we know, the acts of violence committed under Leopold II in the Congo Free State (CFS) raised virulent national and international criticism at the time. When Belgium “inherited” Congo in 1909, the traditional establishment made sure it put an end to it by encouraging the emergence of a “heroic” history, through a multitude of works. This, the historian notes, would make abundant use – until the beginning of the 1950s – of the epic and self-justifying account of colonisation and its civilising values. This propaganda would help to shape a “colonial spirit” among the population. Above all, it became the tool of national patriotism where the King stood out as an inspired and visionary figure who bequeathed a prosperous colony to the nation.

During the 1950s, the situation gradually changed, under the influence of certain pioneering works such as those by Jean Stengers. However, the young professor from the Université Libre de Bruxelles had to face a generation of diehard pro-Leopold historians for many years, who were “highly oriented” in their vision of the colonial past.

After Congo’s independence in 1960, new perspectives opened up thanks to eminent historians, such as Jean-Luc Vellut and Jan Vansina, a pioneer in the collection of oral traditions in the field. Several schools gradually developed around university, academic, and institutional centres, and even around individuals. For instance, former colonial journalists (J. Kestergat and J. Massoz) published their field knowledge and experiences. Through Pierre Salmon, we also witnessed the arrival of ethnohistory, a branch of anthropology, which postulates the recognition of the history of societies with no written language.

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