In her very detailed general survey, Patricia Van Schuylenbergh also evokes the “diminishing importance of colonial history”, in Belgium and elsewhere, with Imperial history losing out to African history. “Indeed”, she writes, “the mental landscape of anti-colonialism and the appearance of African nationalism have modified historical habits”. In particular, these viewpoints led to an extension of the fields and places of research in Zaire itself. In the 1970s, the training of historians became widespread within the framework of the National University, which merged the three former history departments that existed in Kinshasa, Kisangani and Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga. The history of Congo was reinforced by “nationals” trained in Belgium and in France.

... to the “embarrassment" of the Belgians

P. Van Schuylenbergh then explores the many historiographical trends that have given a new impetus to historical research, in Belgium and abroad, in the past 15 years. By revealing the darkest facets of the CFS and the Belgian colony, many authors, both historians and non-historians, she points out, decided to look at the colonial past in a different light. Furthermore, the media coverage of certain works – the most explosive example being King Leopold’s Ghost(1), by the American journalist Adam Hochschild – and certain audiovisual productions – such as the film White King, Red Rubber, Black Death (2) by the Englishman Peter Bate, would hurl colonialism to the front of the public arena. And... trigger a virulent “war of memories”, in particular on the subject of the rapacious exploitation of Congolese rubber, the focal point of the history of the CFS.

"It's another phenomenon to be taken into account", insists P. Van Schuylenbergh. “In a context of economic crisis and European politics, which is also experienced as a crisis of confidence in its basic principles and in its ability to manage it, the defence of moral principles becomes a fundamental duty of introspection and self-criticism, but also retrospection regarding a colonial heritage whose reach exceeds state borders. A new interpretation of the past is therefore part of a general movement which confronts the colonial pasts of European countries with the issue of the moral responsibility of colonialism, with increased attention on human rights and victims".

For the majority of the Belgian public born after 1960, our historian notes, colonial history is summarised in two symptomatic shortcuts – the violence of the CFS and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961 – which underlines the pathos of a “terrible colony”, relating less to the objective historical facts than to a “memory” of the history, such as it appears in the various channels where it is produced.

The right to remember against a duty to remember?

Faced with the “duty to remember”, the “right to remember” resurfaces... P. Van Schuylenbergh also analyses the counterattack that has been organised by associations of former colonials over the past 15 years, such as “Mémoires du Congo” and “Afrikagetuigenissen”, who consider themselves the guardians of Belgian colonial heritage. According to the historian, they “vehemently, and even sometimes dogmatically, defend the founding memory of their particular identity”. Even if they are often inspired by sentimentality, these associations don’t hesitate to stand up, sometimes violently, when the King of the Free State and Belgian colonial deeds are attacked. To support their claims, they use the media tools of their critics: books, press articles, films, websites and the republishing of documents and historical works considered as references of the genre.

(1) Hochschild Adam, King Léopold's Ghost., Belfond, 1999.
(2) Bate Peter (Dir), White King, Red Rubber, Black Death, 2004.