Poems are still recited in Belgium about Africans being weak, thin, and savage, said Brazilian expert Louis Philippe Patrick de Jong Filho during his speech at the international conference titled “Belgian Colonialism: Acknowledgment and Responsibility,” APA reports.
The Brazilian expert stated that the process of humiliating Africans in Belgium still continues in the fields of culture, media, and arts.
He provided information about the historical roots of this issue.
“I would like to note that the blatant cruelty of the Belgian ruler King Leopold II’s regime later turned into bureaucratic control and moral guardianship. However, the violence continued. The colonial administration implemented systems such as the Economic and ‘Ten-Year Plan for Social Development,’ supposedly aimed at modernizing the Congo.
In reality, however, this plan falsely empowered Belgian officials while completely excluding the local population from decision-making. Education and religion became powerful tools of control. Missionary schools functioned not to enlighten, but to instill obedience.
Children were taught obedience, the importance of manual labor, and morality. The Church presented colonialism as a divine mission, while colonizers, considering the freedoms of Africans worthless, justified dominance through knowledge.
This empire was established in the classrooms as much as it was in the fields,” the Brazilian expert noted.
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