Belgium

"We are exhausted in Antwerp and have endured so much that this war seems without purpose.. ..[and that it seemed] strange that Spain, which provides so little for the needs of this country... has an abundance of means to wage an offensive war elsewhere."

"While in 1960 barely 7% of the Antwerp population had an immigration background, in 2021 this has evolved to 59.7% of which the vast majority has a non-European background: 39.6% of Antwerp residents are of non-European descent. Knowing that in 2020 49.4% of the mothers of newborns were of non-European nationality, the bill was quickly settled. In a maximum of 20 years Antwerp will have a majority of residents of non-European descent, the majority of whom will be Muslims. The population is moving at a rapid pace. The flexible Belgian nationality legislation has become a kind of “Fast Belgian factory”. Foreigners disappear from the statistics and officially become Belgians, but of course ensure the further multiculturalization of Antwerp. Along with the ethnic transition, a cultural shift is also taking place, with all its consequences. The native Flemings and their culture and way of life threaten to become a minority in the long run, ripe for the reserve…"

"And so, by the disposition of God who orders all things, the art of war, the flower of knighthood, with horses and chargers of the finest, fell before weavers, fullers and the common folk and foot soldiers of Flanders, albeit strong, manly, well armed, courageous and under expert leaders. The beauty and strength of that great [French] army was turned into a dung-pit, and the [glory] of the French made dung and worms."

"One of the consequences of the Second World War was the collapse of the colonial system. All the old colonies, often under pressure, obtained the recognition of their independence. Belgium also granted autonomy to Congo."

"The Belgians are setting about the task of combating the shortage of labour with almost Teutonic thoroughness and far-sightedness."

"Our mission has been favorably impressed by the material develpment brought about the native welfare fund. I have personaly observed how the native population apreciates Belgium"s efforts in this direction and how it has understood the benefits of derived by Ruanda-Urundi from the activities of this institution."

"In short, there is a great deal of stagnation among the settlers and the medium-sized enterprises. The native there is often mistreated, exploited and has no medical care. In the Menteau farm, we observed a considerable number of varicose ulcers, which hardly exists at UM and La Forminière. There is no dispensary on this farm. The small settler can succeed in the Congo, one can doubt it, he lives by the exploitation of the native whom he makes work like a convict and moreover, he takes back his meager salary by selling him bad goods. The settler is often doubled as a trafficker, they complement each other, the system truck. Besides, the whole colonial edifice rests on the negro's shoulders. He alone is the source of profit, thanks to the excessive exploitation of which he is the object. In a colony, where there are few transport routes, where those that exist demand exorbitant prices, where there is little or no mechanical handling, no workhorse, only the degradation of the workforce - work can maintain the commercial level of the cost price. Large companies have the merit, through their tools, their medical assistance, their works of providing more treatment and of not wasting manpower."

"This Belgian company made the first pasteurized milk packed in plastic bags in all of Brazil. They also made cheese and butter here before the dairy became a brewery. In the 1980s, the company Cervejaria BELCO produced massive beer while it was still brewed by Belgians. Today the brand has been bought out, but it still exists and BELCO beers are still sold in stores in the state of Sao Paulo."

"When I was in university, there were young people who said to me: 'You come to eat the bread of the Brazilians'”, I had to explain that we got credits from Belgium, that the school was paid for by Belgium, and that one day we have to pay this back, neither the Brazilian government nor the municipality here has intervened financially."

"For eighty years Belgium has sent your land the best of her sons, first to deliver the Congo basin from the odious slave trade which was decimating its population. Later to bring together the different tribes which, though former enemies, are now preparing to form the greatest of the Independent states of Africa."

"The natives while working on the mines are very well treated. They live in compounds, which appeared to be run on model lines. I was told that there had been cases of brutality and ill-treatment, but the compound managers concerned had been instantly dismissed. The Union Minière are strongly opposed to anything in the nature of brutal treatment of the natives."

"Speaking generally, it may be said that the authorities of the Union Minière are in advance of the Mining Companies in this Territory [Rhodesia] in the care and attention they give to recruited labour."

"In view of the rapid changes taking place in the world today, it seemed to me desirable to preserve in picture and sound some reflection of the surviving vestiges of the ancient life of the Congo, there is a communion between the man of the forest and his natural surroundings which inspires us in a sense of respect a recognition of spiritual heritage, I thank all those who have helped me to achieve this task which combines beauty and scientific truth."

"When we arrived it was a culture shock. Not because we were Belgians, but because we were Congolese. We were used to the situation in Congo. In Congo, the Belgians were the big masters. And here in Brazil, despite the attention we've attracted... we weren't the big masters. I think that was the biggest shock. Our arrival here was quite an event”"

"Little by little the village of Monte Alegre grew. In the 60s and 70s we built a gas station, a well, an infirmary, two schools and a meeting room where we celebrated Saint Nicholas or the National Day of Belgium on July 21. We also set up a dairy farm called: BELCO for "Belgium-Congo"."

"I adapted very quickly. I immediately started learning Portuguese in the wooden school in Monte Alegre, built by the Belgians. The Brazilian teacher had come directly from the city of Botucatu for this. It was more difficult for our parents to learn Portuguese. Often we, the children, were the interpreters for our parents when they had to communicate with the Brazilians. In Congo we arrived in our country, it was Belgium. here not at all. And the customs were very different also. We had to integrate. We got to know the local customs and the Brazilians wanted to know ours too."

"Production is ensured by the native working no longer as an employee, but as a free peasant, owner of his land."

"After having elaborated a vast plan of action for the benefit of the native but, to a large extent, outside his knowledge and comprehension, we must gradually obtain his acceptance and make him ever more conscious of it, as well as actively engaged in his own uplift. Gaining the native conscious and active acceptance of our civilizing ideal must be the primary object of our task of teaching and education in Belgian Africa."

"I am struck that quite a few black workers do not greet us and watch us pass by with folded arms. There are dances in the evening, not very lively. We feel that the strain of hard woodworking weighs on the morale of the natives."

"The country was bought by Belgium to settle the Belgians returning from Congo at the time of independence"

"The companies are complaining, but they have not done what is necessary to retain their workforce. They have relied too much on the obligation that the administration placed on the population."

"I was born in Charleroi. I had lived with my parents in Congo for 8 years. At independence we lost everything and returned to Belgium. It was then that the Belgian government proposed to come to Brazil to start our lives over. Because we had lost everything in Congo, Belgium wanted to buy itself out."

"We left Congo with my family after independence, in 1960”. We returned to Belgium for a few months before choosing to come here to Brazil in 1962. We came to work in agriculture, as in Congo. We were used to doing this. That was no longer possible in Belgium."

"What a beautiful breed these Wagenias and how friendly."

"The negro workers are still unaware of the force that can give them union organization; happy industrialists."

"The land was worth nothing, it was sand. The land here is badly bought. Much of it was difficult to cultivate and there was disappointment. For example, my father left the fazenda to work in a factory in Itapetininga."

"The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered the Treasury to make the following payments, effective May 1. to the priest João Baptista Vanesse, a monthly bonus of two hundred thousand journeys."

"Visit of the incomparable and impressive installations of Union Minière. We go up the hill. The sight is prestigious: the station, one of the most important in Africa, the buildings, the Europeans with the houses surrounded by gardens, the vast chessboard of the native city. The Negro workers that we see do not look unhappy, they are in good health."

"The twenty-five original families were chosen in their homeland by the priest Jean Baptiste Vanesse, who signed a contract with the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil. This priest has been criticized from the very beginning, leaving him largely to blame for the colony's failure. He is accused of being authoritarian, despotic and drinking way too much. It is a fact that most of the settlers had a background in their homeland in the service sector, trade or industry, and had little affinity with agricultural activities. They were unfamiliar with the Brazilian weather, the jungle that surrounded the colony, and the hard work of felling reeds. Most returned to Belgium. A few families remained active in the region in mixed farming, animal husbandry and the production of brandies."

"In November 1887, the government bought land in the municipality of Porto Feliz with an area of 1,601 hectares, to allocate it to this settlement, at a cost of 23,000$000. According to the contract of November 18, 1887 by the government with Father João Baptista Vanesse, this land is intended for the housing of Belgian immigrants, whom the priest will recruit. The government commits itself to demarcate the land in lots of 25 to 30 hectares, as well as to carry out other works such as the construction of a building for divine worship, a school, temporary housing for the settlers, restoration of the existing residence for the residence of the director and Vanesse priest, and the construction of the necessary roads and paths."

"We called the first avenue of wooden houses where the first Belgians who arrived here lived 'Avenue Louise'. After that, the cooperative made other houses in other streets for those who came after. There was also a shop, bakery, post office and a single telephone with a single number"

"The chief comes to greet us, he is a handsome Baluba negro, dressed as a European with a white helmet; shame."

"It is indisputable that the blacks have benefited from certain benefits of civilization."

"The British exploited differences between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the sub‐continent, creating deep resentments and divisions that persist today due to the 1947 Partition. Similarly, differences between the Hutus and Tutsis that led to the Rwandan genocide were created and exploited by Belgian colonizers."

"The Tambatamba, Bokusu, Batetela, and other followers of Arab families are congregated at Stanley Falls on both banks as far down as'La Romee. These two latter tribes live in large mud wall houses, detached, with yards or courts. They are both farmers and stock breeders. The former are clean, clothed, and polite, while the latter are like the Arabs, superior in appearance, dress, and manners in fact, the aristocracy of the land. Their fields are tilled by women and dependents and slaves. They are not true Arabs, though there are a few of these too among them. In all things except religion the Tambatambas follow their Arab conquerors of earlier days, but of religion they have only the superstitions without the bonds, rules, or system of worship of the Mahommedans."

"If some colonies are still available, someone will populate them. I am sure that these colonists, although isolated, will thank your majesty. They will find some Belgians among them who work hard and persevere to advance the country despite the fact that distance to the market place reduces of their harvest the value by half."

"Having a proper sense of her duty, and the means to carry it out, Belgium has mapped out her own course, and intends to keep to it. It entails a policy of humanity and progress. To a nation whos only aim is justice, the mission of colonization can only be a mission of high civilization: a small nation proves it greatness by carrying it out faithfully. Belgium has kept her word."

"One of the most industrialized countries in the world throughout the nineteenth century, Belgium needed the global market to export the products of its industry. Unlike most Western nations, and despite the ambitions of King Leopold II who, in a personal capacity, rushed into the colonization of Congo Free State, Belgium did not carve out a colonial empire for itself through military expeditions and “politics of the gunboat.” Based on capital, knowledge and engineering, Belgian imperialism was peaceful, such as the various universal and international expositions organized in Brussels, Antwerp, Liège and Ghent."

"The economic crisis which weighs on Europe since the industry took such a big development, carries the nations towards the colonial companies. Belgium could not remain a stranger to this movement without seriously compromising its material interests; our King (Leopold II) understood this, and this is what determined him to substitute his individual initiative for the persistent inaction of the government and the nation."

"If life in Europe was difficult because of the various conflicts and poverty faced by European families, life in the Brazilian interior was anything but easy in the early decades of colonization, given the climatic conditions, the wildlife and the many snakes."

"Belgium had no prior history in the slave trade, nor of African slaves. Léopold could fight against slavery without any hint of hypocrisy, even of the ahistorical type advanced by Hochschild. And it was slavery, not rubber operations, that contemporary observers viewed as the biggest threat to the people of the Congo."

"The result of all these considerations is that the Government of Belgium has no interest in favoring the emigration of Belgian families to Texas, whether it be to produce more ample resources to them or to obey the instincts of the few rare ones who crave for adventurous undertakings."

"Mexico entered the controversy by pointing out that she was about to liberalize her trade relations with Belgium, but would not do so if Belgium persisted in her dealings with Texas."

"Belgium, in the Texas affair, does not have all the liberty of action she desires. Considerations such as the pending negotiations with the Mexican and American Governments dictate the avoidance of potential evils… abandoning any measures with Texas completely."

"Although Pirson’s mission to Texas was not apparently known in Guatemala, the lesson of the Texas Rebellion was fresh on the minds of the opponents of the Belgian grant. “What was Texas when it began,” they asked. “and what is it today? Was it not a colony formed under the same illusions, with the same hopes, and with the same desire of accelerating time that has moved us in the approval of the contract with the Belgian company? And is it not today the cancer, the opprobrium, and the crowning evil that afflicts Mexico? Who assures us that our colony will not be for Guatemala what Texas has been for Mexico?”"

"It is interesting to note however, that Leopold’s penchant for secrecy was also evident in the Texas project. Pirson was under strict orders not to reveal anything about his mission other than that he was sent to Texas to study the potential commercial and economic advantages of trade between the two countries. There was to be no mention of the colonial or loan aspects of his mission. “…(your ) mission must maintain a confidential character as much as possible…"

"Constitutional government, especially in a small country, takes a great deal of time, and causes sight to be lost of the questions, which lone can secure to the country a political future. I have many a time that I saw you feeling more and more interest therein, and I am very anxious that it should be so, for it is time to be seriously occupied with those questions; otherwise Belgium will find herself at the tail of all other countries. I have heard that an association of German princes is actively occupied in an attempt at colonization in Texas…"

"Because of the general fear that foreign colonists would ultimately wish to establish their independence on the pattern of Texas, the government insisted that all immigrant settlers in the future abjure the protection of their home governments and become Guatemalan citizens."

"Santo Tomas was based on emigration and was therefore bound to fail, Belgians do not emigrate."

"The best way to create opportunities is to send, from time to time, expeditions to countries with which there is a chance to establish commercial relations."