People From Brussels

"Call Leopold II a great visionary? You can't do that. What happened there then is shameful. If we took into account the standards of the 21st century, there is a good chance that Leopold II should now have appeared before the International Criminal Court in The Hague."

"Using the word genocide in Congo is absolutely unacceptable, nor appropriate! Colonization was not a silly undertaking. And yes, it was perhaps rather dominate, discovery and even acquire pure power. But at a certain point civilization did come."

"We are easily tempted to exaggerate when it comes to Congo. It is quite lewd and simple to now posthumously condemn Leopold II. I instinctively feel that he was a hero, a hero with ambition for a small country like Belgium."

"The Belgians built the railways, schools and hospitals there and boosted economic growth. Whether Leopold II also turned Congo into a gigantic labor camp? Not really. At the time, that was just the way of doing things."

"Several of the little girls were so sickly on their arrival that our good sisters wouldn't save them, but all had the happiness of receiving holy baptism, they are now little angels in heaven who are praying for our great king."

"Leopold's Congo state is guilty of crimes against humanity."

"I accuse Leopold's officials of tyranny, i accuse Leopold's government of excessive cruelty, ox chains eaten to the necks of prisoners and produce sores about which flies circle, the courts are aborted unjust and delinquent, not one state official knows the language of the natives, your majesties' government is engaged in slave trade, wholesale and retail."

"Seldom has such a character assassination been committed in Belgium, seldom has the press reached such lows as in the time of Leopold II."

"I did not fail to refer to the "abuses and other undeniable deficiencies that this report rightly stigmatizes. Leopold II, of course, also carefully read this report. He reacted to it very quickly, with an honesty, insight and efficiency worthy of this visionary King. Despite the damning conclusions, he did not hesitate to have it published - in extenso - in the Official Journal of the EIC (Independent State of Congo). He had the perpetrators of the abuses prosecuted and, above all, taken a series of radical measures to put an end to them, by issuing no less than 24 Decrees to this effect."

"There were severed hands in the Congo, at the time of the Independent State... by the Officers of the Force Publique, to prevent the waste of ammunition to which their soldiers willingly let go, demanded that they provide proof that they had used their cartridges correctly. The proof was the severed hand of the killed enemy ... Severed hands, it will be noted, never constituted a form of punishment. ... By emphasizing, as they did, on the theme of severed hands - a theme which, we realize, easily provoked emotion -, Morel and his friends gave birth to the ambiguity which finally spread and lasted until our days: the idea that Leopold II had his hands cut off in the Congo, that it was a question of torture inflicted on the population, and even of torture most characteristic of the regime."

"The committee is to travel throughout the country into all the districts covered by Mr Casement in his recent tour of inspection, besides visiting many places Mr Casement never saw. In brief, the committee is to hold inquiry wherever evidence can be obtained. Where native witnesses give evidence of a nature prejudicial to white men, the committee will see that such witnesses are protected from the possibility of suffering at the hands of officials against whom they may bear witness. The Government of the Congo holds itself responsible for the safety and well-being of such witnesses. On the latter point King Leopold has expressed himself in the strongest possible terms."

"There have been cases in which the natives have been maltreated by minor officials, but these are isolated cases, and are severely punished by the authorities. Such cases have occurred in all public services where an attempt has been made to govern inferior races. Such things have happened in the Philippines, in British Africa, and in India. No colonising nation can cast a stone at King Leopold on that score. Among a large number of officials scattered over a vast territory there will often be one or two wicked stewards who despitefully use the natives. All that any State can do is to keep vigilant watch and to punish the wrongdoers, and this the Congo State has done. It has even established a Commission for the protection of the natives. By the decree of 1896, this Commission consisted of seven members, three being Catholic priests and four Protestant missionaries."

"The Congo was a sovereign State before the Berlin Conference was thought of. The first official acknowledgment of the new State came from the United States in the spring of 1884. It was afterwards formally recognised by other nations, and it entered the Berlin Conference on equality with the other Powers. It has never placed itself under the guardianship of any Power or collection of Powers. It has no connection with Belgium except that King Leopold II happens to be king of each of them."

"Never before had an individual, whether king or commoner, created such an entity and it was all done without the classic assistance of armed conquest, royal marriage, or assassinations."

"Nothing that impressed Africa was foreign to him. Without needing to go and look there, he knew the dark continent, as if he had been its explorer, and he followed step by step the discoveries, which he noted in his prodigious memory and on the maps displayed on it. Table."

"When Leopold had an idea in his head, it was impossible to make him quit."

"The form of colonization he had championed, in fact, did not seem to him to be affected by these criticisms and it is in fact that it was not very much."

"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."

"The colonial past has never been discussed in a transparent and systematic manner in Belgium. Many historians have certainly studied the subject, but at the political level the theme has been very little addressed, if not avoided. And the biggest gap is in education. Our 21st century multicultural society needs to know the facts, not the myths passed down from generation to generation. The detachment of the statues of Leopold II is part of a desire to purge a past partisan by the settlers, without regard for the colonized population and their suffering."

"The colonial system was wrong. It was an exploitation of the natural resources at the expense of the local population. In Belgium there is still a taboo on that subject, the place of Leopold II is in the museum, provided with the necessary explanation."

"The Portuguese and Belgian colonial regimes were the most brazen in directly rounding up Africans to go and work for private capitalists under conditions equivalent to slavery. In Congo, brutal and extensive forced labor started under King Leopold II in the last century. So many Congolese were killed and maimed by Leopold’s officials and police that this earned European disapproval even in the midst of the general pattern of colonial outrages. When Leopold handed over the “Congo Free State” to the Belgian government in 1908, he had already made a huge fortune; and the Belgian government hardly relaxed the intensity of exploitation in Congo."

"As early as 1855, the thought of the Duke of Brabant (Leopold II) seemed to be fixed on the subject of the initial form that any expansionist or Belgian colonial attempt must take: that of an international commercial company."

"After 1869, the desire for territorial expansion, which he had cherished throughout his youth, became his one and only ambition, even his obsession."

"Leopold II, the Leopold II who appears to us in the light of the texts we know today, was indeed one of the most foreign men to the spirit of profit as it is usually understood. But his great thoughts, when he wielded money as an instrument, were more often than not for himself, but for his country. The Congo, no matter what Morel thought, brought him nothing personally. He drew money from the Congo, but he used it almost exclusively to enrich the national heritage, through real estate acquisitions, monumental constructions, and urban planning. His dread was not his own fortune but the “beautification” of his country."

"He has done many good things for our country. He had parks built in Brussels and many other things, Leopold II himself has never been to Congo. But the people who worked for the king. And they really abused it. But I don't see how the monarch would make the people there suffer. It is important that this is also said."

"We can say that in terms of town planning - before the letter - he was a precursor. If there is an area where its reputation is guaranteed to survive for a long time to come, this is it. Belgium found itself since the end of his reign at the forefront of architectural movements and we can still see today in the Brussels landscape, and almost everywhere in the country, the mark of the king-builder."

"He desires a strong Belgium so that his wealth ceases to arouse envy among his neighbors; he also desires her to be strong, so that she can increase her heritage, float her flag on the seas, settle on distant beaches."

"Leopold II was a hero with ambition for a small country like Belgium."

"The more the Belgians know about the struggles that Leopold II supported to develop his work and ensure it a place in the family of nations, the more they will appreciate their heritage. Each year the debt they owed to their second king becomes more priceless to them, and each year further highlights the sagacity and patriotism of Leopold II. While their large African colony has greatly enhanced the power of the metropolis, it will continue to increase the wealth of the whole world in the future."

"He wanted to transform his little Belgians into an imperial nation capable of dominating and enlightening others."

"I well knew your present King’s father and pious mother. I was often admitted to the friendly intimacy of the royal family, and I have held the little Leopold, Duke of Brabant, in my arms. I remember that good Christian, Queen Marie Louise, asking me to give my benediction to her eldest son, then eight or nine years old, so that he might become a good king."

"This wise prince, the true head of a nation of freemen, did more than deserve the love and admiration of his subjects. He rendered a distinguished service to the cause of popular liberty."

"Every Belgian heart beats in unison with our hearts, and their voices unite with our voices; and there shall echo from one end of Belgium to the other the cries, a thousand times repeated, Vive King Leopold II! Vive the Queen! Vive the royal family!"

"Leopold had a very strong personality. His tenacity and stubbornness discouraged not only individuals but also entire governments. Indeed, to serve his prodigious energy, he needed men who could work for him tirelessly and at his own pace. His juvenile and somewhat awkward air disappeared and he soon exercised a singular power of seduction. There are many testimonies of men faced with tasks they considered exorbitant, if not impossible, and who left their desks, boiling with enthusiasm to carry out their plans."

"The King was very ignorant… he lacked education. ... He was ignorant of geography, the teachings of history and the science of international law"

"He is August the tyrant."

"The King is no longer the same; the change of character and spirit observed in him for two or three years is accentuated and makes fear of a catastrophe, at a time when he had only to let it go to be a remarkable King, perhaps to become a large figure."

"The King isolates himself and becomes less and less accessible to our advice."

"Leopold II has always been a bit of an obsession for me. In 1955 I was appointed to the order named after him, I didn't quite know what to do with it, I defiantly walked around with the ribbon in the hope that some colonel would say: "Vlerk, what are you doing with that?" It never happened unfortunately. I've read 42 books about him, documented thoroughly about the interest rate in 1882, and you can't help but feel admiration for that man. He has been the last great king, a kind of dinosaur. When he said or wrote 'we', you don't know whether he's talking about himself, his family, his country or his dynasty."

"Papers from Count Jules Greindl, who was the main collaborator of Leopold II in this curious affair, the author has drawn a very precise account, supplemented by documents. To take advantage of the financial ruin of Spain to make the Philippines a kingdom of its own, distinct from Belgium and then to form a company which would exploit the islands in the name of Spain, such were the successive ideas of Leopold. They failed both for lack of capital and for the reaction of Spanish pride. But they show, in Leopold II, the progress of the colonial idea with all the aspects that will then be found in the Congolese affair. When Stanley discovered the Congo, Leopold was ready."

"I am a great admirer of Leopold II, although I think that he should be destroyed in the memory of mankind and reduced to the state in which I presented him in my play, namely a dirty goblin who as soon as he does something of any interest must be raised in order to become a fully-fledged human being."

"'Leopold II was a true visionary for his time, a hero."

"He claims all successes and attributes the failures to others, he accepts no more criticism and he demands unquestioning obedience to his commands, his judgment must be the judgment of all, his logic must be that of his co-workers, his conscience must be the conscience of others, he is so accustomed to crushing any opposition or sensitivity in his associates that he dares to ask them anything."

"The young Prince Leopold has the nose of a fairytale prince who has been enchanted by an evil witch."

"The Duke of Brabant (Leopold II) takes me for a statistical office."

"My rights to the Congo are not for sharing; they are the fruits of my labours and my expenditures . . . The adversaries of the Congo are pressing for immediate annexation. These persons no doubt hope that a change of regime would sabotage the work now in progress and would enable them to reap some rich booty."

"If you yield so much as an inch of the Congo, your old King will rise from his grave to blame you."

"The mission which the agents of the State in Congo must fulfill is noble and of high purpose. Their task is to develop the work of civilization. They must gradually contain the primitive wildness, the bloodthirsty habits of thousands of years. They must subject the population to new laws. among which the most urgent and the most beneficial is undoubtedly that of labour."

"You would remember that when I decided that the state would exploit its domain and that any vacant land would be claimed by it as its own, you found me absolutely absolute. You have nevertheless very vigorously and very skillfully supported me. For the Nile, I also ask you to follow my instructions faithfully. I will not lead you to the shipwreck, I promise you. For the time being, I want to be as powerful as possible on the Nile."

"I am overwhelmed by your letter yesterday, and I hope with all my heart and for you and for the patriotic work that we are pursuing that you do not persevere in your desire to leave the administration of the Congo. Please come and see me in Brussels on Saturday at a quarter past one."