belgian-congo

"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."

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

"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 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"

"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"."

"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 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”"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"After a few years, the financial aid stopped. Some cooperatives have bought back their land. Others bought it and then sold it before leaving the place. Of the approximately 130 Belgian families who had settled in Monte Alegre, only a handful of houses still have descendants. The others have rebuilt their lives in Belgium or elsewhere in Brazil."

"The need was developing for oil for industrial machinery, but there was a very heavy trade imbalance in favor of the Rio Nunez."

"The area was a strip of land along both sides of Rio Nunez from the coast and included the two small towns of Victoria and Rapass, also spelled Ropass."

"Our operations will be aimed at principal orders and consignments, we shall give all our care there. The creation of new networks of important plants on both continents."

"The Foulahs come from the high mountains of the interior of the country where the big rivers, Senegal, Gambia, have their source. Those are the most beautiful Negros that one meets on the coast. They are reddish brown, have many Arabic features and resemble them by the shape the shape of the skull and the development of their intelligence. They are superior to all Negro types. One would be able to call them the Indians of Africa, as one gives the name Indians to the Redskins of America."

"All the most disadvantageous conditions one might think of can be found together in the land adjacent to the Rio Nunez. This is especially so in the area around Debocca, where the bed of the river, narrow and snaky, is densely compacted between two very heavily wooded banks which comprise an insurmountable barrier to the gentle winds of the open sea…It is this that causes a rejection of any idea to undertake at some point on this coast, the formation by Europeans of an agricultural colonization center. Attempts that one would make towards this goal would only serve to condemn some poor wretches sent to this inhospitable place to an unavoidable death. The formation of a commercial establishment would be far from presenting the same dangers and would be able to have some chances of success. The rivers of the Rio Nunez by virtue of the importance and the variety of their products, by the easiness of communications that they offer with the central market of Africa, with the different points of the coast, could become for Belgium a source of income as well as an important outlet. But again, in this case the care of the maintenance of those of our nation that agreed to go into this fatal climate to serve as pioneers to Belgian trade, would call for all the government's concern. We take for granted the proposition that Belgium judges it appropriate to establish in the Rio Nunez either a commercial counter or military stations. In both cases, it would be good not to send to occupy and especially to found these establishments anything but the absolutely minimum necessary number of Belgians. The first work to clear the area could be performed by natives under the direction of some capable men, appointed to this position by the government. Would one not also be able to use for rest of the work, which Blacks would be unfit, some of the numerous convicts that clutter our prisons? If the government judged it necessary to protect our trade on the river by the establishment of military posts, it would be easy to recruit among the natives, of the islands of Cape Vert, the necessary soldiers to form the garrison of these posts. This method of recruiting would have the double advantage of procuring for us men already acclimated to the climate and sparing the health of our nationals. It would be sufficient of put at the head of these posts a small number of Belgians to maintain our influence on the river. In general, men of a weak constitution should be separated out. Those that one would send into the Rio Nunez…"

"Mistrust of the foreigner is still at the bottom of the minds of the Chinese. One way if not to destroy, at least to mitigate these prejudices, would be to put the study committee under a neutral banner. The committee would be made up of capitalists and industrialists eager to prepare for the success of lucrative enterprises or of politicians willing to serve the cause of civilization with their help."

"I'm still working, but we have to start by putting forward a diplomatic arrangement. This point obtained, we would have a good chance of success. For the moment, the Belgian shipping word in China should not be used at any price."

"The civil ministers, supported by the main newspapers of the country, were of the opinion that it was difficult to reconcile with the international statute of neutrality which was that of Belgium."

"Although China attracted Belgian investors and missionaries from the 1860s, it is especially after 1900 that major investments began to take place in various industrial, financial and commercial sectors, such as banking, railways, metallurgy and real estate. The most famous companies were the Banque sino-belge, the Compagnie financière belgo-chinoise, the Société belge d’entreprise en Chine, the Compagnie générale des chemins de fer en Chine and the cfeo. The Beijing-Hankou (present Wuhan) railway line, the mines of Lincheng, the trams of Tientsin and the steel mills of Hanyang were among the most successful results of the Belgian “informal empire.”"

"For three or four Chinese coppers, I could ride in a rickshaw from my home, in England, to Italy, Germany, Japan, or Belgium. I walked to France for violin lessons; I had to cross the river to get to Russia, and often did, because the Russians had a beautiful wooded park with a lake in it."

"Mr. Devaux said His Majesty had repeatedly spoken to him on the subject and he himself looked upon the project as undesirable and unpractical and had stated that opinion very frankly to the King. It was with great satisfaction he found that it coincided with the views expressed in Your Lordship’s letters, the arguments in which were so convincing and unanswerable that he was certain they would put an end to the scheme at once."

"Everything you say about Tonkin is very fair. This one is a dangerous toy."

"The King decreases his alms. All of this. All the money saved goes to Africa. What will it be like when you have conquered Tonkin?"

"Beyens for Tonkin, certainly did not encourage him, he just obeyed."

"Did he believe in Tonkin, and in the advantages it could offer for Belgium? It is permissible to doubt it, and even to believe the contrary."

"The Philippines was the gateway to China and Japan! No one would allow a great Power to come and settle there."

"The stay in Madrid having made me lose the few illusions I still had about the Philippines affair, I asked and already obtained, several months ago, permission to no longer deal with it and since then, I had never heard of it again."

"But it would not be reckless to say that from the start the King dreamed of founding a Belgian colony. Many times I have heard him say, when the Independent State emerged from its swaddling clothes like a newborn baby trying to walk: "I work there for Belgium"."

"This part of the State, that is to say the east of the Congo, is inhabited by happy blacks who often and without bringing them there, compared before me the happy present with the misery and the terror of when the Arabs had established themselves as slave traders in the region."

"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."

"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."

"Brilliant reception at the station. Children are tidied up as soon as they enter the mission grounds. There is perfect order. The mission makes a big impression."

"The reception was enthusiastic and brilliant. The city appears largely mapped out, too bad there are so many ugly buildings that make it look like a city in the American Far West."

"A real city, well laid out, with pretty houses, 1500 whites, it makes an excellent impression, better than Elisabethville. Here they are serious people, harnessed to a grandiose enterprise."

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

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

"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 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."

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

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

"They always smile, even in the face of adversity. They are enthusiastic people who are affectionate."

"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."

"Although the celebration on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Belgian colony did not occupy the motherland for long, the significance of 50 years of Belgium in Africa can hardly be overestimated. It means that for half a century the black tribes have not been able to kill each other, however much they would like to do it today. It means they are no longer starving to death, rotting away from syphilis or dying from sleeping sickness. It means that schools, dispensaries, bridges, harbors were everywhere, in short, the beginning of the infrastructure of a modern state. It means that the grandsons of the losers, who were sold on the slave market by Tippo Tip and his Arabs, are now studying at university, Roman bishop, judge, journalist and mayor, and tomorrow doctor, lawyer and engineer."

"It is clear that the white man did not only come to the Congo out of sheer philanthropy. Large companies settled there to earn a lot of money. But that capitalism immediately realized grandiose social works, from which hundreds of thousands of blacks now profit. Native friends in Leo and elsewhere agree that the balance for the black is not completely in deficit, but, they added, the time has now come for us to hand over the helm."

"Who sees his life's work in jeopardy before it stands on solid ground. While Minister Buisseret and Governor-General Pétillon endear themselves to the blacks by expressing themselves energetically in this sense, the best of the whites argue that the Congo is far from ripe for independence, moreover they believe that a too strong emphasis on the emancipation policy will deter the white element, which is still so desperately needed, to such an extent that it will inhibit and damage further evolution. Ultimately to the detriment of the short-sighted, hot-headed blacks themselves."

"Belgium has partially failed in its role as guardian. While the French and British took their duty to safely channel the urge for independence that arose after the Second World War, we remained passive. Hence the not entirely unfounded doubt and fear of letting the pupil walk on his own two feet now. A Congolese nation never existed. Once upon a time there was an old kingdom of Congo, but the borders of that negro kingdom did not coincide with those of “our” Congo. The whites have done little or nothing, beyond the strong tribal consciousness, to create a general Congolese mentality, a Congolese sense of nationality. What we still call Belgian Africa today is a construction of the whites, a conglomerate of very different areas and peoples, put together as it was customary in the days of the colonial touts around the green conference tables of Wiesbaden and Berlin."

"In 1885, the whole of Africa was colonized or placed under trusteeship, but Congo climbed to the podium of the three existing sovereign countries. The borders that have been, since 1894, the crucible of Congolese identity were acquired, by treaty, by Leopold II. Thus, Congo has absolutely no debt to Belgium for its international existence. Later, it was through a bilateral treaty, between two sovereign states, regularly ratified, that the Kingdom of Belgium became the metropolis of the Belgian Congo (1908-1960). The little-known truth is that in 1960, Belgium did not grant Congolese independence, but it returned it."

"The Belgians were there to educate the negroes, for the agriculture, for everything. But missionaries are also to blame; It's their fault there are so many children there. Condoms didn't exist either, but the women put the pill in their guy's soup."