FOR generations, Belgian children were taught to be proud of what their country gave to the Congo — education, healthcare and civilisation.

But 45 years after the Central African country gained its independence the Belgians are finally, and painfully, confronting a very different version of their colonial past: forced labour, mass murder and the routine severing of hands in what was probably the most bloody of all European colonial regimes.

The grandiose, Versailles-like 19th-century Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels, originally built as a showcase for Belgian achievements in the Congo, has just opened an exhibition that acknowledges publicly for the first time the horrors of the Belgian colonial regime.

It is sponsored by the Government, Belgians are flocking to see it, and even the Belgian Royal Family, whose ancestor Leopold II was responsible for so much of the Congo’s misery, has said it will attend.

While the original permanent exhibition has vast golden statues inscribed “Belgium brings civilisation to the Congo” and “Belgium brings justice to the Congo”, the new exhibition shows a photograph of a man looking forlornly at a severed hand and foot — the only remains of his granddaughter after she was punished by the colonial police. Another picture shows children with their hands amputated . A third shows Belgian missionaries standing with two Congolese holding the severed hands of their friends.

The exhibition also demonstrates that the region was not just peopled by “primitives”, but already had an elaborate and ancient civilisation before the Europeans arrived.

The museum’s new director, Guido Gryseels, said that the Memory of Congo exhibition would have been impossible to hold until recently: “It couldn’t have happened five or six years ago. People wouldn’t have been ready for it. It’s too controversial. A lot of things have happened, meaning the times are ripe for it.”

The Congo — the heart of the “Dark Continent” left blank on 19th-century maps — was claimed by King Leopold II, insisting that his young country needed an empire. Perturbed by the rise of democracy in Europe, he established the Congo Free State as his own private possession, and himself as its absolute ruler from 1885. King Leopold, who never visited the Congo himself, remains a towering figure in Belgium.

He built almost every major palace and monumental building in the country, using the fortune he extracted from the Congo to try to give his country the imperial grandeur of France and Britain. Belgium’s parks still feature monuments to the heroism of citizens who helped to “civilise” the Congo. But the reputation of Leopold II was severely punctured in 1998 by the American historian, Adam Hochschild, whose book King Leopold’s Ghost caused outrage but forced Belgians to start thinking about their history. For the first time it brought to public attention the reality of the Belgian Congo, which had also inspired Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness.

To harvest the Congo’s natural wealth of ivory, rubber and expensive tropical woods, a system of forced labour was established, in effect enslaving most of the population. Villages had all their women and children held hostage until the men had collected predetermined quantities of rubber from trees in the jungle. Villages that failed to supply enough rubber were left with piles of bodies. Those that resisted were wiped out as an example to the rest.

King Leopold upheld his rule with the Force Publique, largely staffed by Congolese. To ensure they did not steal bullets, they had to return a human right hand for every bullet used. To stop the hands rotting in the moist heat in the jungle, they were smoked on fires to preserve them until the soldiers returned to base.

One Belgian officer, Leon Rom, was famous for decorating his garden with severed African heads, while Guillaume van Kerckhoven paid his black soldiers five brass rods for every human head they delivered him during military operations.

Mr Hochschild estimated that King Leopold was responsible for ten million deaths — halving the population of the Congo — during his 23-year rule, though most other historians and the present exhibition consider that an exaggeration.

The book was followed a few years later by a TV documentary that drew mass protests from old colonials, the Government and Royal Family alike.

“There are 40,000 old colonials living in Belgium who are very hurt by these accusations. It is very emotional. Every family has a member who was in the Congo, so everyone is implicated in a way,” said Mr Gryseels.

In 2002, the Belgian Government finally admitted — and apologised for — assassinating Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first post-independence leader, in 1960. “It has taken a long, long time for critical aspects to come out in the open. Any criticism was seen as an attack on our pride and sovereignty. It was a very defensive reaction,” said Mr Gryseels. The exhibition shows a dramatic change in attitude. Although no private company would sponsor it, it has been supported by the Government, and more than 2,000 people a day have been flocking to see it. Karel de Gucht, the Belgian Foreign Minister, said: “That abuses were committed during the time of the Congo Free State is undeniable. The exhibition is unequivocally committed to showing them.”

The exhibition — and the new historical honesty — has helped to improve relations with Congolese authorities. Josette Shajea Tshiuila, director of Congo’s national museums, said: “There are things that happened in the past and must be represented as such. It’s the start of a real dialogue. We have shown that it is part of our shared history.”

Colonial past

1874-77: British explorer Henry Stanley navigates Congo river to the Atlantic Ocean
1885: Congo Free State established by King Leopold II as his private property
1908: international pressure over atrocities forces King Leopold to sell his colony to the Belgian people, bringing it under government control
1930: forced labour abolished in the Congo
1958: At Brussels fair to promote the Congo, visitors throw bananas at Congolese participants
1960: Congo becomes independent
1961: first leader, Patrice Lumumba, murdered
1998: King Leopold’s Ghost published
2002: Belgium apologises for Lumumba’s killing
2005: Official Belgian show admits atrocities

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