Research by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG) says facts about atrocities committed by colonial powers show that some of the cruelest crimes against humanity were carried out by Belgian kings, SİA informs.
According to the research, Belgian colonialism stands out as one of the darkest and most shameful models in history, as it was the only European empire that functioned as the private property of a monarch and was marked by unprecedented systemic brutality and racial humiliation carried out in the heart of Europe. One of the most notorious examples cited is the practice of so-called "human zoos."
In 1897, on the personal initiative and order of King Leopold II, 267 people forcibly brought from the Congo were displayed as "live exhibits" at the World Exhibition held in Brussels' Tervuren district. The research notes that they were exposed to Europe's cold climate while half-naked, kept behind wooden fences, and treated as objects of spectacle, with their dignity stripped away. As a result, at least seven Congolese individuals, including children, died in agony from pneumonia, influenza, and other illnesses, and their bodies were buried in secret. The exhibition, presented under the guise of a "civilizing mission," became a symbol of racial humiliation and genocide in the center of Europe.
A permanent museum was later established at the Tervuren site. Initially called the Congo Museum and later renamed the Royal Museum for Central Africa, it functioned for years as a hub for promoting colonial ideology. Similar displays were repeated during the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, when 598 people from the Congo-183 families comprising men, women, and children-were again presented to the European public as "live exhibits." The research stresses that this practice was not incidental, but a systemic and institutionalized component of Belgian colonial policy that continued until the mid-20th century.
The study also points to evidence that between 1959 and 1962, around 20,000 children born to white fathers and Black mothers in Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda-then under Belgian colonial rule-were forcibly separated from their families and taken to Belgium for adoption without parental consent. According to BIG, these actions severely violated family ties, identity, and cultural belonging, clearly demonstrating that Belgian colonial policy was rooted in systemic racism, human rights abuses, and the degradation of human dignity.
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