It’s not easy to find the Monument to the Belgian Pioneers in the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels. It commemorates the Belgian pioneers who developed (or you might want to say conquered) the Congo, including King Leopold II. It was carved in 1921, long after Leopold’s crimes had been exposed.
The work was commissioned by Leopold’s nephew, Albert I, who had become something of a national hero during World War One. Albert called on the architect Thomas Vinçotte to design a monument to Belgian colonialism.
The work includes a naked man representing the River Congo, and a symbolic frieze showing a seated Leopold II protected by Belgian soldiers as an African woman bends in front of him with her three children. Behind her is a Christian missionary holding up a cross, followed by Belgian explorers battling through the jungle.
There are plans to put up a sign to explain the crimes committed by the colonial rulers. But nothing has been done so far.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
