BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th August, 2020) Belgium has institutionalized the examination of its colonial past in a way that has raised many questions about the impartiality and quality of such research, which has important financial strings attached, such as the reparation demands by former African colonies.
In June, the Belgian House of Representatives agreed to form a committee that would examine the country's colonial past on the African continent. The decision came in the wake of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that swept Belgium and other European countries following the lead in the United States.
Earlier in August, the parliament unveiled the committee's composition which, according to Green MP Wouter De Vriendt, included 10 experts "in the top of their field."
The reaction was quick. Many considered the commission's representation one-sided and doubted the qualification of experts, who could be better described as activists.
On Monday, a group of 58 Belgian historians published an open letter criticizing the committee's lack of experts from Belgium's Royal Museum for Central Africa, the National Archive and other institutions with sufficient knowledge and records of the country's colonial legacy, as well as lack of historians from Congo, Rwanda or Burundi, all former Belgian colonies.
FAIRNESS OF BELGIUM'S INQUIRY UNDER QUESTION
Speaking to Sputnik, the director of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Guido Gryseels, said "I am surprised that our institution, well-known in Belgium and elsewhere in the world when it comes to Central Africa, was not consulted. None of our experts are part of this committee appointed by the parliament."
The historian said to consider his comment to Sputnik a co-signature to the collective letter.
"I join in � speaking to you � to the joint letter sent by almost sixty historians specializing in Belgium's colonial past," he said, going on to decry the lack of Congolese-based experts in the commission which was originally supposed to focus on the colonial legacy in Congo specifically.
Gryseels also criticized the lack of archival experts in the commission, stressing that the archival research is the first thing to do in historic inquiries, such as the exploration of Belgium's colonial past, especially given the country's possession of "voluminous and very complete archives on its colonial administration."
"Of course, I applaud the fact that Belgium is the first of the former colonial powers to look into the subject. It was about time, 60 years after decolonization. I am sure the other countries will have to follow, but please let's get the job done right. I fear that this commission is politicized by activists and is not balanced," Gryseels said.
As argued by the historians in the collective letter, the commission should be presented with a set of specific questions and the historians concerned should be given sufficient time to work out responses, while the current deadlines are unrealistic and the scale of task as currently worded is far too broad.
The signatories "above all" demand that the historical aspect be completely separated from the political debate concerning racism and the management of the colonial heritage, such as the handling of monuments linked to the colonial era which BLM protesters across Europe and the US frequented vandalizing and knocking down. In other words, they demand that a reconciliation commission must be quite distinct from historical research.
"The other colonial countries have taken timid initiatives but have never taken the issue of the colonial past head-on. [French President Emmanuel] Macron's France has 'apologized' to Algeria, but neither Britain nor France, for example, did analyze the functioning of the colonial system with its good and bad measures. It will come, I have no doubt about it," Gryseels told Sputnik.
Clearly, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the death of African-American man George Floyd in custody of white police officers � the episode that ignited the whole BLM movement across continents � has prompted governments to focus on the legacy of colonialism, with an avid eye on financial compensations.
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo have already asked for financial compensation. Burundi wants Belgium and Germany to pay 43 billion Euros ($51.3 billion) in reparations for harm done during decades of colonial rule over the nickel-producing East African nation. The move follows similar calls for compensation by the Democratic Republic of Congo after Belgian King Philippe in June offered his "deepest regrets" over his nation's colonial past in the Congo.
"In no way should Belgium pay for supposed 'damages' to the black population in Central Africa where Belgium, the colonizing power, brought civilisation with its good and less good points," Tom Vandendriessche, a member of the European Parliament from Belgium's second-largest opposition party, far-right Vlaams Belang, told Sputnik.
"In 1960, 60 years ago, Belgium left Congo, Rwanda and Burundi with top infrastructures in place: roads, railroads, harbours, cities, sewage, electricity production, water distribution, and a school system that had nearly eradicated illiteracy except with the pygmies in the forest. This heritage is now nearly completely destroyed; nothing functions anymore and the potentially very rich country has been pillaged by their so-called 'elites,' which are completely corrupt," Vandendriessche continued.
According to the Belgian MEP's estimates, Burundi asks for 15 times its GDP at a time when 20 percent of it is already coming in from states such as Belgium every year in "development aid."
"We should not go any further. Burundi must solve its own problems and see to its own future, in place of trying to put their abysmal failures on the back of the former colonial power," Vandendriessche said.
It is only a matter of time before France and the United Kingdom, but also Spain, Portugal or the Netherlands, are put confronted with reparation demands, too.
But the status of former colonies and their level of enrichment is very different from one continent to another: in Asia or Latin America, for example, countries have taken off. Brazil, colonized by Portugal, now produces airplanes and masters sophisticated technologies. Never will Brazil ask poor Portugal for 'compensation' for the colonial era, but Mozambique and Angola might.
"These compensation requirements are ludicrous. I was the member of parliament representing the French of Asia and the Pacific, where France had colonized certain countries, such as Cambodia and Vietnam, where the Netherlands had colonized Indonesia, and England [colonized] India, etc. All these countries are booming economically, even those who endured a long war like Vietnam. They will never ask for 'compensation.' They are doing much better than us and yet they knew the same colonizers!" Thierry Mariani, a French lawmaker in the European Parliament from the right-wing National Front party, told Sputnik.
According to the lawmaker, former colonial powers should have no guilt today about the political and economic failures of several former colonies. Neither should this guilt bring about bias in assessments of imperfect governance practices in countries in Europe and outside of it, he argued.
"Look at the different reaction of Europe to Belarus, Guinea Bissau and the Ivory Coast. Europe will sharply criticize [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, but will not find a word to label corrupt dictators in African countries. We don't dare, for fear of being accused of racism," Mariani said.
The colonial guilt bias makes governments succumb to practices that create breakdown in societies and nurture real racism, the lawmaker opined.
It has become commonplace in mainstream Western media to spell "Black" with a capital letter as opposed to "whites," for example. The decapitation and destruction of statues of individuals who made their countries' history and often the world's history by BLM protesters has triggered fierce public debates in countries across Europe.
"The French population is generally fed up with these demands. The support and compensation money given by France to illegal immigrants from Africa, who receive more than French pensioners after a life of hard work, is revolting," Mariani said.
