Leuven removes a statue of King Leopold II from a niche in the outer wall of the town hall. In doing so, the city wants to interpret and correct the history of colonization for the current and future generations, reports the Flemish broadcaster GARDEN.
It is an acknowledgment that people still suffer from the consequences of that history, say the Leuven administrators. “Discrimination in education, in the housing and labor market is the result of an inequality thinking that was also at the basis of colonialism.” The statue is stored in the town hall.
Leopold II conducted one reign of terror in what was then the Congo Free State, his private property. Millions of people, many of them children, are estimated to have died.
Earlier this month, statues of Leopold II were defaced or elsewhere in Belgium destroyed. For example, his effigy in Ekeren near Antwerp was set on fire and defaced, after which the statue became taken away.
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