Congo Commission News Today

In-depth interview with David Van Reybrouck. Belgian essayist, historian and journalist, he has taken a close look at Belgian and Dutch colonialism in two major works: “Congo, a history”, and “Revolusi, Indonesia and the birth of the modern world”. He talks about the recent increase in Western awareness of colonial violence, and describes its symbolic limits. In his view, "we struggle against the symbols of past injustices while accepting the structures of present injustices”.

Melting down a statue of King Leopold II, who oversaw Belgium’s infamously bloody rule of the Congo, is one  proposal by a panel of experts tasked by the Brussels government with determining what to do about the country’s various symbols of colonialism.  

Three new experts have been appointed to the Belgian parliament's Congo Commission, to advise the government on how to deal with Belgium's colonial past.