Belgian Congo Quotes

“The French's acts of violence did not exonerate Leopold, but they did not make it into the Angelo-International press: Brazza's 1905 report was not published until 1965.”
― Marcel Yabili, The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba

“The United Nations leave alone those who set Africa on fire, but quarrels with those who do their best to put out the fires.”
― Pierre Ryckmans

“White American, Adam Hochschild, with no solid Africa knowledge, purveyed the horror book King Leopold's ghost, 1998, from Stanley's English-language travelogue, and Ben Affleck further presses the lie, based on Hochschild's fabrications, in a film soon to be released.”
― Marcel Yabili, The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba

“The pleas against Leopold II are based on documentation that is mainly of British origin and therefore tendentious.”
― Jean-Pierre Nzeza Kabu Zex-Kongo, Léopold II Le plus grand chef d'Etat de l'histoire du Congo (Études africaines)

“Leopold II shows to the Congolese elites the importance of patriotism and of working for the greatness of a country and its people.”
― Jean-Pierre Nzeza Kabu Zex-Kongo, Léopold II Le plus grand chef d'Etat de l'histoire du Congo (Études africaines)

“In the 19th century, many European countries sought colonies. Leopold II long cherished the ambition to give a colony to Belgium. He came into contact with British explorer Stanley, who found no interest in Central Africa in London. Later, the British would regret it. They discredited the Congo Free State to get their hands on Katanga and its mining resources. In 1908 London tried to sabotage Belgium’s takeover of the Congo Free State by formulating conditions. But other countries did not follow that line. In 1911, the British signed a secret agreement with Germany on a reallocation of Africa; the Germans would not follow through. In 1937 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain offered Hitler ‘half of the Belgian Congo’ in exchange for peace in Europe; but the Fuhrer refused.”
― Jean-Pierre Nzeza Kabu Zex-Kongo, Léopold II Le plus grand chef d'Etat de l'histoire du Congo (Études africaines)

“Leopold II laid the foundation for a common culture through education, a multi-ethnic ‘Force Publique’ that spoke Lingala, a meticulous administration and laws based on ‘zero tolerance’. He signed the state and is thus the father of Congo.”
― Jean-Pierre Nzeza Kabu Zex-Kongo, Léopold II Le plus grand chef d'Etat de l'histoire du Congo (Études africaines)

“Leopold II paved the way for a Congo that could be independent from other countries, but that is currently very disappointing, in 1960 — the year of independence — Congo is an emerging and prosperous country. The Congolese at that time have the highest standard of living in all of Africa.”
― Jean-Pierre Nzeza Kabu Zex-Kongo, Léopold II Le plus grand chef d'Etat de l'histoire du Congo (Études africaines)

“a comeback is possible for the Congolese. but for that, the country needs an extraordinary leader, someone of the caliber of Leopold II, someone who organizes the state, a genius in state administration, a know-it-all manager.”
― Jean-Pierre Nzeza Kabu Zex-Kongo, Léopold II Le plus grand chef d'Etat de l'histoire du Congo (Études africaines)

“Belgium does not owe its wealth to te exploitation of the Congo. In the 19th century, Belgium was the second-most industrialised country in the whole world. It is true that the colonisation of the Congo was undoubtedly an enterprise with an economic agenda that yielded much profits to those who took part of it, It is also undeniable that it had a favorable outcome for the Belgian economy. But it was also a "win-win" issue for all concerned, including the Congolese.”
― André de Maere d'Aertrycke

“You must know that there were many people that worked for Leopold II, and they were really abusive — but that does not mean that Leopold II was abusive.”
― Prince Laurent of Belgium

“Belgian Congo forms with the motherland a single state with a single nationality. The Congolese people live within the national borders of the Belgian state. No other country has the right to intervene in the way a sovereign state governs itself. To reinforce its argument, Belgium decided to stop transmitting information about its colony and stop participating in the meetings of the Special Committee - and for that we do not need the approval of the General Assembly.”
― Pierre Ryckmans

“I wanted to study the enemy on his home grounds, i became a clerk at the Belgian financial administration.”
― Joseph Kasa-Vubu

“Congolese of all provinces and races, we are bringing you independance... This independance has been won by a united front of all Congolese delegates.”
― Joseph Kasa-Vubu

“Belgium then had the wisdom not to oppose the current of history, and-a deed without precedent in the story of peaceful decolonisation-she let our country pass directly from foreign domination to full independence.”
― Joseph Kasa-Vubu

“Never have I had the impression of such a moral and civic downfall. In no country, not even the last of the last, what is happening here would be possible.”
― Auguste Baron Lambermont

“In Belgium, secularism manifested itself in anticlericalism allied to the Freemasons. This led to the establishment of a secular university in Lubumbashi to counter the launch of the Catholic University, Lovanium, in Kinshasa. The first university courses were taught during the Second World War; this event is cut from the history of the country because it was the initiative of Catholic missionaries. For the same reasons, Jef Van Bilsen and the Manifesto of African Conscience of 30 June 1956 are cited as precursors of independence, without any mention of the Catholic bishops who had previously taken some distance from the Colony by calling for the political emancipation of Blacks and by condemning racism in all its forms. Such political rebellion by missionaries were common in Africa and it is still perpetuated within episcopal conferences.”
― Marcel Yabili, The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba

“It was put in the books that Thomas Kanza was the first university graduate, but he was a secular and a Congolese from Belgium (1956). The very first graduate was Paul Panda Farnana, an agronomist trained in Belgium (1907). But considering post-secondary education, it is father Stefano Kaoze (1917) who is the first graduate trained in Congo.”
― Marcel Yabili, The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba

“The Congolese were only really incited against the Belgians by the books of 'whites' such as Vangroenweghe, Marchal, Hochschild and De Witte.”
― Amandine Lauro

“Having a proper sense of her duty, and the means to carry it out, Belgium has mapped out her own course, and intends to keep to it. It entails a policy of humanity and progress. To a nation whos only aim is justice, the mission of colonization can only be a mission of high civilization: a small nation proves it greatness by carrying it out faithfully. Belgium has kept her word.”
― Albert I of Belgium

“In short, there is a great deal of stagnation among the settlers and the medium-sized enterprises. The native there is often mistreated, exploited and has no medical care. In the Menteau farm, we observed a considerable number of varicose ulcers, which hardly exists at UM and La Forminière. There is no dispensary on this farm. The small settler can succeed in the Congo, one can doubt it, he lives by the exploitation of the native whom he makes work like a convict and moreover, he takes back his meager salary by selling him bad goods. The settler is often doubled as a trafficker, they complement each other, the system truck. Besides, the whole colonial edifice rests on the negro's shoulders. He alone is the source of profit, thanks to the excessive exploitation of which he is the object. In a colony, where there are few transport routes, where those that exist demand exorbitant prices, where there is little or no mechanical handling, no workhorse, only the degradation of the workforce - work can maintain the commercial level of the cost price. Large companies have the merit, through their tools, their medical assistance, their works of providing more treatment and of not wasting manpower.”
― King Albert I of Belgium

“It is indisputable that the blacks have benefited from certain benefits of civilization.”
― King Albert I of Belgium

“The negro workers are still unaware of the force that can give them union organization; happy industrialists.”
― King Albert I of Belgium

“Nothing that impressed Africa was foreign to him. Without needing to go and look there, he knew the dark continent, as if he had been its explorer, and he followed step by step the discoveries, which he noted in his prodigious memory and on the maps displayed on it.”
― Eugène Napoléon Beyens

“The prevailing opinion at court was that the founding of a colony was beyond the strength of the Sovereign of a small state and that he would swallow up his private fortune, unable to create anything lasting. The King sought for the execution of his designs collaborators possessed of the faith which he himself had and which lifts mountains.”
― Eugène Napoléon Beyens

“But it would not be reckless to say that from the start the King dreamed of founding a Belgian colony. Many times I have heard him say, when the Independent State emerged from its swaddling clothes like a newborn baby trying to walk: "I work there for Belgium".”
― Eugène Napoléon Beyens

“The right to direct military offensive operations or to make war on the natives, but gives them only the power to requisition, for the maintenance or establishment of order, the armed force which may be either in or without the concession, subject to the reservation that the officers of the State shall retain the command of the troops.”
― Théophile Wahis

“I pray believe me when I express now, not only for myself, but for my fellow countrymen in this part of Africa, pur very sincere appreciation of your efforts on behalf of the general community efforts to promote goodwill among all and to bring together the various elements of our local life.”
― Théophile Wahis

“The reader is lured into believing that every conflict he documents is about the drive for rubber, not the drive against slavery (or inter-tribal vendettas). One of many egregious examples will have to suffice.”
― Bruce Gilley, King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.

“God who distributed the goods of the earth among the regions and peoples of the earth, has therefore made them no less in the service of all mankind. The human groups have no right to assume that the riches offered by the regions inhabited by them are solely for themselves. A fruitful division of labor must therefore be practiced, making these resources available to all members of humanity. The divine plan is disregarded, humanity is robbed of its future, when, through inability the backward peoples fail to exploit the treasures of their soil. As long as nobody has been set up with remedying this disorder, every state, provided it has the means, has the right to assume this task and if necessary to deprive the natives of the rights which it appears to have made common. welfare of all peoples.”
― Jozef-Ernest van Roey