Belgium: Teenager’s Campaign to Remove Statues of Colonial King Leopold II Gains Momentum

A campaign launched by a 14-year-old of Congolese descent has gathered significant support in Belgium, calling for the removal of statues honoring King Leopold II, whose brutal colonial rule in the Congo Free State left millions dead.

The online petition, titled “Let’s Repair History” (Réparons l’Histoire), has amassed over 60,000 signatures on Change.org. It urges the city of Brussels to dismantle monuments to Leopold II, beginning with the statue at Place du Trône, near the Royal Palace. The initiative is closely tied to the Black Lives Matter movement and was launched ahead of June 30, the anniversary of Congolese independence.

Across Belgium, several statues of the former monarch have become flashpoints for anti-racism protests. In Ghent, a bust of Leopold II was splashed with red paint and covered with fabric bearing the words “I can’t breathe”, referencing George Floyd’s death in the United States. In Ostend, police arrested a suspect accused of vandalizing an equestrian statue, which has since become a rallying point for demonstrators.

Local authorities remain divided on how to respond. Ostend’s mayor, Bart Tommelein, stated that while the city “takes the fight against racism seriously,” protected monuments “will not be removed.” Meanwhile, a fire-damaged statue in Antwerp’s Ekeren district has been taken down and will be relocated permanently to a museum.

At the Africa Museum in Tervuren, near Brussels, another monument depicting Leopold II was defaced with graffiti. Julien Volper, curator at the museum, criticized the wave of vandalism, calling it “a new burning of the books,” and urged for nuanced dialogue instead of erasure.

Belgian officials, however, are beginning to act. Pascal Smet, Secretary of State for Heritage in Brussels, announced plans to establish a working group involving experts and representatives from the Congolese community to assess the future of colonial-era statues and street names. He also proposed creating a memorial to decolonization.

Further south, Ghent’s city council confirmed that its vandalized bust of Leopold II will be permanently removed on June 30. Alderman Astrid De Bruycker emphasized that such monuments “insult and hurt” communities and that removal must be accompanied by education: “We must interpret and teach colonial history, not erase it.”

In a broader move, Belgium’s federal parliament has approved the creation of a commission to examine the nation’s colonial past, marking a significant step in confronting the legacy of Leopold II and Belgium’s imperial history.