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Thought-provoking reflection on culture, colonialism, and the remainders of empire in Belgium after 1960
The degree to which the late colonial era affected Europe has been long underappreciated, and only recently have European countries started to acknowledge not having come to terms with decolonisation. In Belgium, the past two decades have witnessed a growing awareness of the controversial episodes in the country’s colonial past. This volume examines the long-term effects and legacies of the colonial era on Belgium after 1960, the year the Congo gained its independence, and calls into question memories of the colonial past by focusing on the meaning and place of colonial monuments in public space.
The book foregrounds the enduring presence of “empire” in everyday Belgian life in the form of permanent colonial markers in bronze and stone, lieux de mémoire of the country’s history of overseas expansion. By means of photographs and explanations of major pro-colonial memorials, as well as several obscure ones, the book reveals the surprising degree to which Belgium became infused with a colonialist spirit during the colonial era.
Another key component of the analysis is an account of the varied ways in which both Dutch- and French-speaking Belgians approached the colonial past after 1960, treating memorials variously as objects of veneration, with indifference, or as symbols to be attacked or torn down. The book provides a thought-provoking reflection on culture, colonialism, and the remainders of empire in Belgium after 1960.
Free digital appendix: detailed list of monuments in Belgium linked to the country’s colonial past
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Thought-provoking reflection on culture, colonialism, and the remainders of empire in Belgium after 1960
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Reviews
The book is designed to be read as a reference work as well as a continuous argument. This means that facts are often repeated, which is also a consequence of the author’s careful presentation and use of introduction and conclusion to summarize important developments. The short entries describing individual statues appear alongside the main text, and complement it, giving eighty-four colour images to support Stanard’s analysis. Of particular interest are images showing the results of mutilations of statues, including the severing of hands in commemoration of one of the more brutal practices of the early colonial period. This book provides a very useful insight into the legacy of that period, and its presentation in contemporary Belgium.
Catherine Emerson, French Studies, Volume 74, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 333–334, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knaa040
Synthetic in nature, and drawing on a wide array of primary sources as well as (inter)national scholarship, Stanard’s book sets out to illustrate, first, how over the course of the twentieth century a colonial culture was formed in Belgium and, second, how the country’s colonial endeavour has been perceived, discussed and remembered by various groups in Belgian society. In this respect, it fills a lacuna in existing scholarship.
Johan Lagae, Journal of Design History, epaa017, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epaa017
Johan Lagae, Journal of Design History, epaa017, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epaa017
The result is absolutely impressive. Stanard has succeeded in painting a many-coloured picture of the varieties and evolutions of the Belgian perception of its colony.
Goddeeris, I., BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 135(1), pp.70–94.
The book does provide a much needed contribution to scholarship and a comprehensive resource for teaching that clearly demonstrates how, despite having been ‘one of Europe’s “lesser” imperial powers’ (p. 31), the colonial period has had a lasting and pervasive effect on Belgian society and politics.
A bien des égards, cet ouvrage était attendu. Non seulement il contribue à rendre intelligible l’impact colonial dans l’espace culturel et public belge au travers de l’histoire des monuments coloniaux, mais il instruit toute une série de questions sur la manière dont l’identité nationale belge s’articule au passé colonial.
Sarah Demart, H-France Review, Vol. 19 (November 2019), No. 257
Stanards studie van de verschuivingen in postkoloniale mentalités is verfrissend omdat ze naast de heftige emoties die met dekolonisatie gepaard gaan ook ruimte laat voor de onverschilligheid waarmee veel Belgen zich door het koloniale landschap bewegen. Het kolonialistische straatbeeld in België, met zijn patriottische lieux de mémoire, overleefde 1960 namelijk. De beelden die de revue passeren zijn relieken uit het koloniale tijdperk: hun esthetiek en thematiek ademen de Belgische beschavingsmissie.
Kristof Smeyers, de Nederlandse Boekengids
This book is timely and will certainly be a useful contribution to the public debate. It presents, for the first time, an impressive overview of the colonial remnants in the Belgian land- and cityscape.
Guy Vanthemsche, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Author Biography
Matthew G. Stanard is professor of history at Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia, USA.
Leuven University Press
Leuven University Press, established in 1971 under the auspices of KU Leuven, is an ambitious academic press of international standing.Today the press publishes high-quality academic titles in a broad range of fields including music, art & theory, media & visual culture, text & literature, history & archaeology, philosophy & religion, society & migration and law & economics. We publish approximately forty new titles a year by authors from all over the world. We publish in English, but also offer room for publications in Dutch or French.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Leuven University Press
- Publication Date April 2019
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9789462701793
- Publication Country or regionBelgium
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 65 EUR
- Pages338
- ReadershipProfessional and Scholarly
- Publish StatusPublished
- Copyright Year2019
- Dimensions 234 × 156 mm
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