King Leopold II ruled Congo as a private slave state — his brutal legacy is finally being acknowledged and abhorred
A larger-than-life bronze statue of King Leopold II on a horse in central Brussels has become the flashpoint for protests in Belgium about the country's ugly colonial past. The statue is regularly daubed with graffiti denouncing Leopold as a racist and genocidal king for his brutal regime in the Congo in the 19th century. But now, thanks partly to the Black Lives Matters protests, Belgians are finally facing up Leopold's brutal legacy. MPs last week agreed to set up a parliamentary commission to examine their country's colonial past just in time for next Tuesday's 60th anniversary of the former colony's independence from Belgium.
