When, some years ago, I read Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terrorism and Heroism in Colonial Africa, I was shocked not only by the historical analysis of Belgian Colonialism in the Congo, but even more about the fact that I had never learnt these things at school or university. While, partly thanks to the internet, nowadays many more Belgians know about the attrocities that King Leopold committed in the Congo, there is still a lot of denial about Belgium’s colonial role in Africa.
According to Adam Hochschild, there are striking parallels between King Leopold in Congo and George W. Bush in Iraq. I expect that people will differ in their opinion whether this is an exaggeration or not, but at least I hope that the American kids (now and in the future) will get a more self-critical account of the US’s role in Iraq than what I learnt about Belgian’s role in the Congo.
(hat tip to Political Theory Daily Review)