Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History / The 1894 Biafrans in Belgium: Congo's Forgotten Envoys
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've spent a lot of time on the big exhibitions — the 1897 Tervuren show, the 1958 Expo village. But there's an earlier, stranger moment that often gets overlooked. In 1894, three men from the Biafran interior were brought to Belgium for the Antwerp World's Fair. Their names were Mbiyia, Okori, and Akwa. Lucas: They were presented as kind of ambassadors from the Congo, but the reality was much darker. They were effectively prisoners of the Congo Free State, shipped to Europe as living exhibits. And their story tells us a lot about how Leopold II was trying to sell his colonial project to the Belgian public. Luna: Wait — Biafra? That's in Nigeria, not the Congo. How did they end up in Belgian hands? Lucas: Good catch. Biafra was a region in the Niger Delta, but at the time the Congo Free State's reach extended into the interior through concession companies. One of those was the Abir company — the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company — which operated in the upper Congo. They were deeply involved in the rubber terror, forcing villages to meet quotas. And part of their operation involved taking hostages or 'visitors' from conquered areas to display in Europe. Lucas: So Mbiyia, Okori, and Akwa were likely taken from their homes after a punitive expedition by the Force Publique. They were brought down the Congo River, then shipped to Antwerp. The official story was that they were 'envoys' from the Biafran chief, come to pay homage to King Leopold. But there's no evidence they came voluntarily. Luna: What happened when they arrived in Antwerp? Lucas: They were put on display at the World's Fair, which was a massive event — over a million visitors. They were housed in a specially built 'Congolese village' with other Africans, and people could watch them perform daily tasks, sing, dance. It was a human zoo, pure and simple. The organisers even had them pose for photographs and postcards, which were sold as souvenirs. Lucas: But there was also a scientific angle. European anthropologists of the time were obsessed with measuring skulls and classifying races. The three Biafrans were examined by doctors who published papers on their physiognomy, supposedly proving the inferiority of Africans. It was all pseudoscience, of course, but it gave a veneer of respectability to the spectacle. Luna: Did they try to resist? Or escape? Lucas: There are hints of resistance. According to one account, Mbiyia tried to run away during a visit to the Antwerp zoo. He was caught and brought back. Another time, Okori refused to perform, and was beaten by the handlers. But we have very few records from their own perspective — almost everything we know comes from colonial archives and newspaper reports. Their voices are mostly silent. Lucas: What we do know is that they stayed in Belgium for about a year. Then, in 1895, they were shipped back to the Congo. And after that, they vanish from the historical record. There's no mention of them returning home or being rewarded. They probably died in obscurity, victims of the rubber regime they were brought to advertise. Luna: That's heartbreaking. And it's a story that fits right into the broader pattern of 'human zoos' that Europe was obsessed with. Lucas: Exactly. The 1894 Antwerp exhibition was a prototype for the much larger Tervuren exhibition in 1897, which also featured a Congolese village. And that pattern continued into the 20th century — the 1958 Expo still had a Congo village, though by then the politics had shifted. But the Biafrans were among the first. Their story is a forgotten prelude to all that. Lucas: There's also a connection to the Abir company. Abir was notorious for its brutality — the 1904 Casement Report documented atrocities committed by Abir agents, including mutilations and hostage-taking. So bringing Mbiyia, Okori, and Akwa to Belgium was part of a PR campaign to whitewash that reputation. Show the public that the Congo was a place of happy, dancing natives, not a charnel house. Luna: And it worked, at least for a while. Most Belgians had no idea what was really happening. Lucas: Right. The rubber terror was hidden behind a wall of propaganda. Exhibitions like this were crucial for maintaining public support. And the Biafrans were pawns in that game. But even as pawns, they left a trace. Their names survive in the archives, in police reports and shipping manifests. And we can at least tell their story now, even if we can't give them back their lives. Luna: You mentioned the scientific side — the anthropologists. Was there any pushback from scientists at the time? Lucas: A few. There was a small but vocal anti-colonial movement in Belgium, led by figures like the lawyer Édouard Picard. But most scientists went along with it. The racial hierarchy was considered common sense. It wasn't until the Congo Reform Association, led by E.D. Morel, started publishing photographs of mutilated Congolese that public opinion began to shift. By then, the Biafrans were long gone. Lucas: What strikes me is the asymmetry. The Biafrans were brought to Belgium to be seen, but they were never allowed to speak. They were objects of curiosity, not subjects of their own history. In a way, that's the whole colonial enterprise in miniature — extraction, display, erasure. Luna: So where can listeners learn more about this? Are there books or articles? Lucas: There's a great article by the historian Jean-Luc Vellut called 'Les Biafrais à Anvers' — it's in French, but it's the most detailed account. And the work of Adam Hochschild, especially 'King Leopold's Ghost', covers the broader context of the rubber terror and the Congo reform movement. But the Biafrans themselves are a footnote — and that's partly why I wanted to talk about them today. Lucas: They were three men caught up in an empire's propaganda machine, used and then discarded. But their story reminds us that every colonial exhibition had a human cost. And that the people inside those villages were not just exhibits — they were individuals with names, families, and lives that were stolen. Luna: We should remember them. Lucas: We should. And that's what history can do — bring them back from the margins, even if only for a moment.