Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History
The 1897 Tervuren Exhibition: Belgium's Colonial Propaganda
In 1897, King Leopold II staged a massive colonial exhibition in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, to sell the Congo Free State to the Belgian public. Lucas and Luna discuss how the exhibition featured a 'human zoo' of 267 Congolese people, elaborate ethnographic displays, and a lavish palace that would become the Royal Museum for Central Africa. They explore the racial pseudoscience that underpinned the exhibits, the infamous 'Negress Village' where forced performers cooked and danced for crowds, and the ironic fact that many Congolese participants died of pneumonia in the…
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