Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History / The 1897 Tervuren Exhibition: Belgium's Human Zoo
Transcript
- Lucas: So, Luna, we've talked a lot about the Congo in the context of rubber terror, the Force Publique, the évolués — but there's one episode that I think really crystallises how Belgium sold the colonial project to its own people, and to the world. The 1897 Brussels-Tervuren Exhibition. Luna: Oh, the one with the human zoo, right? Lucas: Exactly. It was held in Tervuren, then a leafy suburb east of Brussels, and it was designed as a kind of triumphant showcase for the Congo Free State. Leopold II poured a fortune into it. He built a huge new palace — the Palais des Colonies — surrounded by landscaped parks and artificial lakes. And in those grounds, he set up what were marketed as 'native villages'. Lucas: They brought over 267 Congolese people — men, women, and children — from different ethnic groups like the Bangala, the Bakongo, the Baluba. They were housed in replica huts and expected to go about their daily lives: weaving, carving, cooking, dancing. For European visitors, it was like a living diorama of 'primitive' Africa. But for the people inside, it was captivity. Luna: Were they volunteers? Lucas: Officially, yes — they were 'recruited' by colonial agents in the Congo, promised wages and exotic travel. But it's hard to imagine the pressure, given the power imbalance. And once in Belgium, they couldn't leave at will. They were kept under constant surveillance, made to perform on schedule. One man, Matshikwe, a Tetela warrior who had fought against the Belgians, was brought as a kind of trophy. He later said he was treated like an animal. Lucas: The exhibition was a massive success. Over a million people visited during the summer of 1897. Newspapers praised it as an educational spectacle. It reinforced every stereotype Europeans held about Africa — that it was a continent of savage tribes in need of benevolent civilising. Leopold couldn't have asked for better propaganda. Luna: And this is the same exhibition that later became the Royal Museum for Central Africa, isn't it? Lucas: That's right. The Palais des Colonies was the seed. After the exhibition closed, Leopold kept the building and filled it with thousands of ethnographic objects, stuffed animals, and colonial trophies — many looted from the Congo. That museum still exists today, though it's undergone a massive renovation in recent years to confront its colonial origins. But for decades, it just repeated the same narrative: Belgium bringing light to darkness. Luna: So much of that narrative was crafted right there in 1897. Lucas: Absolutely. And here's a detail that gets to the heart of it: at the exhibition, they had a 'colonial village' for white Belgian settlers too — a model farm to attract potential colonists. So you had black Africans living in 'primitive' huts a few hundred metres from white families in modern bungalows. The message was clear: these two worlds are separate, and one is the future. Of course, almost no Belgians actually moved to the Congo, but the fantasy of a settler colony was very much part of Leopold's propaganda. Luna: And this is really what we're about — pulling back the curtain on those grand spectacles. Lucas: If you've been coming along with us through these conversations about Belgium and its colonial past, you know it's a story that needs telling. And honestly, a couple of dollars a month is what keeps these ad-free and able to go deep. If you've gotten something out of them, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo helps more than you'd think. Luna: Yeah, it genuinely makes a difference. So back to Tervuren — what happened to those people after the exhibition? Lucas: Most were shipped back to the Congo after the summer. But at least seven died during the exhibition, from diseases like pneumonia or tuberculosis. They were buried in unmarked graves in Tervuren. And a few were kept in Belgium for further 'study' — paraded around at other fairs. One woman, named only as Kassongo in records, died a year later in a hospital in Brussels. There's a small memorial for them now, installed in 2018, but for over a century, they were just forgotten footnotes. Lucas: The exhibition also had a scientific wing, where anthropologists took measurements and photographs, trying to 'prove' racial hierarchies. They invited the famous French physical anthropologist Paul Topinard, who declared the Congolese 'closer to the ape' than Europeans. This pseudo-science was used to justify colonial brutality for decades. The 1897 exhibition wasn't just a carnival — it was a laboratory for colonial ideology. Luna: Were there any Belgians who objected at the time? Lucas: A few. Some socialist newspapers criticised the cost and the 'human menagerie' aspect. Emile Vandervelde, who you'll remember from the annexation episode, called it a 'disgrace' in a speech. But those voices were drowned out. The Catholic Church praised it as a mission showcase. The king himself visited multiple times, clearly delighted. Lucas: Interestingly, the exhibition also included a Congolese choir that sang Christian hymns — that was meant to show the 'civilising' success. And they had a daily 'native market' where visitors could buy souvenirs supposedly made by the villagers. It was a total commodification of culture. Luna: It's incredible how much of modern racism was packaged and sold in that one event. Lucas: Exactly. And the legacy lingers. When you walk through the Royal Museum today, you can still see some of the original plaster casts and dioramas from 1897. They've added critical texts now, but the building itself is a monument to that vision. Tervuren is a beautiful place — the park, the lake — but underneath it, there's this uncomfortable history. Lucas: One more thing: the exhibition also had a 'Congolese village' that was actually built to look like a dungeon — complete with a fake dungeon entrance — because the organisers thought that's what Africans would expect. It was that bizarre combination of paternalism and contempt. Luna: The sheer arrogance of it. Lucas: And so many Belgians today have never heard of this exhibition, or only know it through the museum. That's why we keep coming back to these episodes — to make sure the stories of people like Matshikwe aren't lost. The 1897 Tervuren Exposition was a pivotal moment in how the West came to see Africa, and how Belgium saw itself as a colonial power. It was a spectacle built on exploitation, and its echoes are still with us.