Ghent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Ghent will place 7 colonial history signs at statues, streets, and Stropkaai 8, featuring QR codes. Alderman Hafsa El-Bazioui says the project honours victims and promotes awareness.
As VRT News reported, Ghent is putting up new signs at 7 locations to explain the city’s colonial history. The signs will be placed at 4 statues, one historic building, and 2 streets linked to Belgium’s colonial past.
Each sign will say:
“In honour of the victims of Belgian colonialism, we place the colonial track shown here in context.”
How is Ghent using signs and QR codes to explain its colonial past?
The signs will also include a QR code that visitors can scan. The code links to a website with detailed information about each location. People can read historical accounts, view old documents, and see analyses explaining the connection to colonial history.
At Stropkaai 8, a sign will describe the former building of Colonial Rubber nv, a rubber factory founded by Pol De Schamphelaere in Ghent. The sign will explain that the factory used raw materials from Congo, where rubber extraction involved severe exploitation, physical mutilation, and violence against local workers.
The statue of Paul de Smet de Naeyer will also get an explanatory sign. It will read:
“Here stands a bronze bust of Paul de Smet de Naeyer, a Ghent cotton magnate and former Catholic prime minister of Belgium. He defended colonial policy as an economic and civilising project.”
The other places where signs will be placed are:
- at the bronze statue of Sakala in the Citadel Park
- to the removed statue of Leopold II in the Zuidpark
- at the statue of Baudouin in the Citadel Park
- at the street name Floraliënlaan (the former King Leopold II Avenue)
- at the street name Gebroeders Vandeveldestraat
“By explaining colonial traces, we acknowledge the suffering that was caused and create space for dialogue and awareness,”
says Alderman Hafsa El-Bazioui (Green).
“Ghent wants to be a city that learns from the past to build a just future.”
Ghent has begun displaying informative signs. The history of Ghent’s relationship with the Congo goes back to 1885-1960, when Belgium occupied the area, as well as the immense profits local industries (e.g. Colonial Rubber nv) made from the extraction of raw materials under brutal & sometimes violent circumstances.
Statues and street name tributes (e.g. Paul de Smet de Naeyer bust) were erected between the late 19th and early 20th centuries in remembrance of those who have contributed to colonialism and commerce growth.
