In the exhibition “Postcolonial?” the House of European History in Brussels is fully embracing the theme of decolonisation. No longer is there any excuse. Nothing should be glossed over. The experts’ conclusion is stark: from the first discoveries in the 15th century to the present day, colonisation has enriched European nations and caused untold suffering to countless local populations.
'Postcolonial?' explores Europe’s global culture of exploitation and its consequences to this day
The House of European History in the Leopold Park in Brussels is itself a piece of history. It is housed in a beautiful Art Deco building, a former dental practice.
At the same time, it is a relatively new museum, founded in 2017, without objects or artworks that cast a shadow. But colonialism is so integral to European history that it cannot be swept under the carpet in a museum like this.
For years prior to the museum’s opening, the curators grappled with the question of how to portray this sensitive theme. In the end, they opted for a critical approach: colonialism is an assault on human dignity.
Medallions and imperialist maps
At the height of their colonial power, just before the First World War, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Denmark decided the fate of hundreds of millions of people in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania.
The colonisers used excessive violence to seize land and raw materials, and glossed over their policies with racist ideas and a drive to ‘civilise’. Strikingly, even countries that did not have colonies of their own shared in the profits, for example by buying shares in colonial companies.
This long history of slavery, the hunt for raw materials and discrimination is illustrated in the exhibition with ostentatious, disproportionately large maps, like that of Portugal, on which its colonies of Mozambique and Angola are also coloured in.
‘Portugal is no small country,’ it says underneath. Nor did the leaders make any secret of their lust for power. On a paperweight the words of Leopold II, King of Belgians, dating from 1860 occur: ‘Il faut à la Belgique une colonie’ or ‘Belgium must have a colony’.
Paths to independence
Decolonisation took shape after the Second World War, during which many soldiers from the colonies had fought in the armies of their colonisers. A number of interesting items from that period are also on display. Original documents from the Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945, for example, or a newspaper from the famous Bandung Conference in 1955.
What is striking is the split stance of European countries in the run-up to decolonisation. On the one hand, they published and endorsed rousing texts and declarations on the self-determination of peoples and condemned slavery.
On the other hand, Africans were still being exhibited as primitives at the 1958 World Fair in Brussels. Nor did the freedom fighters themselves always choose the path of dialogue; many independence movements during and after decolonisation contributed towards violence.
Eurafrica
What is particularly remarkable and less well known is the way in which the European Union also took shape thanks to the colonies.
In the interwar period, and certainly in the 1950s, European countries expanded the European Economic Community (EEC), based on the principle that the colonies too should help shape this new, post-war Europe.
‘Eurafrica’ was intended to act as a counterweight to the new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, but also to freedom fighters like President Nasser of Egypt, who was bold enough to seize the Suez Canal. A move to which France, Britain and Israel responded with a military invasion.
Even today, Europe is still not the peace project it claims to be, say the curators of the exhibition in Brussels. Just as in the 1950s, Europe is now engaged in a race for Africa’s raw materials with China and others, with concern for the local population amounting to little more than a thin veneer of rhetoric overlaid on economic interests.
The European Union has various projects in former colonies, as part of its so-called Global Gateway Project for investment in infrastructure, energy, transport and the like. This, in turn, is a response to China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative. It is unfortunate that these contemporary forms of covert colonialism are hardly discussed.
And now?
There is no shortage of leaflets, statues daubed with red paint and torn-up Black Pete posters. The shockwaves caused by colonisation, both in the countries of origin and here in Europe, get a great deal of attention. This is reflected in music and contemporary art, as well as in the testimonies of descendants.
Who is Black Pete or Zwarte Piet?
Black Pete is a controversial figure in Dutch and Belgian St. Nicholas traditions, appearing in late November and early December to help distribute sweets and presents to children. Traditionally portrayed by white people in blackface, with curly wigs, red lipstick, and golden earrings, the character is often depicted as a mischievous or obedient servant, drawing sharp criticism as a racist stereotype of African people.
The question mark in the title ‘Postcolonialism?’ remains even after you have visited the entire exhibition. As an educational project, at the exhibition secondary school pupils can engage with the topic. But due to the hybrid format and the urge to tick off every aspect of this enormously complex history, the creators have turned it primarily into a retrospective on a bloody and painful past says VRT Africa expert Katrien Vanderschoot.
The political debate on the dangers of a new colonisation is sidestepped and this in a museum just a few hundred metres from the European Commission, the very place where those decisions are made.
'Postcolonial?' runs from 17 April 2026 to 14 March 2027 at the House of European History, Belliardstraat 135 in Brussels.