Leopold ll

The two groups represent the ‘grateful Congolese people’ because Leopold II had ‘liberated them from the slavery by the Arabs’ and the other group representing ‘the hommage by the Ostend fishermen to its brilliant protector’. Given the reputation of Leopold II, the statue is quite controversial. In 2004 one of the hands of a Congolese was cut off, to surface in 2019 with the promise to return the hand as soon as the Belgian Royal Family should excuse for their behaviour during the colonial past.

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