The University of Antwerp was set, on 31st March, to solemnly name one of its historic auditoriums after the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925–1961). The ceremony was to take place in the presence of his children and grandchildren (University of Antwerp, n.d.a). The rector of the University, Herman Van Goethem, called this act a tribute to the Congolese Prime Minister, a catalyst of communication about the university’s colonial heritage, and a “beacon of reflection on the world we want” (University of Antwerp). Moreover, the University will organize events debating decolonization and promoting inclusion and diversity on a continuing basis, once a year in March. What follows is a synthesis of information taken from reviewed literature, discussions with the IOB researchers Sara Geenen and Catherine Windey, and a focus group discussion with the IOB students Naomi Nabami Muheme, Hannah Downes and Valensiya Dresvyannikova. In this article, therefore, E2C highlights the University of Antwerp’s colonial past, the decolonial efforts that have taken place so far and where exactly transformative research falls in the mix.
About Lumumba and Belgium’s “moral responsibility”
Patrice Lumumba is one of the most well-known African leaders and a symbol of the anti-imperialist struggle. He was born in Kasai province. With only some primary education, in his teens he left for the regional capital Stanleyville (now Kisangani), where he became a post office clerk. There, Lumumba intensified his efforts to improve his education and, in just a few years, became an established writer (with regular contributions in both Congolese newspapers and Belgian publications) and a prominent representative of the “évolué” (Zeilig, 2008). During the 1950s, Lumumba underwent an incredible transformation, from praising the Belgian civilization’s mission to becoming a radical nationalist and freedom fighter who condemned colonialism. His move to Leopoldville took him to the heart of political life. Lumumba became the leader of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC), and the 1959 rebellion transformed the MNC into an important political player (Zeilig, 2008).
According to Ludo De Witte, author of the book “The Assassination of Lumumba”, the rapid radicalization of the Congolese society and insistent demands for immediate independence which came from many political actors, including Lumumba, pushed the Belgian elite to satisfy these demands in the hope that 80% of the Congolese Parliament would be docile pro-Belgian members (Zeilig, 2008). But they proved to be wrong. After Lumumba’s imprisonment and the Round Table Conference in Brussels in 1960, where Lumumba rejected the idea that Belgium would retain some powers after independence or that the King of Belgium would remain the Congolese head of state, the decision to eliminate him had already crystalized in Brussels. In 1960, Lumumba led MNC to victory in the DRC’s (back then, the Republic of Congo) first elections after independence from Belgium was declared. He had been Prime Minister for less than three months before being ousted by a coup led by Mobutu and supported by Belgium and the USA. Next, Lumumba was arrested, tortured, and shot to death by his political opponents in the secessionist province of Katanga. His murder took place in the presence of Belgian officials. We cannot know what kind of prime minister Lumumba would have been and what path Congo would have taken if he had not been killed. Given his achievements and sense of commitment, there is every reason to believe that Congo would have taken a better path under Lumumba’s rule than the one of his successor, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. With the support of Belgium and the USA, Mobutu took power in 1965, ruled as a dictator, and installed a kleptocratic regime that looted the country for 32 years (Schipani, 2023).
A failure to acknowledge the implications of their colonial past and involvement in Lumumba’s assassination foreshadowed years of denial in Belgium, and it has only begun to come to terms with these events in recent years. Not long ago, Belgian Prime Minister De Croo handed over a gold-capped tooth belonging to the first leader of the former Belgian colony to Lumumba’s descendants and DRC. It is believed that this tooth is all that is left of the Congolese leader. It was kept for a long time by a Belgian policeman who oversaw and participated in the destruction of the body, before being seized by the Belgian police at his daughter’s home in 2016 (Stroobants, 2022, June 21). The burial of the tooth coincided with the 62nd anniversary of Lumumba’s famous independence day speech and offered an opportunity to revisit the past (Zane, 2022, June 22; Schipani, 2023).
After the publication in 1999 of Ludo De Witte’s book, a ground-breaking account of Lumumba’s murder, a parliamentary inquiry into the independence leader’s death was set up. The inquiry found no document proving that the Belgian government gave the order to kill Lumumba (Zane, 2022, June 20). It did find that the Belgian Authorities and the then king knew about the assassination plans and did not act on the information. The Belgian parliamentary investigation eventually concluded that the government was “morally responsible” for Mr. Lumumba’s death (Gijs & Faris, 2022, June 2).
Formal acknowledgments and apologies for a country’s contribution to its colonial past are needed. In both former colonizing and colonized countries there are voices arguing that apologies should be followed by more substantial compensation, including material compensation. Others, however, fear this possible outcome, considering that hefty retributive payments will place undue financial burdens on potential culprits. This could be the reason for the politically correct acknowledgments by former colonial masters, which fall shy of the acceptance of the aggrieved states. Moreover, such discourse can be used as a vehicle for demands which would result in an inequitable distribution of funding to particular states in the global south. Such perspectives reflect the debates that are going on today. A similar conclusion, or rather impasse, was reached by the special committee on Belgium’s colonial past after more than two years of work on the matter (Chini, 2022). For a country like Belgium, acknowledgment is the first – difficult for some – step. Material compensation might then follow. As we wait to cross that bridge in Belgium, the University of Antwerp is moving towards fully addressing its colonial legacy.
The University of Antwerp and its decolonial futures
The auditorium to be inaugurated as the Patrice Lumumba lecture hall was chosen for a reason. It is located on the Middelheim campus, in the main building that served as the Colonial College until 1962, one year after Congolese independence. The purpose of this College was to provide elite education to the young Belgians who were to run the colonies. Since the Belgian state (cl)aimed to “bring civilization” to its colonies, the College’s program revolved entirely around the so-called “civilizing mission” by imposing Western civilization principles in the colonized territories and treating the people there as “adult children” (Hoog Tijd, 2021). In a seminar on the colonial past of the University of Antwerp, the historian Bas De Roo underlined how the inheritance of this College has lived on in many forms right up until the present day (Hoog Tijd, 2021). The most visible representations are its former building, which hosts several of the University of Antwerp’s administrative departments, and the sculptures expressing colonizing ideologies scattered around the former College building and nearby Middelheim park. The worst aspects of colonial heritage and the most difficult to unroot are the fragments of colonial ideology concealed in the racist biases, prejudices, stereotypical imagery of Africa, and invisible racist and exclusionary structures of power. Commendably, in light of its perceived contribution to the colonial past of Belgium, the University of Antwerp has started to take steps towards a decolonial turn.
Attempts to decolonize universities have been going on for a while in the countries of both the ex-colonized and the colonizers. In recent years the number of such initiatives has dramatically increased, opening up more space for societal debate on this topic. The universities’ structures and curricula have come under scrutiny as a result. There has been increasing criticism of the limited inclusiveness of those constructed as “other” based on race, gender, or ethnicity (Withaeckx, 2019). Some groups within Belgian universities are slowly joining this movement.
As some universities have historically been important instruments in the ‘colonial matrix of power’ (Quijano, 2000), they also have a role to play in decolonial pathways. University researchers work with policymakers in research projects, and they collaborate with NGOs and CSOs to push for particular projects. Thus, universities are both socially and politically valued and this is a key position that can be leveraged to contribute to change. Therefore, in the same way that universities have played a major role in influencing critical perspectives on gender both in academia and in society, they can influence decolonization in countries.
Notably, the University of Antwerp is taking steps with the aim of constructing a decolonial future for the institution. One such step is the creation of the Global Engagement Advisory Group, whose role, among others, is to guide the University through a journey of embracing global diversity and the equitable decolonized exchange of knowledge. This journey has been mapped in what is called the University of Antwerp’s ‘Action Plan for Global Engagement and Cooperation with Africa, Asia, and Latin America’.
The Institute of Development Policy (IOB) is an active player in the decolonization process of the University of Antwerp. Given the IOB’s mission, the institute was confronted early on with the need for decolonization. An important initiative which started several years ago is the internal process of rethinking the institute’s DNA. IOB’s contribution also extends from having significant representation in the Global Engagement Advisory Group to engaging in research practices around the issue at hand. Recently, the IOB also championed a research study on the matter under the umbrella of transformative research.
Enter, transformative research
Transformative research is a paradigm not limited to topics or quantitative versus qualitative methods. Instead, what matters in transformative research is the approach and goals of the research. Transformative research mainly entails using mixed and participatory methods for data collection, though its goal is not simply to accumulate (new) knowledge but to foster societal empowerment and transformation. This type of research, therefore, lends itself to policy-oriented research. However, unlike lobbying for change through writing policy briefs and papers, transformative research allows for change to take place throughout the research process. In this process, the research participants (the target community representatives) are actively involved in identifying their needs and discussing solutions. The researcher, therefore, doesn’t start the research with predefined goals. The researcher has to engage with the participants, value their knowledge and experiences, facilitate addressing power inequities, and plan for sustainability (Mertens, 2021). In this process, the researcher acts as a social change agent rather than a knowledge creator.
Some IOB master students were involved in a research exercise around the colonial past and decolonial futures of the University of Antwerp. These students followed the course subunit “Transformative methodologies in development” under the research methods II course in the first module of their master program. Armed with predefined research questions and an array of nine participatory action research methods to select from, the students contacted various stakeholders within the university, including teaching and non-teaching staff, to participate in the research. Notably, the participants in the research were of diverse backgrounds both in terms of ethnicity and academic orientation. This highly motivated group of students faced head on the challenges that came with the execution of the research process, which entailed knowledge and experience sharing, and allowed each of the participants (students, researchers, and university staff) to develop new and divergent perspectives on the topic of decolonization and the University’s past and present. As the participants came from different parts of the world, each having faced different forms and consequences of colonization, the exchange of knowledge and viewpoints facilitated a constructive reflective exercise. Not only that, but since the research was very hands-on, the students who had previously studied or heard about decolonization could obtain some returns from the practical engagements. The research has likely contributed to increasing awareness of the University of Antwerp’s colonial past; for instance, some students learned, for the first time, about the colonial past of Belgium and the University of Antwerp, and how this past is concretely linked with Congo. The research output was also considered key to the discussions to take place during the academic event linked to the inauguration of the Patrice Lumumba Aula, where two of the students were to present their work.
Transformative research may constitute an important and relevant tool in the process of decolonizing the University of Antwerp. By design, transformative research is more open to epistemic disobedience and the inclusion of alternative perspectives. Moreover, some of the action research methods employed offer an effective and inclusive way of directing attention towards a particular topic of interest. However, the implementation of some methods can be time-consuming and costly, and some others can be difficult to implement on a large scale. Also, action is an integral part of participatory action research. So, in light of this research on the decolonial futures of the University of Antwerp, key questions remain: “What happens after the research is done?” and “What tangible change could take place next?”
Additionally, there are other challenges related to the use of transformative research focused on the decolonization of the University of Antwerp. It is likely that one specific group, usually the same university staff, would be interested in participating in such research, leading to possible participation burn-out if the research is done multiple times and over a long period of time, and if they feel that their contributions do not make a difference. Furthermore, engagement in such research would imply an extra workload for those involved. The question of “who would be in charge of doing this research?” is one that would have to be answered, too. Currently, there are calls for the institutionalization of the University of Antwerp’s decolonization efforts in order to avoid scattered, discontinued or atomized efforts and duplication of tasks. What remains to be seen is the position of the University of Antwerp vis-a-vis this demand.
The diversity of the participants determines how they engage with the exercises and research questions, making this a key consideration when identifying participants for inclusion in the research. While considering diversity in participation and how to increase interest and participation in such research, it is crucial to appreciate the influence of power on the research process. Power imbalances among the research participants can influence discussions around decolonial initiatives and the outcomes thereof. The effectiveness of transformative research on the decolonial futures of the University of Antwerp is also affected by the participants’ expectations. If participants are disillusioned by the current decolonial efforts of the university, then the effectiveness of this kind of research would be left hanging in the balance. Notwithstanding, it would be interesting to make the findings from recent research available to the general public to determine, to some extent, its effectiveness regarding the decolonial futures of the University of Antwerp.
Concluding remarks
Evidently, the University of Antwerp is making strides in the search for sustainable transformations which encompass active acceptance of global diversity and equitable decolonized exchange of knowledge. Still, we must ask: can more be done? Being a place of knowledge creation, the university should critically consider the knowledge being produced and reproduced within its walls. It should be ready to ask itself whether, based on the education it provides, it is producing critical thinkers who see the world in alternate ways or is merely reaffirming hegemonic strands of knowledge in those we hope will be change agents in the society we wish to influence. For instance, the content of the curriculum should integrate more alternative perspectives, not only the dominant ones. Furthermore, the university should always be sensitive to the power dynamics at play in the partnerships they have with stakeholders, especially in the “global south.”
In addition, to augment the current decolonial efforts of the University of Antwerp, additional steps could be taken to decolonize the Middelheim campus itself. This could be seen as the next logical step following the inauguration of the Patrice Lumumba Aula. For instance, one option to consider is reversing the order of representation of power by housing classrooms instead of the Rector’s office in the main colonial building at the Middelheim campus. It has also been anecdotally reported that some faculties or professions may struggle with seeing the need to and way to decolonize. Increasing awareness of the colonial past of Belgium and the university’s role in this, while clearly highlighting the link with Congo, could go a long way. Of key importance is to ensure that all the decolonial efforts of the University of Antwerp integrate the voices and perspectives of the target parties. Transformative research can thus play a key role in the decolonial agenda of the University of Antwerp. For instance, in addition to the conversations and critical debates that are likely to emerge from the presentation the students were to make at the academic event, the Global Engagement Advisory Group of the University of Antwerp has also expressed interest in the results from the transformative research process which the students were engaged in. Several action points could be taken into consideration while thinking about the decolonial future of the University of Antwerp.
The inauguration of the Patrice Lumumba aula is a symbolic event that highlights the university’s acknowledgment of its colonial past, and could represent a statement of intent to realize a decolonial future. Some people are justifiably concerned about such actions being tokenistic. On the one hand, all actions, whether symbolic or not, have a collective relevance and importance. On the other hand, a symbolic gesture should not replace tangible action. It is imperative that we appreciate that decolonizing a university is a process done by actors who are at different stages of the process. Nonetheless, more action towards a decolonial turn for the University of Antwerp is indeed envisioned. One point that should be carefully considered is the issue of the “economics of decolonial care”. This term has been borrowed from the debate on the economics of care. There is a glaring need for awareness raising and the recruitment of a critical mass in the journey towards a decolonial future for the University of Antwerp. Otherwise, as it stands, the responsibility might continually fall on the shoulders of the few who recognize the need, those who are most impacted by unequal power structures, and those who have least access to a voice or effective leverage. This may quickly become a burden, as others will expect them to find time to dedicate to the decolonial efforts of the university.
Discussions with:
Sara Geenen (Ph.D), Associate Professor, IOB
Catherine Windey (Ph.D), Post-Doctoral Researcher, IOB
Focus Group Discussion with:
Naomi Nabami Muheme, Master of Governance and Development, IOB
Hannah Downes, Master of Globalisation and Development, IOB
Valensiya Dresvyannikova, Master of Globalisation and Development, IOB
References
Chini, M. (2022, December 20). Congo Committee: Belgium fails to reach agreement on official apology for colonialism. The Brussels Times. https://www.brusselstimes.com/339612/congo-committee-belgium-fails-to-reach-agreement-on-apology-for-colonialism
Gijs, C., & Faris, S. (2022, June 2). Lumumba’s tooth: Belgium’s unfinished reckoning with its colonial past. Politico. https://www.politico.eu/article/lumumba-tooth-belgium-unfinished-reckoning-colonial-past/
Hoog Tijd (2021). Summary session 2: The colonial history of the University of Antwerp. Hoog Tijd: https://hoogtijddereeks.wordpress.com/2021/04/07/summary-session-2-the-colonial-history-of-the-university-of-antwerp/
Mertens, D. M. (2021). Transformative Research Methods to Increase Social Impact for Vulnerable Groups and Cultural Minorities. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211051563
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South Duke University Press, 1(3), 533-580.
Schipani, A. (2023, January 27). The 60-year, 4,000-mile journey home of Lumumba’s tooth. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/eca1ba35-aa02-4c5c-b5fa-d93f36ed7c0d
Stroobants, J.P. (2022 June 21). Belgium’s prime minister officially apologizes for the death of Patrice Lumumba. Le Monde. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2022/06/21/prime-minister-of-belgium-officially-apologizes-for-the-death-of-patrice-lumumba_5987567_124.html
University of Antwerp (n.d.a) Patrice Lumumba lecture hall inauguration. Retrieved March 7, 2023 from https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/projects/aula-lumumba/inauguration
University of Antwerp (n.d.b). Message from the rector. Retrieved March 7, 2023 from https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/projecten/aula-lumumba/boodschap-rector/
Withaeckx, S. (2019). Weakening the Institutional Wall: Reflections on Race, Gender and Decolonisation in Belgian academy. DiGeSt. Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 6(1), 25-44. DOI: 10.11116/DiGeSt.6.1.2
Zane, D. (2022, June 22). Patrice Lumumba: Why Belgium is returning a Congolese hero’s golden tooth. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61838781
Zeilig, L. (2008). From ‘whiteman in rags’ to revolutionary nationalist: Patrice Lumumba 1925–1960. Social Dynamics, 34(2), 227-258. DOI: 10.1080/02533950802280147