King Leopold's Bust: A Story of Monuments, Culture, and Memory in Colonial Europe

In September 2008, artist Théophile de Giraud climbed up the large equestrian statue to King Leopold II of Belgium (r. 1865-1909) at the Place du Trône in Brussels. Once on top, he dumped red paint on the statue and proceeded to spread the paint all over Leopold II's head and upper body. ² A 2004 attack on a large memorial to the king in Oostende left one of the monument's African figures missing a hand, an insult that a number of pro-colonialists—that is former colonials and others who continue to defend the memory and legacy of empire—immediately tried to repair. ³ A statue to the king in Ekeren has been vandalized a number of times, most recently by being defaced with blood-red paint in November 2009. ⁴ In 2004, Spirit Halle, the local chapter of the Flemish left-liberal political party Spirit asked the Halle city government to remove the monument to Belgium's second king in that city's park "omdat massamoordenaars geen standbeeld verdienen"—because mass murderers do not deserve a monument. ⁵ Of course the severed hand and blood-red paint were pointed evocations of the abuses that occurred in Leopold's Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. ⁶ Numerous desecrations of monuments to Leopold II have occurred in past years, the most recent (at time of publication) occurring June 2011. ⁷ These acts of vandalism have been accompanied by public outcry and demands that these statues be taken down, including the creation of a Facebook page calling specifically for the removal of the statue at Ekeren. ⁸

Those protesting not only see imperialism in the monuments, they also believe that the public must see imperialism in them too. Thus, to them, these monuments represent imperialism. This interpretation of such public statues would be uncontroversial among the growing number of scholars who study so-called colonial monuments or colonial culture in Europe, be it in France, Britain, or elsewhere. ⁹ In the years since Edward Said's Orientalism appeared in 1979, many historians have come to perceive deep and ubiquitous colonial influences in European culture. ¹⁰ Many scholars have pointed to monuments as evidence of colonial culture. Historians who downplay the cultural significance of empire to the metropole, such as Bernard Porter in the British case, are exceptions. Porter argues that empire had little effect on most English men and women. ¹¹ Porter's work might be taken to represent a body of scholars more generally who do not share the view that overseas empire shaped Europe in any fundamental way. By contrast, and though the popular press received Porter's book favorably, practitioners of the "new imperial history"—many of whom see signs of empire virtually everywhere in Europe—largely dismiss Porter's evidence and conclusions. ¹² In a sense two camps have staked out increasingly recalcitrant positions, each unveiling a litany of evidence to prove or disprove the significance or superficiality of empire's effects on European culture.

What Porter's critics have failed to point out is that in limited ways his study provokes us to inquire into the issue of how one evaluates evidence of pro-empire sentiment or colonial culture. Specifically, Porter calls for the careful consideration of evidence "to separate imperial influences out from other contemporary trends." ¹³ Porter is right to point out that the "imperial-ness" of evidence cannot be presumed, rather it has "to be empirically established in every case." ¹⁴ In other words, the context of cultural production is crucial, and if one provides the proper context for many cases it disproves the significance of evidence that, when taken out of context, appears to demonstrate a culture of empire.

This is important because many studies that have argued the importance of empire to Europe have considered products having any connection with empire as being somehow "colonial." Because such items are so widespread, Europe appears to have been completely "steeped in" or "imbricated" with empire. French scholar Alain Ruscio, for instance, has included works by Victor Hugo, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Guy...