Lea Tavares Mujinga, Simone Vandenbroecke Ngalula, Monique Bitu Bingi, Noelle Verbeken and Marie … [+]
In December 2024, a Belgian court ordered the government to pay reparations to five mixed-race women after they were forcibly removed from their families in the colonial-era Belgian Congo. The women, born between 1948 and 1952 in the Belgian Congo, were taken from their families and placed in orphanages in accordance with the state policy at the time – a policy of abduction and systematic racial segregation of mixed-race children under Belgian colonial rule. As the Belgian court found, the government had a “plan to systematically search for and abduct children born to a black mother and a white father.” As confirmed by the court, the practice amounted to crimes against humanity, with the abductions being classified as an inhumane act of persecution.
The decision of the Belgian court follows some important developments to acknowledge past wrongs. Among others, in 2019, the Belgian government issued a formal apology to the victims/survivors of the state-sponsored practice of forcible separation of children in the colonial-era Belgian Congo and other countries (including Burundi and Rwanda). As many white fathers refused to recognize their mixed-race children, they were taken into state care and placed in Church-run orphanages. In many cases, they endured abuse in such institutions. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 children born to white settlers and local black women were forcibly removed from their families during the 1940s and 1950s. In 2017, the Catholic church apologized to the victims/survivors for its part in the practice.
However, the apology did not follow with any concrete proposals for some form of reparations for victims/survivors. This is why in 2021, Monique Bitu Bingi, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Noëlle Verbeken, Simone Ngalula and Marie-José Loshi launched legal proceedings for compensation for their treatment by the Belgian colony. They were separated from their mothers when they were under the age of seven and placed in orphanages where they would be deprived of their roots and identity. Later, they were abandoned when Congo gained independence. Initially, their legal challenge failed due to the statute of limitations. In December 2024, the Brussels Court of Appeal overturned an earlier court’s ruling and decided that the state’s actions amounted to a crime against humanity and as such – removed the statute of limitations.
According to the 2024 judgment, “The court order[ed] the Belgian State to compensate the appellants for the moral damage resulting from the loss of their connection to their mother and the damage to their identity and their connection to their original environment.” The judgment followed powerful statements from the women, including from Léa Tavares Mujinga who testified during the appeal hearing about the impact of the separation on her life: “The Belgian state uprooted us, cut us off from our people. It stole our childhood, our lives, our first names, our surnames, our identities, and our human rights.”
The court ordered the Belgian state to compensate the five women for the moral damage resulting from the loss of their connection to their mother and the damage to their identity and their connection to their original environment. The women sought compensation of €50,000 each (USD52,000).
At this stage, it is unclear whether further victims/survivors will come forward to seek acknowledgment of their suffering. In any event, the case is an important step toward justice for whole generations of children. As the five brave women show, even where delayed, justice can help to acknowledge past wrongs which otherwise would remain unaddressed. Compensation for past wrongs is one avenue for justice and accountability.
In an attempt to address past wrongs, in 2022, the Belgian parliament passed a law establishing a legal framework for the restitution and return of the property looted from the colonial-era Belgian Congo. Belgian Prime Minister at the time, Alexander De Croo, submitted an inventory of Congolese works of art and artifacts which potentially could be returned to the former African colony. Reportedly, the inventory contained around 84,000 objects. The law is yet to be implemented.
