In black and white: a bird’s eye overview of Flemish prose on the Congo

This article provides an overview of the literary prose written in Dutch about the Congo, the former Belgian colony. The Congo was ruled over by king Leopold II as his private property from 1885 to 1908. From 1908 to 1960 it was governed by the Belgian state. The Congo gained its independence on 30 June 1960. During the colonial period and after the Congolese independence a substantial number of Flemish literary works have been written about the Congo. During the colonial period most of them were written in the colonialist vein. They reflect a Eurocentric perspective and a colonialist attitude... Mehr ...