The Brussels municipality of Anderlecht will provide every colonial monument in public spaces and the city hall with a panel of context, it announced.
The municipal administration chose not to remove the colonial references, seeing as they are a part of an undeniable history, but to put them in the right context by providing the necessary information.
Two years ago, the colonial implications of the name of the Veterans Coloniaux (Colonial Veterans) square led to discussions within the municipality. In the end, the name was kept, but a workgroup was created to provide the necessary context. The group, together with nonprofits Change, Mémoire Coloniale and academic experts, worked out a proposal to give the monuments a proper framework.
The municipality will ask transport company STIB to consider a way to change the name of bus stop Veterans Coloniaux.
“It is important to place these things in the right context by organising information sessions and allowing exchanges about this period of our history. Furthermore, we must keep alive the memory of the painful events of the colonial past by relying on precise historical events. We must enter into dialogue,” says Julien Milquet (CDH), responsible for International Solidarity.
