Equestrian statue of King Leopold II

At the end of the Royal Galleries, you will encounter one of the most controversial statues in the country. Leopold II is depicted high on horseback, with on one side a group of Congolese paying homage to the king for freeing them from slavery, and on the other side a group of fishermen from Ostend thanking him for the way he developed Ostend from a fishing village in the 19th century into an important port city and a tourist attraction in the 20th century. The statue was created in 1931, long after Leopold's death, and is the work of the Brussels-born Thomas Vinçotte from Borgerhout.

Those who look closely will notice that one Congolese figure on the left is missing a hand. This is the result of an incident in 2004, when the activist group De stoeten Ostendenoare wanted to draw attention to what really happened in the Independent Congo State between 1885 and 1908. King Leopold II may have acted against the Arabian slave trade, but he also allowed the Congolese to be subjected to forced labor on a large scale, primarily for rubber exploitation. Those who did not cooperate could face severe punishment. The story of human rights violations and the millions of victims of this regime is now widely known.

Erik