[restitution matters]

Héritages coloniaux en Belgique / Colonial Legacies in Belgium – conference

Conference
Brussels
28 Jan 2026
Worldwide
Belgium
RM* 19 Jan 2026

[in French, in English] Since the 1990s, new forms of discourse and mobilization have emerged to question Belgium’s colonial past and postcolonial present. Journalists, researchers, archivists, community activists, artists, members of the African diaspora, former colonists and their descendants, national and political players, etc. have contributed to putting the issue of colonial legacy on the public agenda.

The project HERICOL of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) focuses on three aspects: the role of Belgian universities, especially ULB, in colonial history and the issue of the university’s ‘decolonization’; public controversies on colonialism, structured by mobilizations and counter-mobilizations; and the social trajectories of former colonists from 1960 to the present and their role in postcolonial controversies.

This conference is to mark the end of the project HERICOL.