"Anthropology and Race in Belgium and the Congo (1839-1922)"
In a context of competing European nationalisms, Belgian anthropologists mainly used physical characters, like skull form and the color of hair and eyes, to delimitate ‘races’, that were believed to be permanent and existent. Their belief in a supposed racial superiority was however above all telling about their own origins and physical characters. Although it is often assumed that these ideas were subsequently transferred to the colony, the case of Belgian colonization in Congo shows that colonial administrators, at least in theory, were reluctant to use the idea of permanent ‘races’ because they needed the possibility of ‘evolution’ to legitimize their actions as part of a ‘civilizing mission’. In reality however, colonization was based on military occupation and economic exploitation with devastating effects. In this violent context, widespread racial prejudices in fact dehumanized Congolese. This not only allowed colonizers to act inhumane, but also reduced Congolese, or their body parts, to objects that could be measured, photographed, casted and ‘collected’.