The association is calling for the removal of the monument located at rue de l'Eglise in Bascharage and has asked that it be replaced with a new monument in memory of some 5,000 Congolese workers (the number is disputed) who died during the construction of the first railway line in the then-Belgian-occupied Congo linking Matadi to Léopoldville--formerly known as Kinshasa. The deaths of the workers are reported to be a result of tough working conditions.
The engineer commissioned with the construction of the railway line was born in 1866 in Bascharage, the commune of which the association has directed its concerns. The association’s president and activist, Sandrine Gashonga, explains that its request was directed to the commune as the monument in question is situated within its territory.
The memorial was erected at the initiative of the Cercle Colonial Luxembourgeois (Luxembourg colonial circle) in Bascharage in 1938 and reads: “To our great compatriot, engineer Nicolas Cito, colonial pioneer, general consul of Luxembourg”.
As part of the Black Lives Matter protests, the artist collective Richtung 22 in 2020 had put the monument behind bars with a plaque that read: “In memory of 5,500 colonial forced labourers who died during the construction of a railway line in Congo. For a Luxembourg culture of remembrance in which black life matters.”
Our campaign to decolonise public space continues, and the petition to remove the memorial to Bascharage/Käerjeng continues
A screenshot of the statue in question Wikipedia
Managing expectations and moving on
Although the association’s request to take down the monument is not up for discussion by the commune, the petition has failed to reach its initial 500-1,000 target signatories--with only 82 signatures as of 26 August. The association’s president with Rwandan origins [Rwanda formed part of Belgian-occupied Congo during the colonisation era] says it has a broader agenda to raise public awareness.
“We are addressing this petition to the public. It's the public that we want to convince, and we’ve already received support from people who think that we must not let go of this discussion.”
Gashonga, who is part of the working group on this topic since 2019, says it was important to start with a request to the commune and that the Nicolas statue is the only one it has identified for the moment that poses a problem in terms of monuments. She adds that from the association’s interactions, a first observation was how little people knew about the subject or of Luxembourg’s colonial past.
When asked if the association was disappointed with the commune’s feedback, Gashonga says that “although the petition is progressing very slowly, it's true that we opened a discussion once again that was closed since 2020. We want to take actions that are non-violent and that have an impact too.”
A conference on the subject of colonial history will take place in November. Speakers from several countries, including France and Belgium, will be invited to have a joint discussion on how history is handled and what to do so that it is more inclusive. The event will be organised by the Kinneksbond cultural center in Mamer in collaboration with Lëtz Rise Up.