Métis of the Great Lakes

From 1890, Belgian authorities issued decrees to forcibly remove biracial children from their mothers, often claiming it was for their education and protection.Taken from their families, Métis children were placed in church-run missions known as colonies scolaires, where they were stripped of their African identity and forcibly "Europeanized." This segregation aimed to erase their roots and enforce colonial racial hierarchies.

In the years leading to independence (1959–1962), hundreds of Métis children were relocated to Belgium. Once there, a 1960 ministerial circular revoked their Belgian nationality and labeled them illegitimate, leaving them stateless and cut off from both their African and European identities.

At independence, most Métis children were left in institutions with no records, no support, and no connection to their families. Their stories are marked by deep emotional trauma, legal invisibility, and decades of silence. As one survivor shared:

 “It’s only with Georges Kamanayo’s report that I said to myself, ‘But I’m not alone!’”

In a historic move, Belgium has been convicted of crimes against humanity for acts committed during colonization which must signal as a turning point for European States, said African Futures Lab and Amnesty International.

Today, the Brussels Court of Appeal recognized the responsibility of the Belgian State in the abduction and systematic racial segregation of Métis children under Belgian colonial rule, after five Métis women born between 1948 and 1952 in the Belgian Congo, initiated legal proceedings against the Belgian state. After a Brussels court ruled against their claims in 2021, they continued to seek redress and appealed the decision, reaching this historical ruling today. .

Like thousands of Métis children born to European fathers and African mothers, Marie-Josée Loshi, Noëlle Verbeken, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Simone Ngalula, and Monique Bintu Bingi were taken from their Congolese mothers, forcibly placed in religious institutions, deprived of their roots and identity, and later abandoned to fend for themselves when Congo gained independence. Even today, the wounds of that era remain profound. The Métis children of colonization still grapple with the consequences of these devastating practices, despite the official apology made by the Belgian Prime Minister at the time, Charles Michel, in 2018, and the Federal Parliament's adoption of the 'Métis Resolution' in 2019.

We co-organized a major conference titled “African Mothers and their Métis Children Abducted by the Belgian Colonial Administration: What Progress Towards Justice and Reparations?” with AEBLC, AMGL Burundi, Collectif Métis, and GERME to highlight Belgium's inadequate response. This event amplified the voices of those still fighting for recognition, justice, and reparations.

At the UN Permanent Forum of People of African Descent, we co-hosted a pivotal event: "Biracial Children, African Mothers and Colonization: A Global Case for Reparations." We proposed formal recommendations urging European states to recognize these colonial crimes and called on Belgium to offer full redress: nationality, healthcare, compensation, and acknowledgment.

Des Métis abandonnés demandent justice pour les crimes coloniaux belges.

We launched a landmark report, "70 Years of Fighting for Justice and Reparations! Mobilization by ‘Métis’ People from the Great Lakes Abducted by the Belgian Colonial Administration”, alongside Amnesty International's Racial Justice team. The campaign uplifts the demands of Métis individuals and exposes Belgium's ongoing failure to provide justice for those displaced to Europe and those left behind in the Great Lakes region.