70 Years of Fighting for Justice and Reparations! Mobilizations by “Métis” People from the Great Lakes Abducted by the Belgian Colonial Administration

After decades of struggle, a new report traces the transnational fight for justice led by Métis communities from the Great Lakes and Belgium, demanding recognition and reparations for colonial-era abductions.

The report aims to analyze the actions taken by the Métis abducted by Belgium’s colonial administration and their families to obtain justice and reparation. It focuses on the struggles waged in the Great Lakes region of Africa and in Belgium since 1950, and sheds light on the achievements in recent years of those seeking justice.

In this report, we show that Belgium’s response obscures the transnational nature of the Métis question. The crimes were perpetrated against African mothers living in the Great Lakes region and their Métis children, some of whom were forcibly displaced to Belgium.

These crimes are therefore transnational, as the people affected by them are located in both Belgium and the Great Lakes, and their demands for justice and reparation have been expressed in both these territories. This report also shows that the various measures adopted by the Belgian state, such as the project to identify family origins, involve a number of obstacles and limitations for both the Métis who remained in the Great Lakes region and those who were displaced to Belgium. 

Main author: Shaany N’sondé, MA

Co-author: Liliane Umubyeyi, PhD

Reviewer: Amah Edoh, PhD

You can download the full report here