---
title: De Vlamingen aan de Negers van den Congo (The Flemings to the Negroes of the Congo)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/de-vlamingen-aan-de-negers-van-den-congo-1885/
description: A text-only bill in heavy display type is addressed by 'the Flemings' to the 'black brothers' of the Congo, announcing that the great powers have put…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![De Vlamingen aan de Negers van den Congo (The Flemings to the Negroes of the Congo)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/de-vlamingen-aan-de-negers-van-den-congo-1885.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/de-vlamingen-aan-de-negers-van-den-congo-1885.jpg)

# De Vlamingen aan de Negers van den Congo (The Flemings to the Negroes of the Congo)

A text-only bill in heavy display type is addressed by 'the Flemings' to the 'black brothers' of the Congo, announcing that the great powers have put them under Leopold II and listing what will follow: laws, administrators, officers, judges and schooling all in French, run by Walloons. Scapegoating tell: one bounded group, 'Walen', carries every Flemish grievance, and the Congolese are used as the stage on which the grievance is acted out.

- **Date:** 1885
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Flemish-movement bill, sponsor not named on the sheet; printed by D. Van Doorslaer-Verbeken, Schaerbeek (Brussels)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Belgium](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=belgium)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [Beernaert Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=beernaert-government)
- **Leader:** [Auguste Beernaert](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=auguste-beernaert)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [Race and ethnicity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=race-ethnicity)
- **Event:** [Berlin Conference 1884 1885](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=berlin-conference-1884-1885)
- **Techniques:** [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (photograph of the bill, BELvue Museum, Brussels)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_Vlamingen_aan_de_Negers_van_de_Congo_(The_Flemish_to_the_Negroes_of_the_Congo).jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (Belgian printed bill of c. 1885, before 1931; Commons PD tag) Flemish bill printed by D. Van Doorslaer-Verbeken, Schaerbeek, c. 1885; photographed at the BELvue Museum, Brussels; via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

Original (Dutch) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
DE VLAMINGEN
aan de Negers van den
CONGO

ZWARTE BROEDERS !

De groote Mogendheden van Europa hebben besloten dat gij voortaan onder den schepter van Leopold II zult leven.
Ziethier, onder andere, wat voor U de gelukkige gevolgen daarvan zullen zijn.
De WETTEN welke men U zal opleggen zult gij niet mogen verstaan : wij ook moeten wetten naleven, welke alleen opgesteld zijn in de taal van onze zoogezegde waalsche broeders.
Het BESTUUR zal toevertrouwd worden aan WALEN, die evenmin uwe taal zullen moeten kennen als de onze.
Om u in dwang te houden, zal men u een LEGER zenden waarin gij, zooals wij hier, het vuil werk zult mogen verrichten, maar waarvan de officieren WALEN zullen zijn, die u IN HET FRANSCH zullen ...behandelen, zooals het met onze zonen gebeurt.
Men zal u ook GENDARMEN EN RECHTERS sturen, die u niet zullen verstaan en die u zullen aanhouden, beschuldigen en veroordeelen, in eene taal welke gij niet kent. Bij ons ook worden dagelijks Vlamingen tot het gevang verwezen, dik[...] [illegible] dood veroordeeld, zonder een enkel woord van de beschuldiging en van het vonnis verstaan te hebben.
Aan uwe kinderen zal men eenen schijn van ONDERWIJS geven in eene taal welke zij niet begrijpen; en, na eenige jaren van dat verstandig stelsel, zal men misschien bij u ook WAALSCHE gazetschrijvers vinden die u zullen voor BEESTEN en PAARDENKOPPEN uitschelden.
Zietdaar, Zwarte Broeders, het lot dat u te wachten staat onder de regeering van Leopold II ; want hij zal u zeker niet beter willen laten behandelen dan ons, Vlamingen, die sedert vier-en-vijftig jaren, meer dan de helft betalen van de millioenen welke hij - en zijn vader voor hem - ons jaarlijks kost !

ZWARTE BROEDERS !

Wij benijden u uwe zwarte kleur en de onbekendheid van uw geslacht.
Op UWE kaken kan men ten minste de schaamte niet lezen, welke ONS doet blozen als wij onze roemrijke voorouders herdenken en ons prachtig verleden vergelijken met den vernederenden toestand, waarin wij ons thans bevinden onder den schepter van [illegible]
LEOPOLD II

Druk. D. Van Doorslaer-Verbeke[n], Paleizenstraat 102 Schaerbeek [partly obscured]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
THE FLEMINGS to the Negroes of the CONGO. BLACK BROTHERS! The great Powers of Europe have decided that from now on you shall live under the sceptre of Leopold II. Here, among other things, is what the happy consequences will be for you. The LAWS that will be imposed on you you will not be allowed to understand: we too must obey laws drawn up only in the language of our so-called Walloon brothers. The ADMINISTRATION will be entrusted to WALLOONS, who will no more have to know your language than ours. To keep you in check an ARMY will be sent to you in which you, as we do here, may do the dirty work, but whose officers will be WALLOONS who will treat you IN FRENCH, as happens with our sons. GENDARMES AND JUDGES will also be sent to you, who will not understand you and who will arrest, accuse and sentence you in a language you do not know. With us too Flemings are sent to prison every day, [often already ... sentenced to] death, without having understood a single word of the accusation and of the sentence. To your children a semblance of EDUCATION will be given in a language they do not understand; and after some years of that sensible system you will perhaps also find WALLOON journalists who will call you BEASTS and HORSE-HEADS. That, Black Brothers, is the lot that awaits you under the rule of Leopold II; for he will surely not wish to have you treated better than us Flemings, who for fifty-four years have paid more than half of the millions that he, and his father before him, costs us every year! BLACK BROTHERS! We envy you your black colour and the unfamiliarity of your race. On YOUR cheeks one cannot at least read the shame which makes US blush when we recall our glorious forefathers and compare our splendid past with the humiliating condition in which we now find ourselves under the sceptre of [illegible] LEOPOLD II. Printed by D. Van Doorslaer-Verbeke[n], Paleizenstraat 102, Schaerbeek.
```

The word after 'IN HET FRANSCH zullen' is obscured by a print flaw (rendered '...'); a phrase in the death-sentence line is illegible; the printer's line at the foot is partly obscured. 'Negers' and 'Zwarte Broeders' are transcribed as printed. Translation is literal machine translation.

[← La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) [A nova espada que o governo pretende apresentar ao exército (The New Sword the Government Means to Present to the Army) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nova-espada-revista-illustrada-1887/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Negro Rule" vampire cartoon with sworn affidavit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/negro-rule-vampire-1900/) (Jul 4, 1900 · Accusation in a mirror, Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Racist "Negro Rule" caricature.
- [Японский Император и его лукавые доброжелатели (The Japanese Emperor and His Cunning Well-Wishers): Russian Russo-Japanese War print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japanese-mikado-cunning-well-wishers-1904/) (1904 · Name-calling, Scapegoating)
- [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/) (Apr 12, 1913 · Bandwagon, Scapegoating). Content note: Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy.