Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the grand opening of our new exhibit, examining the darkness. It has been many years since Belgium first discovered the vast new area of land known as the Congo. It has been many years since America first recognized our claim on the Congo. It has been many years since we have felt the economical and cultural growth in our country because of the Congo. And it has been many years since we set the Congo free from our rule. With these years came a great forgetting. As young Belgian school children, we are taught to honor Henry Morton Stanley for his great contribution of the mapping of the Congo. We are taught to honor the force publique soldiers who gave their lives to end the Arab slave trade in the Congo and of those who died later. We are taught to honor the young pioneers who dared to venture in this new land, but there is one body of people we fail to honor and recognize, the native Africans who gave their lives to fuel our economy. …
