PhD Candidate Zack Martin to present a paper at the 12th Annual AHM Conference in Amsterdam
Photograph Yves Herman/Reuters
Equestrian statue of Leopold II, 1926, Place du Trône/Troonplein, Brussels, smeared with paint and graffiti, 2020, photograph Yves Herman/Reuters
Introduction
PhD Candidate Zack Martin will present a paper at the 12th Annual AHM Conference at the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, taking place from June 17–19, 2026. The conference theme is "Unsettling Heritage and Memory Futures: Decolonial Trajectories between Crisis and Possibility," and Zack's presentation is titled "Countering Leopoldian Monuments: Dialogism and Provisionality on View in Belgium."
Paper Abstract
Monuments to the legacy of Leopold II, King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 and de jure autocrat of the Congo Free State from its founding in 1885 until its cession to the Belgian state in 1908, proliferated in the interwar period and were built until the end of the colonial empire in the early 1960s. These public memorials testify to the concerted efforts of the Belgian state to nationalize the history of their Congo colony, which began as a private crown possession and was consistently regarded with suspicion by large segments of Belgian society. The combined efforts of the colonial lobby, the Ministry of Colonies, and the Royal Palace paid off, however, as by mid-century a majority of Belgians polled indicated their belief that Belgian presence in Central Africa was justified and offered tangible benefits to local peoples. This paper considers recent counter-monumental actions at some of the most important of these Leopoldian monuments in the context of “post post-colonial Belgium,” a fractured nation-state whose colonial history may finally be ready to thaw. While these monuments to a highly polarizing king may have once stood for a monolithic national memory apparatus, today they provide needed space for the articulation of more ethical futures for Belgium. As place-based installations, they gather activists for protest and inspire artists to create works that dialogue with the material traces of a violent colonial ideology.
Modified on May 27, 2026