A petition – which is starting to be widely cited by the Belgian media (see for example this report on RTL Info) – has just been launched to express outrage at the presence on a building on rue Léopold (ill. 1), in Liège, two figures by the Liège sculptor Michel Decoux representing Africans, tobacco planters to be exact, a tobacco store having been originally installed on the ground floor of the building.
They each have an amputated arm. And it didn't take much for some to deduce that it was a representation of slaves with their hands cut off on the orders of King Leopold II.
- 1. 40 rue Léopold in Liège
Photo: Promeneuse7 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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See the image on his page
This completely absurd interpretation demonstrates once again that demands of this type are, most of the time, based on falsifications of history and art history.
Having represented here tobacco planters with a severed hand is intriguing: one wonders how they could plant tobacco with only one hand. These polychrome terracotta sculptures appear above all to have suffered the ravages of time, and it seems that the disappearance of the hands is due to an accident and not to the wishes of the sculptor.
This, in the absence of more precise documentation on the history of these works, is a credible hypothesis – at least as much as that of the severed hands – but not certain. What is certain, however, is that the chronology is sufficient to demonstrate the inanity of these accusations.
As recalled in the inventory of Wallonia's cultural heritage, this building and the sculptures which adorn it were built in 1877.
Based on this observation, we therefore contacted one of the authors of the petition, Emmanuel Demez. The latter, when we questioned him about the possibility that a sculpture from 1877 could bear the marks of mutilations which could only have been carried out from 1884, did not even try to contradict us. He not only recognized that these sculptures once had their hands, but that they can even be seen in old photographs (which the RTL report cited above has since shown – ill. 2).
- 2. Old photo of one of the two sculptures, preserved at the
Musée de la Vie Wallonne and shown in the RTL Info report
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See the image on his page
Why then want to remove them? Because, according to his hypothesis (he indeed has no proof as he also admitted), the hands of the statues would have been cut off at the time of the Independence of the Congo by activists who would have opposed this independence obtained in 1960. And besides, the street is called “rue Léopold”, which he finds “ interpellator » (sic).
But it goes even further. Even if – and this hypothesis seems very implausible and is not supported by anything – “activists” had cut off the hands of the sculptures, why continue the work and, rather than restore them, permanently remove them from the facade to replace them, as he asks, by “ an artistic creation which celebrates the cultural diversity of our city and the bonds of friendship which represent the Belgian-Congolese fraternity “. Because according to him, severed hands or no severed hands, these works would be “ offending », et « perpetuating racist stereotypes “. Moreover, and it is unstoppable, Emmanuel Demez asked an artificial intelligence what it thought of these sculptures! She would have replied that even with both hands, they are “ racialized and denigrating stereotypes, Negroid caricatures, the lips are extremely prominent, the eyes are bulging, the hair is curly ».
- 3. Michel Decoux (1837-1924)
Figure of Black1877
Polychrome terracotta
Liège, facade of 40 rue Léopold
Photo : Quentin Lowagie/
Klow (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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See the image on his page
- 4. Michel Decoux (1837-1924)
Figure of Black1877
Polychrome terracotta
Liège, facade of 40 rue Léopold
Photo : Quentin Lowagie/
Klow (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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See the image on his page
Just look at photographs (ill. 3 and 4) to note that in reality, these figures, of very good quality, are represented as Africans, without any caricature intention, quite the contrary in fact. Should they be shown with Western features? What would we not have said about cultural appropriation!
Ultimately, what ultimately bothers these people is that we represent black people as black people. One wonders what is more racist than that. Obviously thick lips and curly hair, which are undoubtedly physical characteristics of many Africans, would be degrading. It is difficult to imagine an idea more racist than this, and more offensive.
Rather than signing this petition, we suggest that everyone sign the one, launched on the same platform, which opposes the absurd removal of sculptures on a facade protected by a historic monument.
