Metis Children: What they did to us was a crime against humanity Opinion

I always lived with the idea that my mother didn’t like us, but I don’t think that was the case. I was born in Kigali, Rwanda, African mother and Belgian father. At that time, Rwanda was under the colonial rule of Belgium. Belgian authorities forced racial segregation and banned interracial marriages in their colonies. I’m classified as “human muzzles” or half a breed, as we came to knowledge: a child who did not know which group belong.

My father died when I was six months – and life thoroughly changed. After burying my father, my brother took Belgian officials and settled in the Catholic boarding school in Kigali. Took him because my mother was African and we, as Metis ChildrenHe is considered a threat to a white superior order on which the colonial project was founded.

They didn’t even tell my mother or look for her permission. She went looking for a son, but the dogs were placed on her. My brother was moved to Protestant Parish in Burundi where he had to take care of himself as a servant and later sent to Denmark.

When I turned three, my sister was five, given the “independent” by the colonial authorities. She thought my mother was no longer needed. After several police attempts, my sister and I were abducted and transferred to an institution for “mixed race”. I was told that my mom tried to stop.

We stayed there for six months. After that I sent in Belgium and situated in the foster family on the coast while my sister was sent to the other side of the country. They always shared families. It was a criminal. You grow up with the wrong idea of ​​your family, not knowing how to feel about them. The systematic deportation of children is a crime against humanity.

Life on the shore

I grew up in Belgium on the shore. She was openness, a relationship with the rest of the world. However, the foster family I lived with was not a good fit. The mother suffered numerous abortions and wanted another child. I felt isolated and neglected, fascinated your father. That led to the division. He gave me the wearing clothes to wear, and they didn’t give me money for learning. One thing that continues to connect me with the brothers and sisters was that my foster father gave the guardianship of all of us. When I was 11, I came across our dossiers and began to decipher them. I found my birth certificate, and the first French word I’ve ever raised was a “illegitimate child.” I was shaken.

I lived with my foster family until I was 16, then went to the study in Ghent, where there was a student uprising. My biological father left us safety to study. As I was his legal child, and I considered the state by orphans, I got double add-ons from the government. I made long-term friends and met activists. I took a job in an organization that provided contraception and soon realized activism was part of me. I helped create women’s shelters in Ghent and Forum for children to share their problems while I tried to deal with my past.

In the end, I established a relationship with my brother and sister. However, I was never able to have a relationship with my mother. When I saw Mom again, it wasn’t a beautiful thing.

I received the inheritance of my biological father when I was 21 years old. I bought a small house in town and the rest I used to go to Rwanda. I went to seek my mother and I found her. I remember the settings picturesque. It was so beautiful. The hills were full of people waiting for us to reunite ourselves. I arrived and so is my mother. I was with a translator who promised to tell me what he was saying. However, as our meeting advanced, he told me that my mother was lying, “she said she was lonely, but the translator said he had husbands and two children. It was like being tortured. I rolled over, gone and I never turned back. I couldn’t deal with that.

We stayed in question the quality of our mothers, was she a love mother or a lightweight woman, she worried about us, why did she leave us? I’m so sorry, but I have to live with it.

Moment everything has changed

I always felt like I had a secret life and I wanted to learn about my past. I studied African studies as I worked full time in IBM technology. 2007. I went to a colloke similar, where the lecturers had acceptance of the view of the colonization. At one point, the journalist said that it was a nice time to be in Africa, because young people lived freely, but not with local women. I couldn’t accept him – especially because there was little talk about Metes, their mothers and how they were hit by colonization, so I took action.

I talked to the Director of the Research Center and demanded a study especially in Belgian colonialism and its influence on African people. He agreed. Access to the federal archives was tricky. Documents on which they transported us from Rwanda in Belgium are covered in secret. However, my husband, Privacy Manager, told us to write to us. With someone like that behind me, I knew I wouldn’t fail. Finally, the archive agreed to provide access. The momentum picked up, with a number of Metice groups that require answers.

I wanted to meet the more Metisses of children as I could in 2008. year, a group of younger and elderly mixed individuals from Brussels, Gent and Antwerp, began to collect testimonies and requested funds. In 2010. The history of the genitality of the genius of the Belgian colonization “was the topic of the geni-colonization. We finally published our book, bastards of colonization and exhibitions and coverage to journalists. It was an explosive hit: full of places, a high number of visitors and continued: documentary about regional TV, in Belgium, and in other countries.

We collected signatures, a demanding access to the archives. We gradually gained insight into what has been done to us, secured by funds, achieving a leading role.

Crime against humanity

We spoke in different parliaments in Belgium, speaking our stories, seeking recognition, access to our files and support to understand our history. Although people get an insight into our story, with Belgium recently issuing an apologyI still ask, “What was their justification?” However, there is no justification for kidnapping and send them to live with foreigners abroad. It’s a crime.

There are so many people about children from Metis – and they are all amazing harrows. Children from the former Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, remained only in isolated institutes, away from their families, in an extremely dangerous and enemy environment. My brother, who eventually sent in Denmark, was an ideal victim of exploitation. He escaped in America, where he lived as an undocumented migrant because the Belgian embassy would not have given his papers in spite of the fact that the Belgian citizen was.

For many years, the word “métis” was infected, but we tried to regain the word. This word kept us to come to our potential. You can never win; You’re just in between. That is why we chose our own word – and asked that Licis exists without an emphasis on é. The Belgian state had to introduce it to the official Dutch dictionary, only then Metis resolution can vote.

Forward, many of us are Reference reference but in different ways. For me I want to see funded studies to help us understand our past. However, I retired, and many children aged 70 are more than 70 years old. It’s hard to keep fighting. Support organizations such as The Laboratory of African Futures and Amnesty International So the world for me as helps us to continue to apologize to our story.

While Metis was heavy, the experiences shaped who I was.

Attitudes expressed in this article are wet authority and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeere editor.