This article was a very surprising article which made me understand some of the effects of colonialism, even in the modern era. It talks about how children born to Belgian settlers and local women were forcibly taken to Belgium and fostered by Catholic orders and other institutions. The article further shows the negative impacts of colonialism at that period and how it has even carried into the modern day. The mixed-race children were taken to Belgium against their will and in some cases never received Belgian nationality and remained stateless. This is very sad considering that they were taken from their African mothers and lost contact with them forever. Another shocking revelation is that most of the fathers refused to acknowledge the paternity of their children. This left the children in a void and without any economic future in an unknown land. The prime minister did acknowledge that it was a violation of the basic child human right, and also talked about how they were stripped of their identity, stigmatized and split among their siblings. Many of them had no access to birth records and remained unable to find their mothers or their Belgian fathers. The Un demanded that Belgium apologize for all its atrocities during the colonial period, a move which wouldn’t repair the deep wounds
Source: BBC