28 & 29 JAN 2025 | Colonial Legacies, Racist Discrimination: Belgo-Japanese dialogues

“I have an aversion to Asians”: the self-identification of Asian descent people to whiteness
A survey from 2016 about the experience and perception of discrimination in the Île-de-France region revealed that 86% of the population, regardless of their origin, self-identify to whiteness. This means that they categorize themselves within the ethno-racial group “White”. 25% of Asian descent people consider themselves to be white. Therefore, which social processes come into play in these cases? The analysis of eleven semi-structured interviews with Asian descent people (five men and six women, including six people with Asian parents, one man from a mixed-race couple, and four adopted people) highlights that racial socialization, racial assignment through the objectification of bodies and the accumulation of consubstantial violence have played a decisive role in self-identification to whiteness. In response to the daily racism faced by the interviewees, this self-identification to whiteness emerges as a self-defense strategy aimed to reclaiming their subjectivity.

Veronica B. Reyes holds a Master’s degree in Labor Sciences with a focus on Gender and Inequalities. Her thesis examines how Asian descent people identify to whiteness and the social processes that shape this identification. She is currently completing a specialized Master’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology and her upcoming thesis explores the manifestations of Second Sight among Asian descent people in Belgium.

Between Human and Anthropos: On the Repatriation of Colonial Human Remains in Japanese University Collections

In 2018, five Ryukyuan people filed a lawsuit in the Kyoto District Court demanding the return to Okinawa of 26 human remains stored in a museum at Kyoto University. This lawsuit ended in 2023 with a loss for the Ryukyuan people. However, the Osaka High Court judge criticized the request by the Anthropological Society of Nippon (ASN), which stated that the human remains held by the university had "scientific value" and should not be returned, and urged the university to make efforts to return the remains, saying that "the remains have the right to rest in peace in their homeland." As a historical anthropologist engaged in the critique of colonialism, my involvement in this case has made me deeply aware of the legacy of colonialism in academia and universities. By tracing how anthropologists at Kyoto University collected human remains and how they have been treated to the present day, this presentation will examine the legacy of colonialism in Japanese academia.

Ryuta Itagaki is a historical anthropologist and professor in the Department of Sociology at Doshisha University. He has published works on the social and cultural history of modern and contemporary Korea, as well as on colonialism and racism, including two books, A Linguist Who Went to the North: Kim Soo-Gyong 1918-2000 (2021) and Historical Ethnography of Modern Korea: Colonial Experience in Gyeongbuk Sangju (2008).

Mobilizing the Human/Animal Binaries: A Critical Analysis of Vegan Nationalism and Israel's Ongoing 'War on Terror'

In October 2023, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant referred to the Gaza War by stating, "We are fighting human animals," dehumanizing Palestinians in Gaza to justify the ongoing war. Meanwhile, Israel has also experienced a growing emphasis on animal rights, veganism, and related issues, which some critics have labeled as "vegan-washing," highlighting its connections to nationalism. These recent developments underscore the complex mobilization of human-animal binaries in the context of war.
This presentation critically examines how human-animal binaries are utilized within Israel’s wartime discourse. It situates the recent rise of animal rights within the framework of vegan nationalism, analyzing its intersections with (1) the ascendancy of neoliberal economic policies, (2) the political dynamics of the War on Terror, (3) the historical trajectory of Palestinian dehumanization, and (4) the cultural politics surrounding ideals of bodily strength.

Hiroshi YASUI is a research fellow in Multiculturalism and Intersectionality in Complex Cities at Doshisha University. He earned his PhD from the University of Tokyo in 2023 with a doctoral dissertation titled, The Politics Surrounding Rights and Nationalism in Contemporary Israel: A Comparative Analysis of LGBTQ Rights and Animal Rights, which was awarded The 14th Shigeru Nambara Memorial Award for Publication. His areas of research include Gender and Sexuality, Queer Theory, and Critical Animal Studies.

“Distancing the colonial past in Belgian foreign policy (1990-2002). The case of the Lumumba Commission”

In 2002, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs acknowledged Belgium's “moral responsibility” for the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and presented an official apology to the Democratic Republic of Congo on behalf of the government. The ruling Liberal coalition – engaged in a dual strategy of distancing itself from the colonial past and modernizing its diplomacy towards Central African countries – had decided two years earlier to set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry to study this notorious crime in Belgian-Congolese post-colonial history, in order to foster a rapprochement with the country's new president, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. This act of recognition is the culmination of a two-pronged process that has animated the field of Belgian power for over a decade: (1) the growing concern to circumvent accusations of neo-colonialism in order to preserve privileged economic and political ties with the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi, its former colonies; (2) a “logical and moral integration”, paradoxical and problematic in many aspects, of anti-colonialist criticism by Belgian political and administrative elites.

Based on interviews and unpublished archives of the Belgian Liberal Party covering the 1990s – a party historically close to the business community, and as such particularly involved in preserving these post-colonial relations – this paper seeks to trace the sociogenesis of this mutation of Belgian diplomatic discourse towards the countries of Central Africa, and the decisive role played by this party in the manufacture of this new state discourse. In particular, I will attempt to show how this progressive neo-colonialism, or state anti-colonialism, is at once a specific form of “white ignorance” and a cynical, ordinary apprehension of geopolitical competition.
Marti Luntumbue is a doctoral student at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a member of the Groupe de recherche sur les Relations Ethniques, les Migrations et l’Égalité (GERME). Under the supervision of Abdellali Hajjat and as part of the HERICOL project, he is writing a sociohistorical thesis on the historical and memorial controversy surrounding the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in post-colonial Belgium.

(De)colonial matter, the case of Emile Storms’ bust in Ixelles

Matter lies at the core of the colonial project. The extraction of ivory, timber, rubber, minerals, and other resources from Congo not only fueled Belgium’s economy but also shaped its capital, Brussels, envisioned by Leopold II as “the center of the empire”. Through their funding or the materials used in their construction, numerous parks, avenues, and buildings in Brussels bear the mark of the exploitation of colonized lands and peoples. Following Leopoldian urban planning projects, Brussels’ statues and street names further embodied the colonial agenda, inscribing into the public space, and the collective memory, the propagandist narratives of the mission civilisatrice and the colonie modèle. Despite the loss of its colonies and the ensuing taboo that veiled Belgium’s imperial ambitions in silence, the colonial materiality of Brussels remained untouched. Over the past two decades, this material legacy has resurfaced in public consciousness. Activists and critics of Belgium’s colonial past have drawn attention to these enduring traces, using them to contest official historical narratives and to highlight socio-economic phenomena perceived as rooted in the colonial system. Inspired by postcolonial and decolonial theories, these critiques have transformed the material remnants of colonialism scattered across Brussels' public space into focal points for exposing and interrogating broader structures of coloniality. In the municipality of Ixelles, one such trace became the focus of critique and eventually drew the attention of public authorities. The bust of Emile Storms, a colonial officer whose crimes were exposed in a 2018 journalistic investigation, became “one of the most contested monuments in the context of anti-colonial protests”, before being ultimately taken down by the municipality in June 2022. This presentation seeks to analyze what is at stake in the mobilization of material colonial traces in critiques of coloniality. Using the case of the Emile Storms bust through the lens of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s concept of silencing, this study examines the role of colonial material traces in shaping decolonial critiques and the responses of public authorities. This research underscores the dual role of colonial materiality as both an instrument of erasure and a catalyst for revealing coloniality.

Jean Illi is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (LAMC) and a member of the HERICOL project, focused on colonial heritages in Belgium. His work investigates Brussels public authorities’ management of the debate around Belgian coloniality, particularly through the scope of the public space.