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Belgian images of the psycho‐pedagogical potential of the Congolese during the Colonial Era, 1908–1960

Starting from the Belgian historiography about the Congo, the article raises the question of the nature of image formation in the mother country as regards the psychological characteristics and intellectual potential of the Congolese. Two domains of study may already provide information in this regard. First, the image of the psycho‐pedagogical dispositions of the “African” are readily derived from the school discourse that was developed in the textbooks. In their simplicity – elementarisation is simply a central didactic act – the textbooks show how much the image formation rested on a hardly concealed racist undertone. Second, the scientific discourse itself, of course, constitutes an important source of information. However, for this there are fewer studies available. Thus, I have here investigated one source diachronically in function of this question. It concerns the popularising journal Afrika‐Overzee. On this basis, I come to the conclusion that one can speak only of a slow evolution in the stereotypical image of the “negro”. Apparently, the confrontation with the colony gave form not only to the “African” other but also to the bourgeois self. The old idea of the Congolese as a “primitive savage”, which went, from the outset, together with superiority feelings as regards Western culture, gave way more and more, also in the scientific discourse about psychology and pedagogy of the 1950s, to faith in the human progress of the “African black”. Perhaps, out of fear for the loss and the decline of the Western culture, the opportunities that were offered from the mother country for this remained extremely limited.