When African history is told, much attention is placed on the British and French colonial empires.

Less is said about Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands — powers whose colonial ambitions in East and Southern Africa left deep scars.

Their actions went beyond conquest: forced labor, massacres, divide-and-rule strategies, cultural erasure, and economic exploitation.

Even today, the legacies of these colonial intrusions continue to shape political, social, and economic life across Africa.

This article uncovers what schoolbooks and mainstream histories often leave out: the hidden atrocities of Belgium, Germany, and the Dutch in East and Southern Africa — both before and now.

I. Belgium’s Forgotten Brutality Beyond the Congo

When people think of Belgian colonialism, the Congo Free State under King Leopold II comes to mind — a regime infamous for its forced rubber labor system, amputations, and deaths of millions. But Belgium’s ambitions extended into East Africa, particularly through influence in Rwanda and Burundi after World War I.

1. The Rwandan “Ethnic Engineering”

Belgian administrators reinforced and weaponized ethnic divisions. They elevated the minority Tutsi over the Hutu, handing them power, education, and privileges, while systematically excluding Hutus. This colonial social engineering hardened fluid identities into rigid ethnic hierarchies, laying the foundation for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where nearly one million people were killed.

2. Labor Exploitation in Mining Regions

Belgian companies extended into Southern Africa as well, participating in mining operations in Katanga (modern-day DRC-Zambia border). African men were forced to work in brutal conditions in copper and cobalt mines, feeding Belgium’s industrial economy while communities were displaced and impoverished.

3. Legacy Today

Belgium presents itself as a “neutral” European state today, yet its colonial policies left behind fractured societies. The Belgian monarchy only recently issued half-hearted “regrets” about colonial atrocities, but has never offered reparations. The ethnic manipulations in Rwanda and Burundi remain painful reminders of how Belgian colonialism destroyed African unity for centuries to come.

II. Germany’s Brutality in East and Southern Africa

Germany entered the “Scramble for Africa” late, but its colonies — German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi), German South West Africa (Namibia), and parts of modern-day Cameroon — became laboratories of extreme violence.

1. The Herero and Nama Genocide (1904–1908)

In German South West Africa, the Herero and Nama peoples resisted land seizures and forced labor policies. General Lothar von Trotha issued his infamous “extermination order”: every Herero man, woman, and child should be killed or driven into the desert.

• Between 65,000–80,000 Herero (around 80% of their population) and 10,000 Nama were killed.

• Survivors were driven into concentration camps where they died from disease, starvation, and forced labor.
  This was the first genocide of the 20th century, yet remains under-taught outside Namibia.

2. The Maji Maji Rebellion (1905–1907) in Tanzania

In German East Africa, the imposition of cotton cultivation for export led to widespread starvation. The Maji Maji uprising erupted as Tanzanians resisted forced labor and land seizures. The German military response was brutal:

• Villages were burned.

• Crops destroyed, ensuring famine.

• Between 200,000–300,000 Africans died from starvation, disease, and violence.

3. Racist Scientific Experiments

In concentration camps, German doctors conducted racial “experiments” on African prisoners. Skull measurements, sterilizations, and medical trials foreshadowed the racial science later employed by the Nazis. Colonial Africa was effectively a testing ground for ideas that would resurface in Europe during World War II.

4. Legacy Today

Germany has officially recognized the Herero-Nama genocide (2021), but stopped short of calling reparations what they are. Instead, it offered “development aid,” which descendants of survivors view as an insult. The land inequalities in Namibia—where white minority elites still own vast farms—remain rooted in German land expropriations.

III. The Dutch and South Africa: Foundations of Apartheid

The Dutch were among the earliest European powers to settle in Southern Africa. Their impact, though often overshadowed by later British colonialism, was foundational in shaping South Africa’s racial and economic inequalities.

1. Dutch East India Company (VOC) at the Cape (1652)

When the VOC established a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope, it marked the beginning of European settlement in Southern Africa.

• Indigenous Khoikhoi and San communities were dispossessed of land.

• Enslaved people were brought from Mozambique, Madagascar, India, and Indonesia, creating a mixed slave society.

• Early Dutch settlers (Boers) established systems of forced labor and racial hierarchy that evolved into later apartheid policies.

2. Boer Trek and Expansion

Dutch-descended settlers (Afrikaners) embarked on the Great Trek into the South African interior in the 19th century. They seized land from African kingdoms like the Zulu and Sotho, establishing independent Boer republics that entrenched white dominance and dispossession of Africans.

3. Dutch Legacy in Apartheid

Although Britain later formally colonized South Africa, the Dutch cultural, religious, and political legacy shaped apartheid ideology:

• Calvinist beliefs were used to justify racial segregation.

• Dutch-based Afrikaans language became a tool of cultural dominance.

• Afrikaner nationalism in the 20th century, leading to apartheid laws, directly stemmed from Dutch settler identity.

4. Legacy Today

South Africa continues to grapple with deep racialized inequalities in land ownership, wealth distribution, and political power. While apartheid officially ended in 1994, the structural systems first laid by the Dutch remain embedded.

IV. Shared Colonial Patterns: Divide, Exploit, Erase

Though Belgium, Germany, and the Dutch had different styles of rule, they shared three core colonial practices:

1. Divide and Rule

• Belgium hardened fluid ethnic lines in Rwanda.

• Germany exploited inter-tribal tensions in East Africa.

• The Dutch entrenched white settler supremacy in South Africa.

2. Exploitation of Labor and Land

• African communities were forced into labor for mines, cotton plantations, or European farms.

• Land was stolen en masse, leaving Africans dispossessed in their own countries.

3. Erasure of Cultures

• Indigenous governance systems were undermined.

• Languages were sidelined in favor of European tongues.

• Christian missions often destroyed African spiritual practices.

V. Before and Now: The Lingering Shadows

The atrocities of Belgium, Germany, and the Dutch are not confined to the past. Their legacies continue to shape the present:

• Ethnic Conflicts: The Rwandan genocide traces its roots to Belgian ethnic manipulation.

• Land Inequalities: Namibia and South Africa still face crises of white minority land ownership.

• Economic Dependence: African nations remain trapped in resource-export economies designed under colonial rule.

• Psychological Trauma: Generations of Africans were stripped of dignity, culture, and identity — effects that ripple across societies today

VI. Conclusion: Unmasking the Hidden Colonial Histories

The world often remembers the British and French as the face of African colonialism, while Belgium, Germany, and the Dutch escape deeper scrutiny. Yet their actions in East and Southern Africa were equally brutal — genocide in Namibia, famine in Tanzania, ethnic manipulation in Rwanda, and the foundations of apartheid in South Africa.

These are not distant histories. The inequalities, divisions, and traumas they created remain visible in African societies today. To understand Africa’s struggles and resilience, we must confront the hidden colonial crimes of Belgium, Germany, and the Dutch — and demand acknowledgment, justice, and reparations for the peoples who still carry their scars.