The port of Antwerp has a notorious reputation.
It was through inspecting cargo in the Flemish city that the shipping clerk E.D. Morel came to a vital realization. Vast quantities of rubber and ivory were being transported through there from the Congo and “natives were getting nothing or next to nothing” in return.
That illicit trade was central to the plunder which Belgium carried out in its colony. As many as 10 million lives were lost between 1885 and 1908 – when Leopold II treated the Congo as his personal property – and in the ensuing decade following.
In the current century, Antwerp is still accommodating marauders and oppressors.
According to the Belgian press, the Israeli firm Zim transported 246 tonnes of munitions via Antwerp between November 2022 and November 2023. ….more
