Belgian Foreign Minister Reynders dons blackface

This video from Belgium is called ‘Deplorable’: Foreign Minister Under Fire for Blackface.

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

Blackface makeup Belgian minister angers people

Today, 21:32

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has caused a stir with a special outfit. Reynders this Saturday celebrated the Brussels festival of the Noirauds (‘Blackies’) and had blackface makeup on.

The controversy arose after a French journalist who made a TV item about the tradition, expressed his outrage on Twitter: “Folklore, charity, or colonialism, the Brussels notables are face painting themselves as Africans?”.

In the report by France 2 also Reynders’ fancy dress was discussed.

Quickly more people responded on Twitter. A director of Human Rights Watch said that the minister should be ashamed of himself: “will u wear #blackface outfit 2 next meeting w African leaders?”

Actress Mia Farrow called it shocking and shameful.

Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe, who lives in Belgium, writes that in any other decent country one’s political career would be over. Nothing has changed since the days of Leopold, she added.

Unigwe alluded to the time that Belgium colonized Congo. The years under the reign of King Leopold II are characterized by enslavement, murder, torture and rape.