The tram number 44 walks a path that crosses wide avenues and lush forests between Brussels and Tervuren on a ten kilometer journey that is considered one of the most beautiful in the worldbut it is also a trip to the past, to one of the bloodiest chapters in Belgian history.
The starting point of 44 is far from spectacular. It is found at Montgomery station in the Etterbeek neighborhood of Brusselsjust ten minutes walk from Fiftieth Anniversary Park. The tram starts at an underground station, in a gloomy curve that contrasts with the beauty of the road.
Interior of tram 44 / Beatriz Ríos
However, as soon as it surfaces, andThe 44 crosses the city along the stately Tervuren Avenuewhere the embassies of Peru, Azerbaijan or Nigeria are located. Without getting off the tram, you can see examples of Art Nouveau architecture such as the Stoclet Palace, declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. Even the tram stations largely preserve the old canopiesand even some lamps of the same style.
The journey continues crossing the parks of Woluwe and Parmentier, where is it located the tram museum in an old garage which dates from the same time as the 44 itself, which leaves the city behind at this point to enter into the impressive Forest of Soignes. The leafy trees surround the tracks, isolating the traveler from the rest of the world. The landscape is especially spectacular in autumnwhen the leaves turn ocher, or in spring when the grass is full of small wild flowers.
A reflection of the linguistic division
The 44 is also one of the few lines that start from one region and end in another. The journey starts in the Brussels region and ends in Tervuren (Flanders). If travelers pay close enough attention, they will be able to hear how as they cross the border, the public address system stops announcing stops in French, The Brussels region is bilingual, to do so only in Flemish.
This feature made the tram the protagonist of one of the most curious episodes in the recent history of Belgium. In 2006, the news programs of the French-speaking Belgian public television, RTB, broadcast a sort of ‘War of the worlds’. Only in this case, they did not narrate an alien invasion, but the unilateral declaration of independence of Flanders. In that fictitious news report, the 44 appears barred at Vier Armen, the station located right at the point where the Brussels region ends and Flanders begins.
Colonialism and human zoos
But the bloody history of 44 is actually that of its construction. It was King Leopold II who ordered the line to be designed tram at the end of the 19th century. He did it with the aim of unite the Fiftieth Anniversary Parkwhere the impressive triumphal arch which commemorates the independence of Belgium, and the international exhibition of 1897 in Tervuren.
Leopoldo II, king of Belgium between 1865 and 1909is responsible for what is considered one of the greatest genocides in history. The monarch forcibly took control of what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)which he managed as a company for the extraction of resources, imposing a reign of terror marked by violence and exploitation. It is estimated that the country’s population was reduced by half under the control of Leopold II.
Leopold II used the universal exhibition of 1897 as a showcase to attract investors to his colonial enterprise. The last stop of the 44, in Tervuren, is located just a few meters from the place that hosted the event: the one known then as ‘Palace of the colonies’. The exhibition included a human zoo in which hundreds of Congolese were forcibly brought to Belgium and exposed like animals. Al Menos Site de ellos, seven, mpemba, ngemba, ekia, god, kitukwa y nurses, died as a result of the extreme conditions to which they were subjected.
A sculpture and in the background the former museum of the colonies, current museum of Africa. / Beatriz Ríos
A museum of horrors
In the same Tervuren park, Leopold II ordered the construction of the Royal Museum of Africa, to glorify colonization and the “civilizing efforts” of Belgium, promoting a deeply racist vision. Although the space It was not inaugurated until 1910, after his death. Closed to the public for years, the museum underwent extensive renovation and It reopened its doors in 2018.
The space is now the museum of Central Africa, which delves into the horrors that were committed during colonization not only in DRC but also in Rwanda and Burundi, under Belgian control between 1916 and 1962. It does so through research programs and exhibitions, in collaboration with the University of Kinshasa (DRC) and the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.
But the wound remains open. Many of the objects on display in the museum were stolen during colonization. Belgium passed a restitution law in 2022 that has opened the door to return them to the Congolese authorities. One more step in a process in which Belgium tries to reconcile with its past, while the Congolese demand reparation and justice.
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