Stolen Children, Lost Mothers, Absent Fathers: the Métis and their Families under the Belgian Empire

Between 1958 and 1961, as Ruanda‑Urundi (now Rwanda and Burundi) approached independence from the UN‑mandated Belgian trusteeship, around 300 Métis (mixed‑‘race’) children were deported to Belgium. Once there, they were placed either in orphanages or with Belgian foster families. Their removal was portrayed to the Belgian public as an ‘emergency evacuation’ prompted by fears for their safety amid growing unrest in Ruanda‑Urundi. However, since the 1920s, Belgian colonial authorities in Ruanda‑Urundi and in neighbouring Belgian Congo had enforced policies that segregated Métis children born of sexual relations between white colonial men and African women from their mothers. Rarely acknowledged by their fathers and labelled ‘children of sin’, the children had initially been placed in missionary boarding schools designated specifically for them. Before the deportations took place, the mothers were told that their children would return after completing their education. In reality, most never saw their children again. The deported children, meanwhile, were led to believe that their mothers had wilfully abandoned them.

Whilst academic and public discourse has recently brought to light the experiences of the Métis children, little is known about the ordeals of the mothers, particularly after the deportation of their children. Our project team, comprising Professor Nicki Hitchcott (University of St Andrews), Dr Alice Karekezi (University of Rwanda), and Dr John McInally (University of St Andrews) seeks to redress the balance, recentring the mothers’ experiences in this tragic chapter of Belgian imperial history. Through research in Belgium’s National Archives, we have uncovered traces of the colonial injustices inflicted on the mothers and their attempts to keep or recover their children. At the same time, we analyse cultural outputs and eyewitness testimonies to fill in the gaps left by incomplete and mediated official documentation. We are also building an international network of researchers and stakeholders to ensure that our project reflects the interests of those directly affected, fostering collaborative approaches to historical (in)justice and memory.

This research has been generously supported by the RSE through a Small Research Grant in 2024 (4374)  and a Research Collaboration Grant (5463) in 2025.

We thank François d’Adesky for his kind permission to use the photograph of him and his brother as children