Negotiating Assimilation

Luxembourgers in the Congo Basin During the Interwar Period (1918-1939)

Abstract

The interwar period (1918-1939) is a valuable timeframe to examine the entanglement of empire and nation-state, and thus the dynamics of national identity and citizenship within transimperial and colonial contexts. The increased nationalisation of the Belgian Congo led to a strong integration of Luxembourgers – unlike all other white European communities – into the Belgian colonial state from the early 1920s onwards, making them, as they described themselves, the most ‘assimilated’ Europeans in the Belgian colony. Luxembourg’s participation in Belgian colonial ventures was motivated by aspirations for colonial and national prestige, access to transnational networks, economic opportunities, and alignment with a broader pan-European colonial ideology – one that certainly included European states without colonies. Driven by wide-ranging interests, such as those of the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union, closer ties were developed between Brussels, Luxembourg, and Leopoldville. This article addresses two themes through the lens of Luxembourg’s involvement in the Belgian empire during the interwar period. First, it examines the imperial, colonial, and national tensions that arose between Belgian metropolitan ambitions and colonial realities, with a particular emphasis on the contested issue of the ‘assimilation’ of Luxembourgish subjects. Second, it analyses how Luxembourgers themselves navigated and negotiated their colonial roles and identities in response to the promises of becoming equal to Belgian colonisers – and the contrasting reality they sometimes faced.