Slavenhandelaar

The Slavenhandelaar (Slave Trader) statue, created by Frans Joris in 1913, was part of a larger monument that no longer exists today. 

It depicts a so-called “Arab slave trader” surrendering to Francis Dhanis, a colonial officer in the Congo Free State. At the service of King Leopold II, Dhanis led military campaigns to violently conquer large parts of Eastern Congo under the pretext of driving out “Arab slave traders” and “liberating” the Congolese population. However, after the conquest of Eastern Congo, the Free State installed a plundering regime that was no less brutal in its exploitation of the indigenous population than that of the slave raiders. 

Artist Frans Joris appears to have worked with more passion and skill on this secondary figure of the monument than on the statue of Dhanis himself. The slave trader’s face is finely modelled, and his cloak, falling elegantly along the body, is adorned with numerous ornamental details. 

The monument was inaugurated on 12 October 1913 on the then Zuiderlei (today Amerikalei), near Saint Michael’s Church. In 1950, the City Council decided to relocate it to the garden of the former Colonial School (today the Middelheim campus of the University of Antwerp). In 1983, the monument suffered severe damage following a storm, and the bronze statues were placed in storage, first at the university campus and later in a city warehouse. The pedestal of this spectacular tableau vivant can still be discerned under the vegetation beside the entrance gate of the campus. 

Frans Joris (born in 1851 in Deurne) was a Belgian sculptor known for his symbolic works. He was a pupil of Jozef Geefs and professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.