Item number: M464

Year: AD 1910-1960

Material: Silver-plated Nickel

Size: 490 x 60.5 x 2.7 mm

Weight: 101.3 g

Manufactured by: Royal Mint of Belgium

Provenance: Haynault ventes publiques 2025

This medal was issued by the Kingdom of Belgium to its Congolese colony, intended to identify the leaders of individual communities and incorporate them into the colonial administrative system, while at the same time distinguishing them from European administrative officials.

The obverse of the medal centred on the Congo star. Separated by a rope circle, the upper circular inscription bears the French legend “TRAVAIL ET PROGRÈS” (“Labour and Progress”). Below, within the laurel wreath, the left branch is composed of laurel leaves and the right branch of oak leaves. The reverse bears at its centre the French inscription “SOUS-CHEFFERIE INDIGÈNE” and the Dutch “INLANDSCHE ONDER-HOOFDIJ,” both meaning “Indigenous Sub-chieftaincy,” with five-pointed stars and pairs of wings placed above, below, and between the inscriptions as separators. The upper and lower circular inscriptions read “CONGO BELGE” (French) and “BELGISCH CONGO” (Dutch) respectively, both meaning “Belgian Congo,” with two five-pointed stars arranged between the two circular legends. The rim of the obverse is finished with a double stepped border.

Comparable badges had already been conferred in AD 1889, but these earlier issues functioned primarily as rewards for chiefs who cooperated with the Belgian authorities and were closer in nature to honorary decorations than to instruments of identification. Identification badges were formally instituted in AD 1891. Owing, however, to conflicts between the Belgian bureaucratic system and local customary law, chiefs who, according to tradition, avoided contact with Europeans were often not the actual recipients. Those who received the badges were frequently individuals who, within their communities, acted as envoys, secretaries, or intermediaries rather than as customary leaders. Nevertheless, the Belgian administration invested them with representative authority within the colonial system, a situation that generated persistent tensions and disputes. The system underwent several subsequent revisions and was ultimately abolished after Congolese independence in AD 1960. They are presented as follows:

In AD 1885, following international recognition at the Berlin Conference, King Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo Free State in his capacity as a “private sovereign.” Although presented rhetorically as a project to advance civilisation and suppress the slave trade, the regime in practice treated the entire Congo region as the king’s personal property. Through the compulsory extraction of resources such as rubber and ivory, combined with violence, forced labour, and hostage-taking, it implemented a system that, under the guise of labour discipline, amounted to enslavement and produced catastrophic humanitarian consequences for the local population. In the early twentieth century, publications such as Heart of Darkness and The Crimes of the Congo gradually exposed the brutal realities of the Free State to international public opinion, compelling the Belgian government to assume control in AD 1908 and transform the territory into the Belgian Congo. Thereafter, the Congo became a formal Belgian colony, and governance shifted from the king’s personal autocracy to a state-administered colonial system. This transition introduced more formalised legal, administrative, and infrastructural frameworks, while establishing a parallel mode of rule that combined recognised chieftaincies, the selective acknowledgment of customary law, and areas under direct administrative control. Nevertheless, economic exploitation and political exclusion remained central features of colonial rule: the colonial state retained firm control over resources, education, and political power, and Africans were largely excluded from higher levels of governance. After the Second World War, the global wave of decolonisation gathered momentum, and Congolese society, shaped by expanding education, urbanisation, and political mobilisation, rapidly developed nationalist movements and demands for independence. In AD 1960, Belgium conceded independence hastily and with insufficient preparation, and the Congo formally proclaimed independence as the Republic of the Congo. Yet the administrative discontinuities, ethnic and regional tensions, structural economic imbalances inherited from the colonial period, together with foreign intervention, meant that the early years of independence were marked by acute political instability and struggles for power.

物件編號: M464

年代: 公元 1910-1960 年

材料: 鎳鍍銀

尺寸: 490 x 60.5 x 2.7 mm

重量: 101.3 g

製造地: 比利時皇家鑄幣廠

來源: 埃諾公開拍賣公司 2025

此徽章屬於比利時王國向其剛果殖民地發放的證章，用意在於標示各部落的主事者，並將其納入行政體系，但又要與本地行政官員區別。

此徽章之正面中央為剛果星。以繩圈相隔，上方環列法文「TRAVAIL ET PROGRÈS」，即「勞動與進步」。下方桂冠中，左為月桂枝葉，右為橡樹枝葉。背面中央為法文「SOUS-CHEFFERIE INDIGÈNE」，與荷蘭文「INLANDSCHE ONDER-HOOFDIJ」，均意為「原住民部落副酋長」，上下及中央各有五角星及雙翼以作分隔。上下方環列法文「CONGO BELGE」與荷蘭文「BELGISCH CONGO」，均意為「比屬剛果」，兩行環銘間各環列兩顆五角星。正面章緣邊環為雙層階梯狀。

類似的證章在公元1889年便已頒行，但當時是為了獎勵與比利時政府合作的酋長，性質更接近酬勳而非辨識。辨識用的證章則於公元1891年始創，但因比利時官僚制度與本地習慣法的衝突，使得按傳統迴避白人的酋長，往往並非獲頒者，獲頒者於原部落往往作為使者或秘書之類的職能，但被比利時賦予其於行政體系中的代表性，因此衝突不斷。其後數度改制，並在公元1960年剛果獨立後廢止。呈列如下：

公元1885年，在柏林會議的國際承認下，比利時國王利奧波德二世以「私人主權者」身分建立剛果自由邦，名義上宣稱推動文明、反對奴隸貿易，實際上卻將整個剛果地區視為其個人財產，透過橡膠、象牙等資源的強制徵收，結合暴力、勞役與人質制度，以勞動教育為名，行奴役之實，對當地居民造成極其嚴重的人道災難。在二十世紀初，隨著《黑暗之心》、《剛果的罪行》等著作的發表，逐漸於國際輿論揭露自由邦體制的殘酷本質，迫使比利時政府於公元1908年接收統治權，將該地轉為比屬剛果。此後，剛果成為比利時的正式殖民地，統治形式由國王私人專制轉為國家殖民行政體系，表面上引入較為制度化的法律、行政與基礎建設，同時建立以「酋長制度」「習慣法承認」與「行政直轄區」並行的治理模式。然而，比屬剛果仍以經濟剝削與政治排除為核心，殖民政府牢牢掌控資源、教育與政治權力，非洲人幾乎無法參與高層治理。第二次世界大戰後，全球非殖民化浪潮高漲，剛果社會在教育普及、城市化與政治動員的推動下，迅速出現民族主義與獨立訴求。公元1960年，比利時在準備不足的情況下匆促讓步，剛果正式宣告獨立，成立剛果共和國。然而，殖民時期遺留的行政斷裂、族群與區域矛盾、經濟結構失衡，以及外國勢力的介入，使獨立初期即陷入政治動盪與權力鬥爭。