Benoît Verhaegen

The Kasteel Blauwhuys in Merelbeke in which Verhaegen grew up

Benoît Verhaegen was born into aristocratic family at Merelbeke, East Flanders in Belgium on 8 January 1929. He was the youngest son of Jean Verhaegen and his wife Simone Piers de Raveschoot. His grandfather, Arthur Verhaegen (1847 – 1917) had been a member of parliament for the Catholic Party and a leading exponent of Christian Democracy.[1]

Verhaegen was studying at the University of Ghent in August 1950 when he enlisted in the Belgian Volunteer Corps for Korea sent to fight in the Korean War. He served as a platoon commander and was twice wounded in action.[1] He claimed his desire to fight in the conflict stemmed from his belief in an impending world war and a desire to live up to his family's tradition of military service.[2] After returning from Korea, Verhaegen enrolled in the Catholic University of Leuven where he gained doctorates in law and economics with a thesis entitled "Contribution to the Economic History of Flanders". He gained a post as head of teaching at Lovanium University at Léopoldville, Belgian Congo in 1959.

Buildings of the former Lovanium University in the modern University of Kinshasa

Verhaegen arrived in the Belgian Congo in 1959 and remained in the country after independence in 1960 during the Congo Crisis at Lovanium. His politics had become increasingly left-wing and "progressive" (progressiste) and he openly sympathised with the emerging African nationalist movement. Involved in nationalist politics, he served as chef de cabinet to Aloïs Kabangi, Minister of Economic Co-ordination and Planning, in the Lumumba Government. However, he became increasing disenchanted with the established political groups during the crisis. Although remaining a Catholic, his views became increasingly radical over the course of his career and embraced Marxism and Maoism as a route towards agrarian socialism in the Congo.[3]

Verhaegen began researching political movements in the Congo in the aftermath of independence and formulated the idea of "immediate history" (histoire immédiate) which mixed anthropological, historical, and sociological approaches to current events on an extensive documentary basis. He was involved in collecting documents published by contemporary political actors in the Congo and intended his work to be interacting with political actors.[1] He wrote important studies on the Kwilu rebellion (1963 – 64), the nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba and the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO) political party.[1]

Together with Jules Gérard-Libois and Jean Van Lierde, Verhaegen began involved in the new African section of the Belgian Socio-Political Research and Information Centre (Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques, CRISP) which published important series of documents on contemporary Congolese politics. This was disbanded in 1971 and Verhaegen became the director of the African Studies and Documentation Centre[4] (Centre d’Études et de Documentation africaines, CEDAF) which replaced it. He directed its journal series Cahiers du CEDAF which was superseded by Cahiers africains. He also led the creation of a historical research section at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium.[1]

Verhaegen continued to teach at Lovanium but became critical of the "colonial" values he believed the institution embodied. He moved to Kisangani in 1971 as part of the consolidation of university education by the Mobutu regime under the National University of Zaire (Université nationale du Zaïre, UNAZA). He founded the Interdisciplinary Resarch Centre for the Development of Education (Centre de Recherches interdisciplinaires pour le Développement de l’Éducation, CRIDE) and headed the university's social science section at Kisangani, later the University of Kisangani. He left the Congo in 1987 to return to academic roles in Belgium. He retired in 1990.

A festschrift in Verhaegen's honour entitled Le Zaïre à l'épreuve de l'histoire immédiate was published in 1993 and included contributions by Immanuel Wallerstein and Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch. He retired to France and died at Montréal-les-Sources, Drôme on 14 October 2009.

• Merwin Crawford Young
• Jan Vansina
• René Lemarchand
• Georges Balandier
• Jean Suret-Canale

• Van Egroo, Francoise; Omasombo, Tshonda (1993). "Bibliographie: Les écrits de Benoît Verhaegen". Le Zaïre à l'épreuve de l'histoire immédiate: hommage à Benoît Verhaegen. Paris: Karthala. pp. 299–307. ISBN 2-86537-409-2.