The Belgian colonization of the Congo began in 1885 when King Leopold II established the Congo Free State under his personal rule, following the Berlin Conference's decisions on African territories. This colonization was marked by extreme exploitation and brutality, as Leopold sought to extract rubber and other resources for profit. The legacy of this period is a complex and painful chapter in both Belgian and Congolese history, highlighting the devastating impacts of colonialism.

The Belgian colonization of the Congo, beginning in 1885, exposed the brutal exploitation of African people, which inspired a wave of modernist and anti-colonial poetry. Poets like Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor articulated the human cost of imperialism, shaping literary responses to colonial violence.