{"id":297343,"date":"2025-06-30T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=297343"},"modified":"2025-06-25T08:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T07:10:34","slug":"raised-in-a-colonial-death-cult-600-years-of-ku-leuven-and-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/06\/raised-in-a-colonial-death-cult-600-years-of-ku-leuven-and-still\/","title":{"rendered":"Raised in a Colonial Death Cult: 600 Years of KU Leuven and still…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KU Leuven, Belgium<\/p><\/div>\n

Introduction: A Birthday Worth Questioning<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As KU Leuven celebrates its 600th anniversary, the university\u2019s official narrative will no doubt highlight centuries of \u201cexcellence,\u201d \u201cprogress,\u201d and \u201cservice to society.\u201d But beneath the banners and festivities, a more uncomfortable truth lingers: for much of its history, KU Leuven has functioned as an indoctrinatory pillar of colonial, extractive, and ecologically destructive power. Today, as the world faces a polycrisis of social and ecological collapse, it is time to ask: what has really been cultivated here for six centuries?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/strong> Colonial Roots, Colonial Fruits<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Founded in 1425, KU Leuven grew up alongside the rise of European colonialism. Its theologians, scientists, and economists helped justify and administer the extraction of wealth, land, and lives from the Global South. The university\u2019s archives are rich with evidence of complicity: from missionary training to the development of \u201cscientific\u201d racism, from legal doctrines that legitimized dispossession to economic models that normalized exploitation.<\/p>\n

    Colonialism was not a footnote in KU Leuven\u2019s history\u2014it was the curriculum.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The Death Cult of Growth<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Fast forward to the present, and the university\u2019s core dogmas remain largely unchanged. As documented in my PhD-application and complaint with the Flemish Institute for Human Rights<\/em> and the Magna Charta Observatory<\/em>, KU Leuven and its peers continue to monopolize economic discourse around the \u201cgrowth imperative.\u201d Alternative models\u2014such as degrowth, doughnut economics, and rent-free finance\u2014are systematically excluded from curricula, research funding, and policy advice.<\/p>\n

      This is not mere academic inertia. It is the perpetuation of a death cult: a system that demands endless economic expansion, at the cost of planetary boundaries and human rights. Indoctrination, gatekeeping, and greenwashing have replaced genuine pluralism and critical thought.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Systemic Exclusion and Academic Complicity<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The university\u2019s exclusion of system-critical, internationally recognized scholarship is not accidental. As my own experience demonstrates, researchers who challenge the status quo\u2014especially those working on the intersection of finance, ecology, and justice\u2014are denied funding, mentorship, and professional advancement. This is institutional discrimination, plain and simple.<\/p>\n

        KU Leuven\u2019s refusal to support research on the structural violence of the global financial system is not just an academic failure; it is a violation of its public mandate and a betrayal of society\u2019s urgent needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. The Legacy of Harm\u2014and the Possibility of Renewal<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Six centuries of \u201cexcellence\u201d have left a legacy of harm: ecological devastation, social inequality, and the reproduction of colonial hierarchies. Yet the university also holds the seeds of its own renewal. The recognition of system-critical research by bodies such as the United Nations, the adoption of laws like the Belgian Ecocide Act, and the growing student demand for decolonial, socially just education all point to a different future.<\/p>\n

          But renewal requires honesty. It requires KU Leuven to confront its past and present as a \u201ccolonial death cult\u201d\u2014and to choose, finally, to become an institution of life, justice, and planetary stewardship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Conclusion: Six Hundred Years Is Enough<\/strong><\/p>\n

          As KU Leuven blows out the candles on its 600th birthday cake, let us not celebrate uncritically. Let us remember the millions whose lives and lands were sacrificed on the altar of \u201cprogress.\u201d Let us demand that the next century be different: that the university serve not the cult of endless growth, but the cause of decolonization, planetary justice, and socio-ecological intelligence.<\/p>\n

          After six centuries, it\u2019s time for KU Leuven to grow up\u2014and to grow beyond its colonial roots.<\/strong><\/p>\n

          _____________________________________________<\/p>\n

          Koenraad Priels is an independent researcher, transformative criminologist, and founder of Free-B. He has published six peer-reviewed articles, authored a UN report, and initiated the first legal case against the global interest banking system for ecocide in Belgium. He is currently applying for an interdisciplinary PhD at KULeuven, focusing on the systemic links between financial architecture and crime, violence, ecocide and genocide.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          After six centuries, it\u2019s time for KU Leuven to grow up\u2014and to grow beyond its colonial roots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":296227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3504,532,258,433,260,1548],"class_list":["post-297343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-belgium","tag-colonialism","tag-education","tag-europe","tag-history","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297351,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297343\/revisions\/297351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}