Alfred Marzorati

He was opposed to bringing European settlers to Africa, and saw Belgium's role as being to help the indigenous people develop a modern economy and political structure which could become fully autonomous.

[1] In March 1921 Marzorati arranged for the transfer to British control of the East African regions occupied by Belgium apart from Ruanda and Urundi.

[2] By late 1924 the Belgian Foreign Ministry was starting to suspect that German agitation for return of her colonies was affecting British opinion.

Marzorati was concerned that loss of Ruanda and Urundi would deprive Belgium of a source of food and labor for the Katanga mines.

These territories were not legally part of the Belgian Congo, but were subject to control by the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations.

A large group of local people had gathered to dance as a sign of allegiance, but the agent told them to first lay down their weapons, which was contrary to all traditions.

Marzorati ordered a strong military march through the region, which Ryckmans opposed on the basis that Belgian superiority was already established.

Later Ryckmans learned that Madame Marzorati held grievances against him for pruning the eucalyptus and flamboyant trees in the governor's gardens.

He tried to improve agricultural production to avoid periodic famines, promote development of an indigenous peasantry and facilitate temporary movement of labor to the industrial centers of Katanga Province in the Belgian Congo.

[1] In November 1929 Marzorati again met the Permanent Mandates Commission in Geneva to defend Belgium against strong public criticism of the response to the Rwandan famine.

At the start of World War II he became temporary professor of comparative colonial policy and the economic regime of the Belgian Congo at the University of Brussels.

[1] Marzorati was opposed to colonization of Africa by white settlers, and wrote in 1954, "The only duty of government is to create the foundation which will allow indigenous society to gradually attain what we might call autonomy, in the sense that this word has in the countries of the West, and to set aside all that is contrary to this development."

He believed in intense industrialization, combined with a policy of high wages, which would cause natural selection of profitable businesses and build a self-sufficient economy.