From 1908 to 1920, the Belgian Ministry of Colonies organised the first state-led agricultural colonization efforts in Katanga, Belgian Congo. This article ex-amines the complex interactions between public and private actors and how theyshaped a colonial agricultural policy. Mission Leplaehad a very difficult start and wasterminated after ardent discussions in the Belgian Parliament, despite the support of theAgricultural Service. This migration initiative exposed the different views and even ten-sions between the opinions of technical experts such as agronomists and the ideas of thecolonial hommes politiquesand private actors, both in Belgium and in the Congo.In this article, the image of a homogeneous colonial state acquires nuance as we unraveland analyse the daily realities and initiatives of these first Belgian agricultural settlersin the broader framework of Belgian colonial politics. When the alliance between theState, the mining sector and agricultural settlers ceased to exist, because European agri-culture was not developing fast enough and geopolitical interests had changed, the gov-ernment stopped supporting the colonization project. After the First World War, the num-ber of Belgian farmers in Katanga began to increase again, mainly thanks to supportfrom the private sector. This article shows how state support was an important but notdecisive factor in the survival strategies of a settler community
