His friends were surprised that Sanda Dia signed up for Reuzegom. The Flemish student was already in his third year in Leuven, he had more than enough friends – he no longer needed a student association for that. Moreover, he was of simple, Mauritian descent – very different from the other corps members: white sons of the Antwerp elite. But Dia was ambitious, he thought he would find a network at Reuzegom that would help him in his career.
Not much later, the twenty-year-old student had died. Succumbed to the hazing of Reuzegom in a log cabin near Vorselaar, Sinterklaas evening 2018. Slide’s death was initially seen as a tragic accident. But thanks to the persistent efforts of journalist Pieter Huyberechts, who made a meticulous reconstruction of Dia’s initiation, we now know that the student was slowly tortured to death. Thanks to Huyberechts’ revelations, the eighteen boys involved will have to answer to the judge in April.
Liters of fish oil
Huyberechts has expanded his initial article into a book in which the downfall of Sanda Dia can be followed minute by minute, interspersed with chapters about who Dia was, what Reuzegom was (the association has since dissolved), about the aftermath and the suffering of the relatives. It is unbelievably clever how much he has surfaced, and he also writes it down eerily visually. With rising anger you read the torture Dia was subjected to. He had to spend a day in a self-dug pit, filled with water, in the winter cold. He was constantly kept wet, including by urinating all over him. He had to eat a live goldfish and a live ground mouse. The perverse scenes are reminiscent of a concentration camp. Dia became hypothermic and exhausted, the ultimate cause of death was the insanely high salt content in his body, due to the forced swallowing of a lot of fish oil.
Initially, the executioners simply leave the dying person lying there, but under pressure from a medical student (think about this: people who later become doctors participate in hazing) they take Dia to a hospital. They still refuse to tell the doctors what exactly happened. Anyway, they got him to the hospital way too late.
What the Giant Gums are very fast and thorough in doing is covering their tracks. While Dia is still in the hospital, the crime scene is already being thoroughly cleaned and their app traffic is also being cleared. Then, with the help of their wealthy, influential parents, they hide behind an army of expensive lawyers who stall the lawsuit and blame the medics.
However horrific the facts, Huyberechts always looks for nuance in his book. That is certainly a merit, but sometimes he goes very far. For example, he is very careful with the question of whether racist motives played a role. The students, of course, deny this indignantly. But yes, Reuzegom was a snow-white Flaminganten club, founded in 1946 by, among others, a former Nazi; the students addressed the black Dia with the N-word; and they dealt with him more ruthlessly than the other boys. Huyberechts could have drawn his own, obvious conclusion here.
The Netherlands
Huyberechts’ meticulous approach has one drawback: it barely zooms out. The journalist takes only half a chapter to look at the hazing of other fraternities. What is the situation in the Netherlands, for example? The Giant gum of the Netherlands is called Vindicat. In 1997, one person was killed during a hazing of this infamous Groningen sorority, and several males were seriously injured in recent years, for example because they were set on fire. Every year there are reports of assault and other crimes, not only in Groningen, but also in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam – too often to speak of incidents. Like Reuzegom, the disputes involved rarely show remorse. The pattern is invariably silent, deny, trivialize, promise to get well, and leave everything as it was.
The solution is obvious: shouldn’t we simply ban hazing? Whether they spiral out of control or not, this ‘Playing Dachautje’ (ASC hazing 1962) is always about humiliating aspiring members and inflicting physical and mental hardship.
And thoughtfully: should the sororities dissolve themselves? You learn that you are superior to other people, who are called ‘grunts’. That kind of destroys character. Also a frightening idea that many former members later rise to high positions. Suppose you have to have an operation, or you have to go to court, and you meet a surgeon or judge who was part of the corps, then you still wonder: did this man also participate in a hazing? It is to the great credit of Huyberechts that he stirs up these kinds of questions about our elite with his astonishing account.
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