Jef Geeraerts (born February 23, 1930) is a Flemish writer. He was a colonial administrator in the Belgian Congo. On the independence of the Congo he sent his wife and children back to Belgium and in August 1960 he himself returned to Belgium. During the next six years he was paid by the government. After that time he needed to find a job to survive. To get out of the house and away from his ordinary family, he went to the University of Brussels to study Germanic languages. February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Flemish (in Dutch, Vlaams) can either refer to Anything belonging to Flanders (the Flemish nation) or to its inhabitants, the Flemings. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Bold textItalic text World map of colonialism at the end of the Second World War in 1945. ... On November 15, 1908, King Leopold II of Belgium formally relinquished personal control of the Congo Free State and the renamed Belgian Congo came under the administration of the Belgian parliament, a system which lasted until independence was granted in 1960. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The University of Brussels can refer to three universities in Brussels, Belgium: Université Libre de Bruxelles or ULB Vrije Universiteit Brussel or VUB Katholieke Universiteit Brussel or KU Brussel This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family. ...

When he had finished his studies he wrote his first novel: Ik ben maar een neger ("I'm just a negro") which put him on the map as extremely controversial. He wrote more of these politically motivated colonial books before he started his Gangreen series. There are 4 parts, Gangreen 1 (Black Venus), Gangreen 2 (De Goede Moordenaar), Gangreen 3 (Het Teken van de Hond) and Gangreen 4 (Het Zevende Zegel). His books were taken off the shelves after pressure from the Belgian army because of their shocking truth about the army's way of handling business in the Congo. Nowadays he is a celebrated crime-novelist and several of his books have been filmed.