Wednesday, June 08, 2022

Belgian king reiterates regrets for colonial past in Congo but no apology

By Benoit Nyemba

© Reuters/JUSTIN MAKANGARA
Belgian king returns mask to Congo in symbolic gesture of restitution

KINSHASA (Reuters) -Belgium's King Philippe reaffirmed his deepest regrets on Wednesday for the exploitation, racism and acts of violence during his country's colonisation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but again stopped short of formally apologising.

Philippe became the first Belgian official two years ago to express regret for colonisation, and some Congolese hoped he would issue a formal apology during his first visit to Congo since taking the throne in 2013.


© Reuters/JUSTIN MAKANGARA

"Even though many Belgians invested themselves sincerely, loving Congo and its people deeply, the colonial regime itself was based on exploitation and domination," he told a joint session of parliament in the capital Kinshasa.


© Reuters/JUSTIN MAKANGARABelgium's royal couple visits Kinshasa

"This regime was one of unequal relations, unjustifiable in itself, marked by paternalism, discrimination and racism," he said.

"It led to violent acts and humiliations. On the occasion of my first trip to Congo, right here, in front of the Congolese people and those who still suffer today, I wish to reaffirm my deepest regrets for those wounds of the past."


© Reuters/JUSTIN MAKANGARA
Belgium's royal couple visits Kinshasa

Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and many politicians have enthusiastically welcomed Philippe's visit. Large numbers of ruling party supporters waved Belgian flags, and a banner hanging from parliament read: "A common history."


© Reuters/JUSTIN MAKANGARA
Belgian king returns mask to Congo in symbolic gesture of restitution

But others were disappointed by the absence of an apology.

By some estimates, killings, famine and disease caused the deaths of up to 10 million Congolese during just the first 23 years of Belgium's rule from 1885 to 1960, when King Leopold II ruled the Congo Free State as a personal fiefdom.

Villages that missed rubber collection quotas were notoriously made to provide severed hands instead.


"I salute the speech by the Belgian king. However, in the face of the crimes committed by Belgium, regrets are not enough," Congolese opposition Senator Francine Muyumba Nkanga wrote on Twitter.

Belgian king reiterates regrets for colonial past in Congo but does not apologise

"We expect an apology and a promise of reparations from him. That is the price to definitively turn the page," she said.

Nadia Nsayi, a political scientist specialised in Congo, said she sensed "a lot of nervousness in Belgium regarding a formal apology as Congo might use it to demand financial reparations".


MASK RETURN


Philippe arrived on Tuesday with his wife, Queen Mathilde, and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo for a week-long visit.

Tshisekedi said during a brief news conference with De Croo that he was focused on boosting cooperation with Belgium to attract investment and improve health care in Congo.

Relations had soured under Tshisekedi's predecessor, Joseph Kabila, whom Brussels criticised for suppressing dissent and extending his time in power beyond legal limits.

"We have not dwelled on the past, which is the past and which is not to be reconsidered, but we need to look to the future," Tshisekedi said.

Some Kinshasa residents also said they hoped the visit would bring investments. "Despite what the Belgians did to us during colonisation, we are ready to forgive," said Antoine Mubidiki.

Philippe earlier offered a traditional mask of the Suku people to Congo's national museum as an "indefinite loan". The mask has been held for decades by Belgium's Royal Museum for Central Africa.

Belgium has traditionally said little about colonialism, and the subject has not been extensively taught in Belgian schools.

By contrast, Germany last year apologised to Namibia for its role in the slaughter of Herero and Nama tribespeople more than a century ago, officially described it as genocide for the first time and agreed to fund projects worth over a billion euros.

There have been the beginnings of a historical reckoning in Belgium in recent years. During anti-racism protests sparked in 2020 by the police killing in the United States of George Floyd, demonstrators targeted statues of King Leopold II.

Belgium's parliament established a commission soon after to examine the historical record. It will issue its final report this year.

Belgium will also hand over a tooth, suspected to be the only remains of Congo's first prime minister Patrice Lumumba, to his family this month.

The Belgian government took partial responsibility in 2002 for the death of Lumumba, who was assassinated by Belgian-backed secessionists in 1961.

(Reporting by Benoit Nyemba and Nellie Peyton; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Alison Williams)

Belgian king regrets colonial 'humiliation' in landmark DR Congo trip

King Philippe of Belgium, in a historic visit to DR Congo, said on Wednesday that his country's rule over the vast central African country had inflicted pain and humiliation through a mixture of "paternalism, discrimination and racism." FRANCE 24's Clément Bonnerot reports from Kinshasa, DR Congo.


'He did not apologise': Belgian king reaffirms regrets for colonial past in Congo

Belgium's King Philippe said he reaffirmed his "profound regrets" for his country's brutal colonial past in Democratic Republic of Congo on his first trip to the central African nation.“I will not try to hide that I am a bit disappointed,” expert on Central Africa Kris Berwouts told France 24. “A lot of us were hoping for apologies.”

 

Belgian king arrives in DR Congo for key visit

Arsene Mpiana
Tue, June 7, 2022


Belgium's King Philippe landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, in a historic visit to the central African country his ancestor once ruled brutally as his personal fief.

The monarch will undertake a six-day trip billed as a chance for reconciliation after atrocities committed under Belgian colonial rule.

The visit comes two years after Philippe wrote to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi to express his "deepest regrets" for the "wounds of the past."

Tshisekedi and his wife greeted King Philippe and Queen Mathilde on a red carpet rolled out on the tarmac of the international airport of the capital Kinshasa, a sprawling city of about 15 million people.

On Monday, Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told reporters that Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were starting a "new partnership."

"We are not forgetting the past, we are looking to the future," he added.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who is visiting the impoverished nation of 90 million people alongside the king, echoed the sentiment.

"It's a historic moment," he told a Belgian national broadcaster Tuesday, hailing the opportunity to forge future closer ties.

Belgium's colonisation of the Congo was one of the harshest imposed by the European powers that ruled most of Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

King Leopold II, the brother of Philippe's great great grandfather, oversaw the conquest of what is now DRC, governing the territory as his personal property between 1885 and 1908 before it became a Belgian colony.
- Brutal rule -

Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under his rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.

The visit is King Philippe's first to DRC since ascending the throne in 2013. His father, King Albert II, visited the country in 2010.

Belgium is preparing to return to Kinshasa a tooth -- the last remains of Patrice Lumumba -- a hero of the anti-colonial struggle and short-lived first prime minister of the independent Congo.



Lumumba was murdered by Congolese separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961, and his body dissolved in acid, but the tooth was kept as a trophy by one of his killers, a Belgian police officer.

According to Belgium's royal palace, the king is also due to discuss the question of returning artworks looted during the colonial era.

Philippe is due to hold a ceremony with Tshisekedi at the Congolese parliament in Kinshasa on Wednesday and then on Friday deliver a speech to university students in the southern city of Lubumbashi.

On Sunday, the Belgian sovereign will visit the clinic of gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence, in the eastern city of Bukavu.

The trip comes at a time of heightened tension between Kinshasa and neighbouring Rwanda over rebel activity in the conflict-torn eastern DRC.

DRC's government has accused Rwanda of backing the resurgent M23 militia, an accusation which Rwanda has denied.

jk-am/eml/ri

Belgian king visits DRC: Trip seen as chance for reconciliation after colonial past

Belgium's King Philippe landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, in a historic visit to the central African country his ancestor once ruled brutally as his personal fief. The monarch will undertake a six-day trip billed as a chance for reconciliation after atrocities committed under Belgian colonial rule. FRANCE 24's Clément Bonnerot reports from Kinshasa, DRC.


Belgian king arrives in DR Congo for historic visit

Belgium's King Philippe landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, in a historic visit to the central African country his ancestor once ruled brutally as his personal fief.
 





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