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The King of the Belgians Philippe, who had expressed in 2020 “regret” historical for the colonial past of his country, will make his first official visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from March 6 to 10, announced, Wednesday, February 16, the royal palace.
Philippe will be accompanied by his wife, Queen Mathilde, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the head of diplomacy Sophie Wilmès and the minister for development cooperation Meryame Kitir, said the palace of Laeken in a press release, the detailed program still to be finalized.
It will also be the first Belgian royal visit to the DRC since the trip of Albert II, father of Philippe, in 2010, for the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the former colony.
In June 2020, King Philippe, who has reigned since 2013, presented for the first time in the country’s history “his deepest regrets for the injuries” inflicted during the Belgian colonial period in Congo, the current DRC. In a letter addressed to the Congolese President, Felix Tshisekedi, he expressed “his deepest regrets for these wounds of the past, the pain of which is today revived by the discrimination still present in our societies”.
In 1908, the Congo Free State, personal property of King Leopold II since 1885, was ceded to the Belgian State, which then administered it as a colony until 1960. “At the time of the Congo Free State, acts of violence and cruelty were committed, which still weigh on our collective memory” and “the colonial period that followed also caused suffering and humiliation”he wrote.
Severed hands and “relic”
Leopold II, who managed the wealth of the Congo from Brussels for his exclusive benefit, had resorted to forced labor for the exploitation of rubber. Many abuses such as chopping off the hands of workers deemed insufficiently productive have been documented. Kinshasa had hailed King Philippe’s words as ” breakthrough “ able to “boost friendships” between the two countries.
This royal visit comes as the Belgian government presented its roadmap in July 2021 to return to the DRC thousands of cultural objects acquired improperly, particularly during the violence committed under the reign of Leopold II, a process which could last several years.
In addition, Belgium is preparing to return to Kinshasa a tooth of Patrice Lumumba, Congolese hero of the anti-colonial struggle and ephemeral first Prime Minister of the young independent Congo, whose body, dissolved in acid, has never been found. . A restitution ceremony for this “relic”scheduled for June 2021 in Brussels, has been postponed due to the pandemic.