It must be an uneasy day for King Albert II of the Belgians as he attends today’s celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s independence from Belgium.
King Albert is the first Belgian monarch to visit DRC and he is a descendent of King Leopold II, the man who wrought colonial terror of the worst kind in what was then known as the Congo Free State.
On top of that, Albert’s late brother, Baudouin, was allegedly involved in the assassination of the DRC’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961. Just last week, Mr Lumumba’s sons said they wanted to bring a case against 12 Belgians for involvement in their father’s assassination.
Little wonder then that prior to his being allowed to accept, Albert’s invitation to Kinshasa triggered a heated debate in the Belgian parliament before its members eventually acquiesced.
Guilt
Congo-themed events and exhibitions are being held across Belgium this week, a sign that the country is slowly shaking off decades of silence about its colonial past, says David Van Reybrouck, the celebrated Flemish author of Congo: A History.
“The word Congo used to have very dark connotations but today some of that darkness has lifted. There’s even a kind of Congomania in Belgium,” he explains.
“Things are changing slowly but still there’s been an unwillingness to open the lid on our colonial past. Some of the archives are still very difficult to access, something which I find indefensible.”
Race for rubber
Just to the back of the royal palace in Brussels stands a large copper statue of Leopold II on horseback. At the base of this triumphant, pompous effigy of the bearded monarch there is a tiny plaque explaining that the statue was made entirely from Congolese copper.
Copper and ivory were among a wealth of natural resources that first lured Leopold to this vast territory but it was the discovery of rubber trees that turned this hitherto little-known stretch of Africa into a personal goldmine for the monarch. The cultivation of this tree, just after the use of rubber for tyres had been discovered by the Scottish veterinarian John Boyd Dunlop, helped spark a spiral of human rights abuses of unparalleled cruelty.
Erik Nobels, a guide who specialises in the Brussels’ Congo-themed tours, points to the grand trio of arches of the Cinquantenaire Park, a giant version of the Brandenburg Gate, that crowns one of the main avenues in Brussels.
“Leopold wanted a colony that would allow him to decorate his city. He believed immortality could either be gained by fighting wars or leaving your stamp on a city. And the huge wealth that Congo brought him allowed him to do so.”
The story of how Leopold acquired Congo is a remarkable story of personal greed, cunning and brutality. He carved out a gigantic area which was to become his personal plaything from 1885.
“This wasn’t to be compared with France, Germany or Britain because Belgium at that time simply wasn’t interested in acquiring a colony. It was the king who dreamt of having an overseas territory and who then through his incredible diplomatic manoeuvres acquired an enormous part of the African pie,” says Mr Van Reybrouck.
Leopold soon chose to forget about the conditions set out at the Berlin Conference - that he should make good on his promise to emancipate inhabitants from the Arab slave trade - and he instead installed an army of officials and African mercenaries to execute his wishes.
Severed hands
Villages were assigned a quota for the amount of rubber they had to collect and process. Terror ensued if they failed to meet that quota. Military personnel, mostly made up of west Africans, carried out the infamous practice of cutting off the hands and feet of villagers who failed to meet the quota.
Women would also be taken into custody until their husbands came up with the required amount of rubber.
“It was a relentless policy of squeezing out local populations. In addition to the killing, there was huge migration as people fled into the forest because they didn’t want to work in the service of the king anymore.”
Burning the past
Many millions died during Leopold’s reign, though exact figures are impossible to calculate: Leopold ordered his archives to be burned just before control of Congo was wrested from him and transferred to the Belgian state in 1908 following an international outcry over his rule.
“There are many reports from the time of great heat emanating from all these buildings as the archives were stuffed into fireplaces and lit up to cover Leopold’s tracks,” says Erik Nobels, pointing to buildings just behind the palace in Brussels that were once Leopold’s Congolese headquarters.
The Belgian authorities have long peddled the idea that things became calm under state control until the late 1950s. Although they were highly paternalistic and refused to start unwinding colonial rule until it was forced upon them.
“They began de-colonisation far too late and cleared out overnight, allowing huge instability to follow,” says Mr Van Reybrouck.
Patrice Lumumba became the DRC’s first prime minister but the country was soon troubled by violence when the south-eastern Katanga province declared independence from the new republic.
In September 1960, colonel Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko took over power in a coup d'état and Lumumba was arrested. He died immediately after being relocated to a prison in Katanga. His death was never explained. Both the CIA and Belgian secret services were blamed for his killing.
The Belgian government in 2002 apologised for its involvement in Lumumba’s murder, thereby closing the case. However, Belgian historian Ludo de Witte told RNW recently that he supports the new investigation brought by Lumumba’s sons. “I think this case is important for the victims, who have the right to know the truth […], but it is also a duty of remembrance.”
“We as Belgians should know that we participated in war crimes against the Congolese. If Belgium becomes the champion in the battle against impunity, we should know first what we did ourselves.”
Read more:
Lumumba's sons seek war crimes crimes charges against Belgium
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