Lhe diplomatic warming between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the former colonizer, Belgium, accelerated two years ago, on the occasion of the 60e anniversary of the independence of the Central African giant. The King of the Belgians, Philippe, then sent a letter to President Tshisekedi expressing his “deep regrets” for the “wounds” caused by colonization. The sovereign, who has reigned since 2013, had regretted the “acts of violence and cruelty” committed at the time when his ancestor Leopold II had made the Congo his personal property (1885-1908), before the half-century of presence of the Belgian State in the immense country of Central Africa. On the day of the Belgian national holiday, it was President Félix Tshisekedi who undertook in an official letter to “work to consolidate the centuries-old relations which unite for eternity [leurs] two countries and [leurs] two peoples”.
The Belgian-Congolese relationship at a turning point
The week-long royal visit, the first since that in 2010 of Albert II, father of Philippe, has been twice postponed, in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, then at the beginning of this year because of the war launched by Russia in Ukraine. If it intervenes against the background of work of memory and reconciliation between Belgium and its former colony, this visit is also to be placed in a global context where the memorial debate remains burning in Europe as in the United States. In the wake of the death of the African-American George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter movement, demonstrations took place in 2020 in Belgium with the unbolting of statues of Leopold II, a parliamentary commission was immediately charged with working on the question. The objective is to establish the responsibilities of the State, but also of companies, the Church and the monarchy during this period (1908-1960) and in the neighboring countries Rwanda and Burundi.
“There were regrets, it’s the beginning of a new partnership which will go on consolidating”, estimated Monday evening in Kinshasa before the press the spokesman of the Congolese government, Patrick Muyaya, during a briefing dedicated to this visit. “We are not forgetting the past, we are looking to the future”, he added, welcoming the “strengthened relations” with Belgium, when they were “on the verge of rupture in the past”. . The relationship was difficult between the two countries during the end of the presidency of the predecessor of Felix Tshisekedi, Joseph Kabila, who led from 2001 to 2018, criticized including by Brussels for having remained in power beyond his second term. , in violation of the Constitution. Cooperation had been suspended for a time.
“I think that sometimes to be able to build a good future, you have to face the past,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also told RTBF on Tuesday morning before leaving Brussels for Kinshasa, also referring to ” the quite historic letter” from King Philippe. Going to the DRC and carrying “a message as an extension of this letter is a very, very important moment, […] a historic moment,” he added.
Restitution, cooperation: in search of a new breath
The colonial past, with, among other things, the question of the return of works of art to the former colony (on May 18, a bill “recognizing the alienable nature of property linked to the Belgian State’s colonial past” was adopted in parliamentary committee, Ed), should again be mentioned during this trip of the king who, according to the Belgian royal palace, also wants to give a “new breath” to the partnership with Kinshasa. Health, education, training, forest protection… Philippe and his wife should have an overview of the sectors where development aid is exercised. Belgium is the fourth donor to the DRC, after the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.
The king’s trip will include three stages: Kinshasa first, with in particular a visit to the national museum on Wednesday and a speech on the esplanade of the National Assembly; Lubumbashi in the mining southeast, with an intervention Friday in front of university students, and Bukavu, in the east, a region plagued for nearly three decades by violence from armed groups. The king must visit on Sunday in a peripheral district of Bukavu, capital of the province of South Kivu, the clinic of gynecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his action in favor of women victims of rapes.
This trip by King Philippe comes at the height of renewed tension between the DRC and its neighbor Rwanda, accused by Kinshasa of supporting an old rebellion that reappeared at the end of last year and that violent fighting opposed the Congolese army in late May. the neighboring province of North Kivu. Kigali denies, but Félix Tshisekedi assured on Sunday that he had “no doubt” about this support.
