The restitution ceremony of a tooth of the Congolese leader assassinated in 1961 was marked by the denunciation of the “pernicious system” that was colonization.
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It was eagerly awaited, it was pronounced: the word “apologies” was well included in the speech of the head of the Belgian government, Alexander de Croo, Monday, June 20, on the occasion of an official ceremony of delivery to The family of Patrice Lumumba and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of a tooth of the first leader of the former Belgian-colony, which became independent in 1960. Patrice Lumumba had been assassinated on January 17, 1961 in the secessionist province of Katanga , with the complicity of Belgian representatives. This tooth is all that there is today from his body. She has long been preserved as a memory by a Belgian police officer who participated in the disappearance of the body, before being seized with her daughter in 2016.
“I wish, in the presence of his family, to present in my turn the apologies of the Belgian government for the way in which, at the time, he weighed on the decision to end the days of the Prime Minister of Congo independent” said Alexander de Croo. He went further by evoking his desire to “qualify without ambiguity” which he called the “dark passages” in the history of his country. Colonization, he said, “established an unequal relationship, in itself unjustifiable”, and “a pernicious system which has shamefully tarnished the history of our country”. Perhaps it was sometimes motivated by “noble intentions”, but it was marked by “enslavement, occupation, exploitation and spoliation”. The head of government also drawn a parallel with slavery and denounced the racism which, he insisted, still persists in Belgium.
“Too late, far too late”
Twenty years ago, through the voice of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Louis Michel, the kingdom had already expressed his “deep regrets” for the role of Belgians in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the disappearance of his body. And two years ago, in an official letter, King Philippe had denounced “exploitation, paternalism, discrimination and racism” of the colonial period, remarks he repeated last week during ‘An official visit to Kinshasa. No question of apologies, on the other hand, in the intervention of the sovereign. No doubt because he would have come out of his constitutional prerogatives using a term that can lead to financial repairs and restitutions.
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