When will the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RD Congo) cease to be Belge? The response to this question will be that DR Congo ceased to be “Belge” when it gained its independence. Indeed, Belgium left the country when it gained independence, ending the period of colonization which had begun in 1908 and preceded by King Leopold II's brutal personal rule from 1885. But, has Belgium really left the DR Congo? Unfortunately, the answer is no. ALSO READ: Genocide ideology: Belgium is a gene pool custodian From 1885 to 1908, the territory now known as DR Congo was the personal property of King Leopold II. He deceitfully named it the Congo Free State while enforcing a system of extreme exploitation for rubber and ivory. Leopold's horrific practices triggered international pressure that led Belgium to take over the territory in 1908, creating the Belgian Congo. The Belgian government annexed the territory, ending Leopold’s personal control and renaming it the Belgian Congo. On June 30, 1960, Belgium granted the country independence. After the country’s independence, Patrice Emery Lumumba wanted total independence from Belgium, which the latter didn’t want. Belgium used Mobutu Sese Seko, with the help of the United States, to depose him. But before Mobutu deposed Lumumba, Belgium had to prepare him as it prepared Grégoire Kayibanda in Rwanda. ALSO READ: King Mutara III Rudahigwa was bumped off by Belgium In Rwanda, Kayibanda went to Belgium for journalism training in 1957. His training was conducted at the newspaper Vers l'avenir which was based in Namur. He returned to Rwanda in November 1958 and started the PARMEHUTU party, with an ideology that led Rwanda to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. ALSO READ: A Belgian Catholic priest and the theology of genocide The same scenario happened in DR Congo. Belgium prepared Mobutu, who was sent to Brussels for journalism training. To be able to join and befriend Lumumba, he was advised to join the Congolese National Movement (MNC) and became its representative in Belgium. When he returned to Congo, Lumumba made him his personal aide. After Congo gained independence in 1960, Lumumba appointed Mobutu as army chief of staff. However, Mobutu secretly maintained contact with Belgians and U.S. intelligence services. In September 1960, Mobutu used his position to stage a coup, ousting Lumumba's government and placing him under house arrest. ALSO READ: Belgian lawyer on why genocide ideology doesn’t dissolve three decades after dispersion of genocidaires Fearing Lumumba's continued popularity, Mobutu's troops, with Belgian backing, transferred Lumumba to Katanga province. On January 17, 1961, Lumumba and two of his associates were executed by a firing squad under Belgian command. Throughout his rule from 1965 to 1997, Mobutu served Belgian interests, particularly during the critical period following Congolese independence. However, Mobutu's relationship with Belgium fluctuated between closeness and hostility. But Belgium continued to have significant influence in Zaire through economic and strategic interests. ALSO READ: Jambo ASBL and the intersection of religion and extremism Belgium's relationship with DR Congo soared dramatically during the presidency of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who publicly criticized Belgium's arrogance, claiming the country saw its relationship with DR Congo as master-slave. During Kabila's presidency, there was a visible decline in the relationship between Belgian and DR Congo to the extent that some people believed that they were going to witness the collapse of the Belgian Empire. Unfortunately, Kabila was assassinated on January 16, 2001, in his office at the Palais de Marbre in Kinshasa. According to the official account, he was assassinated by his own bodyguard, Rashidi Mizele. While we have no proof that Belgium was behind his death, it was the first country to officially announce his death. Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel stated that two reliable sources reported that Kabila had been shot by one of his bodyguards, a statement made while Congolese government officials were still denying or refusing to comment on his death. The lack of a transparent investigation and credible evidence fuelled conspiracy theories, implicating various foreign powers, citing Rwanda, and Angola, and others pointing fingers to Belgium. When Kabila's son, Joseph Kabila, took power, Belgium and the European Union re-engaged with DR Congo and increased aid, indicating a new, more compliant regime that better suited their interests, different to that of the senior Kabila's rule, which was viewed as uncooperative, probably the reason for his assassination. Until now, we have seen that Belgium never left DR Congo, except the short period of Laurent-Désiré Kabila. What about DR Congo under the presidency of Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo? During a visit to Paris, in 1961, Léon Mba, the first President of Gabon told Charles de Gaulle, the then President of France that: “Every Gabonese has two homelands: Gabon and France.” His successor, Omar Bongo told the French newspaper Libération, in 1996 that “Africa without France is like a car without a driver. Some analysts described Bongo as having acted like a Vice-President of France, responsible for Africa. As both Mba and Bongo, Tshisekedi is the President of DR Congo, but acts as the Belgium “Vice-President, responsible for DR Congo”. Tshisekedi and his inner circle consider themselves citizens of two homelands: DR Congo and Belgium. Did you know that the wife of the President of DR Congo, as well as his sister-in-law, Isabelle Kibasa Maliba, former provincial deputy for the Socialist Party (PS) in the Walloon Brabant province in Belgium, are Belgians? Kibasa acquired Belgian nationality in 2000. In 2023, she campaigned for a legislator post from the province of Lualaba. Earlier this year, Tshisekedi named her as one of his itinerant ambassadors. His chief of staff, Guylain Nyembo, and his former deputy chief of staff and currently Governor of the National Bank of Congo André Wameso, are Belgian nationals. The entire family of the president, with the exception, perhaps, of Maman Marthe (his mother), are all Belgians. First lady, Denise Nyakeru, obtained Belgian nationality on September 13, 2002. Prime minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka is also a Belgian and, according to some reports, she did not renounce her Belgian nationality. The former Chief of the country’s military intelligence agency, and currently Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Christian Ndaywel Okura, was a Belgian before his appointment. In an interview with TV5 Monde, on September 21, 2019, Tshisekedi said that he doesn't want any tension with Belgium during his term. I am here to tell the Belgians that their place is in Congo, he said. No, the Congolese deserve a leader not like Léon Mba, who sold his country to France. Indeed, DR Congo deserves better – 140 years under Belgium control is too much, too long.
