When sorry is not enough: Belgium’s king visits Congo, to confront country’s cruel colonial past

The monarch is making his first trip to the DRC, the country his relatives helped colonise and treat with extraordinary brutality, writes Charlie Mitchell

Belgium’s King Philippe returns a traditional mask to Congo president Felix Tshisekedi (left) in Kinshasa (AFP/Getty)

So barbaric was the treatment of Patrice Lumumba in the days preceding his assassination under Belgian supervision in 1961 that one of his captors is said to have become physically sick.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s first elected prime minister, then 35, was beaten, tortured and allegedly forced to eat his own beard. After being killed by firing squad by pro-Belgian separatists, his corpse was dismembered and dissolved in acid. A gold tooth, pulled and kept by a Belgian police officer, was all that remained.

Six decades on, Belgium is attempting to draw a line under one of its darkest periods, with a two-pronged charm offensive. On Tuesday, King Philippe of Belgium began a six-day visit to the DRC, his first to the country, while in a fortnight Lumumba’s tooth will be returned to his family. On Wednesday, the king returned a traditional mask to the country.