Belgian cartoonist GAL turned 70 this year. The relations between Belgium and Congo haven’t been absent in his work. (I provided some context below each cartoon.) Happy birthday, Gal.
January 2001. Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel (he famously said, “King Leopold II was a true visionary for his time, a hero“) criticizes the Austrian government, calling for a boycott of its ski resorts to protest the inclusion of Jörg Haider’s Freedom Party in the coalition. He attends Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s funeral a week later.
February 2002. The Belgian parliamentary commission investigating the death of Patrice Lumumba finds that the Belgian government carried a “moral responsibility”. Louis Michel apologizes to the Congolese people. No further legal action was taken.
October 2004. Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht visits Congo where “I have met a lot of people and I wonder if they are the people to transform this country into a democracy and seriously manage it.” Kinshasa is not amused, slamming the “Tintin minister”.
May 2008. Karel De Gucht reiterates his 2004 claims. “If pointing out to the Congolese politicians they have to make bigger efforts meant he was a neo-colonialist,” he says, “then I am a convinced neo-colonialist”.
July 2008. Human Rights Watch reports that the peace accord fails to end the killing and raping of civilians in Eastern Congo. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe cracks down on the opposition.
June 2010. Weeks after the murder of Congolese human rights activist Floribert Chebeya, King Albert II of Belgium attends the ceremonies in Kinshasa to mark the 50th anniversary of Congo’s independence.
- Tom Devriendt
