Africa Is a Country

Gal draws Belgium and Congo

Gal draws Belgium and Congo

By
Tom Devriendt

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.


picture

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.

cartoon

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”.

cartoon

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”.

cartoon

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.

cartoon

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

Further Reading

Not exactly at arm’s length

Despite South Africa’s ban on arms exports to Israel and its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Palestine, local arms companies continue to send weapons to Israel’s allies and its major arms suppliers.

Ruto’s Kenya

Since June’s anti-finance bill protests, dozens of people remain unaccounted for—a stark reminder of the Kenyan state’s long history of abductions and assassinations.

Between Harlem and home

African postcolonial cinema serves as a mirror, revealing the limits of escape—whether through migration or personal defiance—and exposing the tensions between dreams and reality.

The real Rwanda

The world is slowly opening its eyes to how Paul Kagame’s regime abuses human rights, suppresses dissent, and exploits neighboring countries.

In the shadow of Mondlane

After a historic election and on the eve of celebrating fifty years of independence, Mozambicans need to ask whether the values, symbols, and institutions created to give shape to “national unity” are still legitimate today.

À sombra de Mondlane

Depois de uma eleição histórica e em vésperas de celebrar os 50 anos de independência, os moçambicanos precisam de perguntar se os valores, símbolos e instituições criados para dar forma à “unidade nacional” ainda são legítimos hoje.