Sixty years on, Belgium has yet to issue a formal apology for colonial crimes and atrocities but now is the time to finally reexamine the dark corners and demand reparations for the people of Congo. Black lives did not matter in Leopold II’s Congo Free State (1885-1908), which the Belgian king ruled over as his personal colony. Historians have described a regime based on racism and exploitation with violence and repression ever present. The infamous pictures of maimed Congolese people have illustrated some of the egregious abuses they endured through forced labor. The sexual violence against Congolese people by Belgian colonial officials and their sentries was less public but equally horrific. Killings, famine, and disease reduced Congo’s population. An estimated 5 to 15 million at the start of Leopold II’s rule, by between 1 million and 5 million people, according to the latest calculations. The Belgian government, which took over in 1908, continued with Leopold’s racist practices. Belgian and Congolese historians have long since established a consensus around structural colonial repression. But the Belgium government had so far not demonstrated the political will to acknowledge the extent to which the Congolese social fabric was destroyed throughout decades of domination. In Modern day Congo the President lives lavishly while violence against his people intensifies. 15 million women, men and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are without enough food to eat. 

This brutal and senseless killing of Congolese people continues till this day as our resources continue to be extracted in exchange for our bloodshed. Enough is enough.