Congo’s statues revive memories of bloody past

KINSHASA – Gazing across a bend in the vast Congo river towards Kinshasa, a tarnished bronze Belgian king sits imperiously on his horse, facing the city which once bore his name.

The bearded monarch’s statue stands on a hill under two mango trees, surrounded by other colonial monuments in a neglected museum in the overgrown grounds of a palace built by Congo’s former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Nearby lies a toppled likeness of Henry Morton Stanley, the 19th century explorer who cajoled local chiefs into giving their land to Belgium’s King Leopold II and who named Congo’s main city Leopoldville in his honour.The moustachioed Stanley brandishes his snapped baton in his left hand.His broken-off feet stand to attention next to him.These reminders of Democratic Republic of Congo’s blood-stained history were long hidden from Kinshasa’s residents after Mobutu stashed them in a warehouse in the early 1970s.Like many African strongmen of his day, Mobutu created his own philosophy to break with the colonial past: “authenticité”.He baptised the country Zaire and banned European names.In 1972, he adopted the title Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga: “the all-powerful warrior who because of his endurance and inflexible will to win sweeps from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake”.Mobutu is gone – driven from power in 1997 after 32 years of plundering – and so are the lions and okapi which once roamed behind the palace’s rusting wrought-iron fences.But the statues have survived years of upheaval and were rescued from the transport depot two years ago by President Joseph Kabila’s interim government.The men and the times they represent still cast a long shadow over the country.”We prefer now to have Congolese names and our own Congolese monuments,” said Jose Batekele, who is in charge of the museum.”But the Congolese should see these colonial monuments: they’re a part of their history.You cannot change the past.”PAINFUL REMINDER For many people, the colonial monuments are painful reminders of Leopold’s brutal regime which, according to writer Adam Hochschild, author of the 1998 book ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’, may have killed as many as 10 million Congolese.Many Congolese blame the Belgians for leaving their country chronically ill-prepared for independence in 1960.At the end of Mobutu’s rule, Congo was torn by a 1998-2003 war which killed more than four million people, mainly through hunger and disease.”When the Congolese received independence in 1960 we were not ready.It was like giving a child US$2 million dollars (about N$14,6 million) ,” said Batekele.Despite fabulous mineral wealth, Congo remains one of the world’s poorest countries.Presidential and parliamentary elections in July were the first free polls in more than 40 years and were supposed to usher in an era of peace and stability, but the vote was marred by an acrimonious campaign and fierce fighting in Kinshasa between rival factions.United Nations and European peacekeepers helped secure the vote but drew accusations of foreign meddling from a people still scarred by the colonial abuses of the past.”If we are in this situation now, it’s because of the Belgians,” said Joe (34), a businessman in Kinshasa.By posing as a philanthropist, Leopold claimed the Congo Free State in 1885, a vast area nearly 80 times the size of Belgium which became the king’s private estate.But the brutal methods – slave labour, flogging, mutilation and murder – used by Leopold to amass a fortune through rubber-tapping shocked even the other colonial powers.A SIGN OF THE TIMES Attempts to resurrect Leopold’s statue on a plinth at the end of Kinshasa’s main boulevard nearly triggered a riot last year.An embarrassed minister was forced to explain the statue had only been aired to test out a plinth.”With the destruction or dismantling of its monuments, Kinshasa has become a place of half-memories or truncated memories,” said writer Antoine Lumenganeso.The turmoil of Congo’s recent past can be seen in Kinshasa’s remaining monuments.In the square in front of the presidential palace, where Leopold’s towering statue once stood, is a mausoleum for Laurent Kabila, the current president’s father who toppled Mobutu in 1997 but was killed by a bodyguard in 2001.Massive billboards also carry the glowering face of the former president and his bust stands in a central square.Once a year, on the anniversary of his death, the government opens the room where he was assassinated to the public.On one of the roads into Kinshasa, there is a reminder of another murder: a statue of independence hero Patrice Lumumba.Leftist firebrand Lumumba, who flirted with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, was assassinated, many say with the complicity of Belgian agents, in 1961.Mobutu remains perhaps the most notable absentee from Kinshasa’s panoply of monuments with not a single image of the former dictator, with his dark glasses and leopard-skin toque.Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel and presidential candidate whose father was one of the most prosperous businessmen of the Mobutu era, has pledged to change that.Bemba faces favourite Kabila in an October 29 run-off vote for the presidency.”This is Africa, and in Africa we honour our ancestors, no matter what you might think of them,” Bemba said.Nampa-ReutersNearby lies a toppled likeness of Henry Morton Stanley, the 19th century explorer who cajoled local chiefs into giving their land to Belgium’s King Leopold II and who named Congo’s main city Leopoldville in his honour.The moustachioed Stanley brandishes his snapped baton in his left hand.His broken-off feet stand to attention next to him.These reminders of Democratic Republic of Congo’s blood-stained history were long hidden from Kinshasa’s residents after Mobutu stashed them in a warehouse in the early 1970s.Like many African strongmen of his day, Mobutu created his own philosophy to break with the colonial past: “authenticité”.He baptised the country Zaire and banned European names.In 1972, he adopted the title Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga: “the all-powerful warrior who because of his endurance and inflexible will to win sweeps from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake”.Mobutu is gone – driven from power in 1997 after 32 years of plundering – and so are the lions and okapi which once roamed behind the palace’s rusting wrought-iron fences.But the statues have survived years of upheaval and were rescued from the transport depot two years ago by President Joseph Kabila’s interim government.The men and the times they represent still cast a long shadow over the country.”We prefer now to have Congolese names and our own Congolese monuments,” said Jose Batekele, who is in charge of the museum.”But the Congolese should see these colonial monuments: they’re a part of their history.You cannot change the past.”PAINFUL REMINDER For many people, the colonial monuments are painful reminders of Leopold’s brutal regime which, according to writer Adam Hochschild, author of the 1998 book ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’, may have killed as many as 10 million Congolese.Many Congolese blame the Belgians for leaving their country chronically ill-prepared for independence in 1960.At the end of Mobutu’s rule, Congo was torn by a 1998-2003 war which killed more than four million people, mainly through hunger and disease.”When the Congolese received independence in 1960 we were not ready.It was like giving a child US$2 million dollars (about N$14,6 million) ,” said Batekele.Despite fabulous mineral wealth, Congo remains one of the world’s poorest countries.Presidential and parliamentary elections in July were the first free polls in more than 40 years and were supposed to usher in an era of peace and stability, but the vote was marred by an acrimonious campaign and fierce fighting in Kinshasa between rival factions.United Nations and European peacekeepers helped secure the vote but drew accusations of foreign meddling from a people still scarred by the colonial abuses of the past.”If we are in this situation now, it’s because of the Belgians,” said Joe (34), a businessman in Kinshasa.By posing as a philanthropist, Leopold claimed the Congo Free State in 1885, a vast area nearly 80 times the size of Belgium which became the king’s private estate.But the brutal methods – slave labour, flogging, mutilation and murder – used by Leopold to amass a fortune through rubber-tapping shocked even the other colonial powers.A SIGN OF THE TIMES Attempts to resurrect Leopold’s statue on a plinth at the end of Kinshasa’s main boulevard nearly triggered a riot last year.An embarrassed minister was forced to explain the statue had only been aired to test out a plinth.”With the destruction or dismantling of its monuments, Kinshasa has become a place of half-memories or truncated memories,” said writer Antoine Lumenganeso.The turmoil of Congo’s recent past can be seen in Kinshasa’s remaining monuments.In the square in front of the presidential palace, where Leopold’s towering statue once stood, is a mausoleum for Laurent Kabila, the current president’s father who toppled Mobutu in 1997 but was killed by a bodyguard in 2001.Massive billboards also carry the glowering face of the former president and his bust stands in a central square.Once a year, on the anniversary of his death, the government opens the room where he was assassinated to the public.On one of the roads into Kinshasa, there is a reminder of another murder: a statue of independence hero Patrice Lumumba.Leftist firebrand Lumumba, who flirted with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, was assassinated, many say with the complicity of Belgian agents, in 1961.Mobutu remains perhaps the most notable absentee from Kinshasa’s panoply of monuments with not a single image of the former dictator, with his dark glasses and leopard-skin toque.Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel and presidential candidate whose father was one of the most prosperous businessmen of the Mobutu era, has pledged to change that.Bemba faces favourite Kabila in an October 29 run-off vote for the presidency.”This is Africa, and in Africa we honour our ancestors, no matter what you might think of them,” Bemba said.Nampa-Reuters