A Skull Taken From Congo Is Still Held by Belgium
BRUSSELS — A powerful local Congolese leader, Lusinga Iwa Ng’ombe, fought against Belgian invaders in the 19th century. Émile Storms, who commanded Belgian troops in the region, predicted his head would “eventually end up in Brussels with a little label.”
That is exactly what happened. Mr. Storms’s troops killed Mr. Lusinga in 1884, and his skull ended up in the Brussels-based Institute for Natural Sciences, along with over 500 human remains taken from former Belgian colonies.
His descendants are struggling to have his remains returned, efforts unfolding amid a larger debate about Europe’s responsibility for the colonial atrocities, reparations and restitution of plundered heritage. The restitution of human remains, which were taken often illegally and cruelly by European invaders, ending up in private hands or museums, has been fraught. In Belgium, it has been stalled by a deep-seated reluctance to grapple with the country’s colonial legacy.
Belgium has drafted a law to regulate the restitution of human remains, but it is likely to face a parliamentary vote only after national elections in June.
King Leopold II of Belgium seized a vast part of central Africa in the 1880s, including the modern Democratic Republic of Congo, which he exploited for personal profit. Historians estimate that millions died under his rule, succumbing to mass starvation and disease, or killed by colonizers.
Yet today that chapter of history is not a compulsory part of Belgium’s school curriculum, and some have defended Leopold as a foundational figure. There are streets and parks carrying his name and squares decorated with his statues.
In 2020, King Philippe of Belgium expressed his “deepest regrets” for his country’s brutal past in a letter to the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but he stopped short of an apology — which some thought would prompt legal action seeking reparations.
The colonial expeditions were seen as opportunities for anthropology research, said Maarten Couttenier, a historian and anthropologist at the Africa Museum in Brussels. Belgian colonels were encouraged to bring back human remains to provide evidence of racial superiority.
Mr. Couttenier, along with a colleague, Boris Wastiau, broke a decades-old silence about the acquisition and continued storage of the remains, making the information public.
Prompted by the reveal, Thierry Lusinga, who described himself as a great-grandchild of Mr. Lusinga, the chief, wrote two letters to King Phillipe, asking for his ancestor’s remains, and a third one to the Belgian Consulate in Lubumbashi. “We believe that the right to claim his remains, or the rest of his remains, belongs to our family,” he wrote in a letter dated October 10, 2018.
He said he never received a reply. The Royal Palace confirmed that it had received but did not respond to one of Mr. Lusinga’s letters, “as it did not mention any postal address and had not been addressed directly to the palace.” The letter had been transferred to the palace by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the palace said, with the institute stating that the matter was being “handled by the relevant authorities.”
Questions about the skull prompted Belgium to make an inventory of human remains held by its museums and universities. Its report listing 534 human remains from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi was published online this year.
Belgium’s draft law requires a formal request from a foreign government, which could request restitution on behalf of groups that still have “active culture and traditions.” It also allows restitution only for funerary purposes.
“Belgium cannot unilaterally set the criteria for restitution,” said François Muamba, a special adviser to the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in written comments to The Times. “Unfortunately, Belgian methods don’t seem to have changed.”
Fernand Numbi Kanyepa, a sociology professor at the University of Lubumbashi who researches the issue of restitution, said that the return of Mr. Lusinga’s skull was important for the whole Tabwa community, to which he belonged.
“For us, an individual who has been killed, but is not buried, cannot rest with the other spirits of the ancestors,” he said. “The skull of Chief Lusinga must return to the community, and even to the family, to receive a burial worthy of a king.”
Thierry Lusinga, whose request would not be legitimate under the draft law, said there must be “something hidden behind” the failure to return the skull. “Maybe Belgium does not want to be denounced as genocidal,” he said. “Maybe Belgium does not want to hear this story.”
Killed by colonizers and denied a burial ‘worthy of a king.’