\n<\/p>\n
Once a powerful local Congolese leader, Lusinga Iwa Ng\u2019ombe fought back against Belgian colonial invaders in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n
He was such a thorn in their side that \u00c9mile Storms, who commanded Belgian troops in the region, predicted his head would \u201ceventually end up in Brussels with a little label \u2014 it would not be out of place in a museum.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is exactly what happened. Troops of Mr. Storms killed and decapitated Mr. Lusinga in 1884<\/a>, and his skull ended up in a box in the Brussels-based Institute for Natural Sciences, along with over 500 human remains taken from former Belgian colonies.<\/p>\n His descendants are struggling to have his remains returned, their efforts unfolding against the backdrop of a larger debate about Europe\u2019s responsibility for the colonial atrocities, reparations and restitution of plundered heritage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Several European countries, including Belgium, have set up guidelines to return artifacts, but the process has been painfully slow.<\/p>\n The restitution of human remains, which were taken often illegally and cruelly by European invaders from the colonized territories, ending up in private hands or museums, has been even more fraught. In Belgium, it has been stalled by a deep-seated reluctance to grapple with the country\u2019s colonial legacy.<\/p>\n Belgium has drafted a law to regulate the restitution of human remains<\/a>, but it is likely to face a parliamentary vote only after national elections in June. If passed, it would establish the second framework in Europe for restitution of human remains held in public collections, following a similar law passed in December by France, which set out strict conditions for restitution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n King Leopold II of Belgium seized a vast part of central Africa in the mid-1880s, including the modern Democratic Republic of Congo, which he exploited for personal profit with immense cruelty. Although there are no official statistics, historians estimate that millions died under his rule, succumbing to mass starvation and disease, or killed by colonizers.<\/p>\n Yet today that bloody chapter of Belgian history is not a compulsory part of the school curriculum, and some Belgians have defended Leopold as a foundational figure. There are multiple streets and parks that carry his name and squares decorated with his statues.<\/p>\n In 2020, King Philippe of Belgium expressed his \u201cdeepest regrets\u201d<\/a> for his country\u2019s brutal past in a letter to the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its independence, but stopped short of an apology \u2014 which many feared would open the door to legal action by those seeking reparations.<\/p>\n The conquest of Congo coincided with the birth of modern anthropology, with Belgian scientists busily comparing skulls of residents in the Belgian regions of Flanders and Wallonia. The colonial expeditions, which often included medical doctors, were seen as opening up new opportunities for research, said Maarten Couttenier, a historian and anthropologist at the Africa Museum. Belgian colonels were encouraged to bring back human remains to provide evidence for racial superiority.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The idea was, Mr. Couttenier said, \u201cto measure the skull to determine races.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Couttenier, along with a colleague Boris Wastiau, broke a decades-old silence about the acquisition and continued storage of the remains, which was known to only a handful of scientists, making the information public through scientific conferences and exhibitions.<\/p>\n