DR CONGO · SOCIETY The DR Congo wants its dead back. Kinshasa has formally asked Belgium to return more than 500 colonial-era remains — the skulls and bones of its people taken during colonial rule — recasting Africa’s restitution debate around something more intimate than looted art. The request to Belgium The Democratic Republic of Congo has sent a formal request to Belgium for the return of more than 500 colonial-era remains. The letter went from Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka to her Belgian counterpart
in June 2026. The dead must be able to rest in dignity in their country of origin, Tuluka wrote, and must not be regarded merely as collector’s items. It was a deliberate reframing of what restitution is about. The request covers remains scattered across museums, universities and private collections. Tracking them all is itself a daunting task. Why the colonial-era remains matter Restitution debates usually centre on art and artefacts, from bronzes to masks. Human remains are a harder, more personal category. Many were taken
as trophies or specimens during a brutal colonial period, then catalogued in museums and universities. Returning them is about dignity as much as history. A violent history Belgium’s rule over Congo was among the most brutal in colonial history, first as the personal domain of King Leopold II, then as a Belgian colony. Millions died under forced labour and violence. Some remains carry that violence in their very provenance. The skull of a chief named Lusinga, killed and decapitated by a Belgian officer in 1884,
is among the cases that have drawn attention. Estimates of the death toll under King Leopold II’s rule run into the millions, though precise figures are disputed. The scale is what makes the legacy so raw today. What restitution involves Returning remains is rarely as simple as handing back a box. Institutions must first identify what they hold, trace its origin and, where possible, link it to a community or family. That can mean years of archival work and scientific testing. The process is painstaking
precisely because the stakes are human. Belgium’s slow reckoning Belgium has begun, slowly, to confront that past. In 2019, the Brussels parliament backed the return of human remains and objects taken in the colonial era. In 2022, it handed back a tooth, all that remained of the independence leader Patrice Lumumba, for burial at home. Research projects have since started cataloguing the human remains still held in Belgian collections. Justice, still unfinished The reckoning has reached the courts as well. In March 2026, a former
Belgian diplomat was ordered to stand trial over his role in Lumumba’s 1961 killing. For many Congolese, these threads are connected. The bones, the trial and the apologies are pieces of one long, unfinished accounting. Successive Belgian governments have expressed regret for aspects of colonial rule. Campaigners argue that returning the dead would turn words into deeds. Part of a continental wave Congo’s demand lands amid a broader African push to reclaim heritage. Ghana is receiving thousands of artefacts from the Netherlands, and other returns
are under negotiation across Europe. What sets the Congolese request apart is its subject. It moves the conversation from display cases to graves. African governments increasingly treat heritage as a matter of sovereignty, not nostalgia. Reclaiming the past is part of asserting a confident present. A test for Europe’s museums Belgium is not alone in holding African remains and objects gathered in the colonial era. Museums across Europe face similar requests as the restitution movement grows. How Brussels responds will be watched closely in other
capitals. A generous answer could set a template; a grudging one could harden positions. What happens next Belgium has not yet given a full answer, and returning identified remains is slow, technical work. Each case can require archival research and, sometimes, scientific testing. But the direction is set. Having returned one leader’s tooth, Belgium is now being asked to account for hundreds more of the dead it once carried away. For Congo, the request is also about national memory. A country still defining itself after
a violent colonial history is insisting that its dead be counted among its own. Frequently asked questions
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