Pierre Kompany: “Belgian state and king should apologize to Congo”
Pierre Kompany (72) feels that Belgium and King Filip should apologize for the colonial past. “If the state apologizes, that would be a big step. But if the royal family does the same, we will come out even better,” says the father of Red Devil Vincent Kompany and Mayor of Ganshoren in an interview with AFP.
“The apology must come from the state and the king,” says Kompany. The CDH politician speaks of “shameless reality” about the practices that took place during the colonization period.
In his mind, he hopes for an apology to the people of Congo. “It would do them very well.” Kompany also advocates teaching the colonial past at school.
During the anti-racism protests, the images of King Leopold II in Belgium were vandalized. According to Kompany, those images should have been removed years ago and placed in museums. “No one goes to a museum to destroy them.”
Pierre Kompany came to Belgium as a political refugee from Congo in 1975. He is a member of the Brussels Parliament and became the first black mayor of Belgium at the end of 2018.
