Commentary
The King of Belgium Philippe, recently visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), previously known as Zaire. It is the first time that the King, who ascended the throne in 2013, visited the country. He was accompanied by his wife, Queen Mathilde, and the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
Philippe is a descendant of King Leopold II, who, following work by explorer Henry Morton Stanley, seized this sizable African landmass in 1885 and established the Congo Free State as a personal fiefdom. He ruled the Congo Free State until 1908 when it was turned into a colony of Belgium—the Belgian Congo—until independence in 1960….