The year 2022 is shaping up to be a critical period for the troubled relationship between Kinshasa and Brussels. In June, during a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Belgian king Philippe expressed his regret for the wounds of his country’s colonial past. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo then apologised for Belgium’s “moral responsibility†for the 1961 assassination of DRC Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. The country later repatriated his remains. From the outset, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi has said that the challenge for the two nations is to look to the future. He hopes in particular that stronger ties with Belgium will help attract more investments. But there are those in the DRC who think Belgium hasn’t done enough yet to compensate for its past. Opposition senator Francine Nkanga, for instance, has said: We will never look to the future without an apology and reparations from Belgium. So even if both Kinshasa and Brussels want to frame their relationship as one looking into the future, it’s clear that their common past still weighs heavily on their countries. In July 2020, Belgium set up a parliamentary commission to look into the country’s colonial history and how to best address its consequences. The commission is expected to come up with concrete recommendations later this year. It’s hoped they will provide an idea of how to heal the relationships between Belgians, Congolese, Rwandans and Burundians. But it’s a Herculean task.