"In answer to what has long been awaited, the government in Brussels will announce before Parliament today a program of reforms which will open a decisive period for the future of our African population. I feel that i owe it to the memory of my illustrious predecessors, the founders and conciliators of our enterprise in Africa, to acquaint you personally with the charter and spirit of this program. The purpose of our presence on the African continent was defined by Leopold Ii: To open the backward countries to European civilization, summon their populations to emancipation, to freedom and to progress after having freed them from slavery, disease and misery, continuing these lofty aims, our firm resolution, today is to lead the Congolese people without harmful procrastination, but also without thoughtless haste toward independence, in prosperity and peace."
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Conflict in the Congo, Africa Today Vol. 7, No. 5 (Sep., 1960) Indiana University Press. Exerpt from the Statement by King Baudouin on January 13, 1959 after severe riots in Leopoldville (today Kinshasa) addressing the Congolese nation by radio, declaring that Belgium would work towards the full independence of the Belgian Congo.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baudouin_of_Belgium
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Baudouin of Belgium
1901 – 1983
Baudouin, 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993) was King of the Belgians from 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the last Belgian king to be sovereign of the Congo. Baudouin was the elder son of King Leopold III (1901–1983) and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905–1935). Because he and his wife, Queen Fabiola, had no children, at Baudouin's death the crown passed to his younger brother, King Albert II.
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