"Belgium has partially failed in its role as guardian. While the French and British took their duty to safely channel the urge for independence that arose after the Second World War, we remained passive. Hence the not entirely unfounded doubt and fear of letting the pupil walk on his own two feet now. A Congolese nation never existed. Once upon a time there was an old kingdom of Congo, but the borders of that negro kingdom did not coincide with those of “our” Congo. The whites have done little or nothing, beyond the strong tribal consciousness, to create a general Congolese mentality, a Congolese sense of nationality. What we still call Belgian Africa today is a construction of the whites, a conglomerate of very different areas and peoples, put together as it was customary in the days of the colonial touts around the green conference tables of Wiesbaden and Berlin."