Democratic Republic of the Congo

B

1

King Leopold’s State

Upon his return to Europe, Stanley petitioned the British government to colonize the region, but he was refused. However, King Leopold II of Belgium engaged Stanley to return to the Congo to set up trading stations and establish relations with the native chiefs. This territorial acquisition was pursued under the guise of an ostensibly philanthropic organization, created and controlled by Leopold, with the stated purpose of promoting the exploration and “civilization” of Central Africa in order to end the slave trade. Stanley founded a number of posts, including Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), and secured for Leopold the rights to extensive regions bordering the Congo River.

Conflicting territorial claims advanced by various nations, notably Portugal and France, around the mouth of the Congo led in 1884 to the Berlin West Africa Conference. The conference, which was attended by representatives of all European powers with colonial interests in Africa, outlawed the slave trade and established rules for the division of the continent of Africa among them. Leopold’s personal sovereignty over the region, now called the Congo Free State, was recognized in 1885.

Leopold quickly occupied his territory with Belgian soldiers and traders and commissioned the construction of railways around unnavigable sections of the Congo River. According to agreements reached at the Berlin conference, the Congo Free State was to be open to the trade of all nations. After Leopold laid claim to all the ivory and rubber trees in the Congo in the early 1890s, however, there was little else for any nation to trade. Rubber proved to be the most lucrative product in the Congo. Starting in the early 1890s, Congolese people were systematically forced to collect rubber as the only means of paying new taxes levied on them. Ironically, in the same period that this system of virtual slavery was imposed by the colonists, the Belgian colonial army, the Force Publique, destroyed the Zanzibari slave trade in the eastern Congo. The violent suppression of the slave trade and the new system of forced labor caused severe hardships in the region. As colonial rule was asserted, minor local uprisings were quelled, including three mutinies by Congolese members of the Force Publique.

B

2

Belgian Congo

In the first decade of the 20th century, the administration of the Congo Free State became increasingly oppressive in its exploitation of Congolese workers, and word of the exploitation led to international protest. Reports by British diplomat Roger David Casement and journalist E. D. Morel publicized the lack of development in the Congo and the regular use of torture by Leopold’s rubber collection agents. Public opinion forced Leopold to establish a commission of inquiry in 1904. The commission revealed that the Congolese were victims of a slave labor system and other human rights abuses. The king instituted certain reforms, but these proved ineffective. As a result, in 1908 the Belgian parliament voted to annex the Congo Free State, making it a colony that became known as the Belgian Congo. While the most unfair labor practices were eliminated, most Congolese people fared little better under the new administration.

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During World War I (1914-1918) Congolese troops aided the Allied cause in Africa, conquering the German territory of Ruanda-Urundi (now Rwanda and Burundi). After the war Belgian colonialism changed greatly. Labor practices were liberalized, and schools and hospitals were established. The standard of living rose significantly. However, the Belgian colonial attitude toward the Congolese remained extremely paternalistic. The Africans were treated like children, disciplined when judged to behave disobediently or immorally, and taught to abandon traditional lifestyles in favor of laboring on colonists’ farms. In addition, the Congolese were not taught modern technical or administrative skills.

Substantial industrialization and urbanization took place in the colony during World War II (1939-1945). This process was particularly marked in the uranium, copper, palm oil, and rubber industries. Uranium from the Congo was used to develop the first atomic weapons. During the postwar years, industrial productivity increased, and a limited series of reforms, designed to prepare the Congolese for eventual self-government, was initiated. Africans were allowed to own land, and a very small number of Africans, under extremely subjective criteria, were officially recognized as having the same legal status as white colonists. Municipal council elections, the first ever for the Congolese, were scheduled for December 1957. The Belgian government believed these reforms would be the first step in a prolonged, gradual movement toward Congolese autonomy. However, the social and cultural effects of colonialism and rapid modernization had left the colony unbalanced economically and inexperienced politically.

In the December elections, Congolese Africans won 130 of 170 local municipal council seats. Political parties, which were not permitted in these elections, were allowed to operate only after violent nationalist riots in Léopoldville in January 1959. As political parties quickly sprouted across the colony, the Belgian government announced a schedule for national elections, which were to inaugurate limited autonomy. But a congress of leading nationalist parties insisted upon immediate full independence. The two principal parties were the Abako (Bakongo Alliance), led by Joseph Kasavubu, and the Congolese National Movement, led by militant nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Belgium, faced with rapidly escalating tensions and nationalist unrest, agreed to relinquish the unprepared colony. In preindependence elections in May 1960 some 40 parties presented candidates. Lumumba’s Congolese National Movement showed the greatest strength, followed by Abako. By agreement between the two leading parties, Lumumba became prime minister, and Kasavubu became president. The independent Republic of the Congo was proclaimed in Léopoldville on June 30, 1960.

C

Postindependence Turmoil

Violent disorders—stemming from ethnic disputes, the disappointment of the parties excluded from power, and a revolt of Congolese armed forces—began within a week of independence. With the intention of restoring order and protecting Europeans, Belgium mobilized its forces still in the Congo and flew additional troops into the country, despite Lumumba’s objections. The military action, interpreted as an attempt to reimpose Belgian authority, provoked even greater violence against Europeans. Virtually all remaining Europeans fled, leaving the new country without administrators, professionals, and technicians.

C

1

Secession of Katanga

The political scene in the Congo was further complicated in July when Moise Tshombe, the Belgian-supported premier of mineral-rich Katanga Province, proclaimed Katanga to be an independent country. In response to an appeal from Prime Minister Lumumba, the United Nations (UN) Security Council demanded that Belgian forces withdraw, and it authorized Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld to send a peacekeeping force to the Congo to restore order. The UN force, comprising units from African countries, Sweden, and Ireland, gradually began to replace Belgian troops. When the Security Council ruled that no UN forces should be used to affect the outcome of any internal conflict in the province, Tshombe permitted UN troops to enter Katanga. Disappointed by the UN’s refusal to use force to put down the secession, Lumumba then requested military assistance from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This caused Western nations to view Lumumba as a Communist sympathizer, and opposition to his rule increased both inside and outside the Congo.

In early September, President Kasavubu, with Western support, turned against Lumumba and dismissed him, replacing him with Joseph Ileo (later called Sombo Amba Ileo). Lumumba rejected the legality of the dismissal and in turn dismissed Kasavubu. The Congolese government was deadlocked. On September 13 the UN forces gave up control of the airports and radio station to Lumumba. However, the next day the Congolese army—led by army chief of staff Colonel Joseph Désireé Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko)—seized control of the government. While maintaining Kasavubu as president, Mobutu transferred executive and administrative authority to a caretaker government, the College of High Commissioners. Lumumba was placed under house arrest.

In December 1960 Antoine Gizenga, former deputy prime minister in Lumumba’s government, proclaimed himself prime minister and designated Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as the capital of the Congo. Over the next months his government was recognized by most Communist and Arab nations and by Ghana, and the USSR began sending arms and advisers. In January 1961 pro-Lumumba soldiers invaded northern Katanga, and the UN sent troops there to prevent civil war. Meanwhile, Lumumba was captured while escaping his UN-guarded villa in Léopoldville to join his supporters in Stanleyville. On Mobutu’s orders, he was flown to Katanga, where troops loyal to Tshombe murdered him on arrival on January 17, 1961. Lumumba subsequently became a national hero and an inspiration for African nationalists and leftists. In February 1961, with Mobutu’s assent, Kasavubu replaced Mobutu’s caretaker government with a new provisional government headed by Ileo as prime minister.

C

2

UN Peace Efforts

In February 1961 the Security Council authorized the UN to use force to prevent civil war in the Congo, and it demanded withdrawal of all foreign military personnel not under UN command. Opposing the council decision and hoping to forestall further UN intervention, 18 leaders of Congolese factions (not including Gizenga) agreed in March to abolish the central government in favor of a confederation of sovereign states. At a later meeting convened in April, Tshombe withdrew his cooperation. Arrested and charged with treason, he secured his release by agreeing to dismiss all foreign advisers and military forces in Katanga. However, on his return to Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), in Katanga, Tshombe reneged on his agreement. The UN force in the Congo launched limited military action against Tshombe’s forces in September and again in December. While trying to arrange a cease-fire between UN and Katangan forces in September, Secretary-General Hammarskjöld was killed under mysterious circumstances in an airplane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Meanwhile, Gizenga agreed to join the central government after the new prime minister, Cyrille Adoula, promised to follow the policies of Lumumba. Gizenga was made vice prime minister, but he was removed from his post in January 1962 for defying a parliamentary resolution that he go to Léopoldville to face secession charges.

During the first half of 1962 Tshombe held intermittent talks with Adoula, but the two leaders failed to resolve the Katanga conflict. To compel Tshombe to come to terms, acting UN secretary general U Thant proposed a three-stage plan for ending Katanga’s secession. Tshombe announced his acceptance of the plan but made little effort to implement it. Adoula demanded that the plan be put into effect, by force if necessary. In December UN forces moved decisively against Katanga and gained control of Elisabethville. Tshombe, fleeing before UN troops, established his last stronghold at Kolwezi. On January 15, 1963, he surrendered to integration demands and was promised amnesty for himself and his followers. A few months later, Adoula formed a new cabinet, which included Katangan representatives and gave strongest representation to the Lumumbist party. However, Adoula dissolved the parliament in September 1963. Several key Lumumbist figures turned against Adoula, fled to the east, and plotted revolutions. Strikes and rebellions flared across the country. In June 1964 Adoula resigned as prime minister and was replaced in July by Tshombe. A new constitution was adopted in August 1964. This constitution created new, smaller administrative units and defined the country as a confederation, giving the units a higher degree of autonomy. At the same time, the country was also renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Then, in August, Stanleyville fell to Lumumbist rebels. After government troops, aided by European mercenaries, began a drive to recapture the city, the rebels threatened to kill Europeans and Americans being held hostage. On November 24, Belgian paratroops, carried in U.S. aircraft, landed in Stanleyville and, together with Congolese troops, recaptured the city. Also in 1964 Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the future Congolese president, led another Lumumbist rebellion, in the eastern province of Kivu. (Kabila later founded the People’s Revolutionary Party [PRP]), which in 1967 established a short-lived rebel state in the mountains west of Lake Tanganyika.)

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