Maravi

50 fighting years for the DRC

50 fighting years for the DRC
By Editor
Wed 30 June 2010, 04:00 CAT

Today, on June 30, 2010, the Democratic Republic of Congo is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgian rule. On this day, many thoughts go through our heads. We reflect on the history of this country and its great people. And many names come to mind, especially that of Patrice Lumumba.

In the second half of the 19th century, the territory of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo was one of the areas least explored and known by Europeans. It was inhabited by more than 300 tribes, who spoke many languages and dialects, who had settled on its 2,345,000 square kilometers in the course of 2,000 years of immigration, internal displacements, wars and integration.

The Europeans were well aware that this immense basin of the Congo River had been an endless source of slaves. Several million Congolese were sent across the Atlantic ocean to Brazil and other parts of the new world starting in the 16th century and continuing up to the middle of the 19th century. In addition, Arab slave traders sent millions of slaves from the Congo to other parts of the world.

Naturally, the Congolese didn’t surrender meekly to their captors, but provided resistance with their primitive weapons: lances and arrows. It is estimated that for every slave who reached the end of the journey, at least another died on the way and a third was killed fighting against the slave hunters.

In the era when slavery proved uneconomical and was cast aside by a European bourgeoisie in full development and enrichment, fewer inhabitants were left in this martyred region of central Africa than there had been when the slave trade to the Americas had begun, centuries before.

The western powers began the exploitation and conquest of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1870 and 1890.

At the Berlin conference (1884-85), in which the European colonial powers carved up Africa, the Belgian sovereign managed, with the support of the United States, to get the territory which they had earlier contracted recognised in the minutes as the Congo Free State, the personal property of Leopold II.

Leopold II went down in history as one of the cruellest, most rapacious colonialists ever known. In 1888, he created a Force Publique, commanded by Belgian officers, whose soldiers were Africans whose induction was compulsory and who were turned into the executioners of their brothers. The soldiers of the Force Publique didn’t work in their regions of origin. Thus, their carrying out the draconian orders of their officers exacerbated inter-tribal rivalries.

On November 15, 1908, one year before the death of Leopold II, under his will and by resolution of the Brussels Legislature, the Congo Free State became a colony of Belgium. This was in payment for the king’s debt of 25 million francs to the national treasury.

In 1956, the year when the first Congolese obtained a university degree, while 90 per cent of the population was illiterate, the word “independence” was spoken in public for the first time by a Congolese Joseph Kasavubu – head of the Bakongo tribe and a frustrated student of theology – while addressing a huge crowd. However, Kasavubu was referring to only a part of his country, the Lower Congo, with the illusory project of joining it to the French Congo and to northern Angola and Cabinda. All of this was with the intention of rebuilding the former Kingdom of the Congo.

In June 1957, an amazing event took place: serious disorders broke out in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) for the first time in over 70 years. It was set off by a Belgian ruling considered anything but impartial in a soccer game between Belgian and Congolese teams. The Force Publique controlled the situation, using its usual ruthless methods.

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle, President of France, travelled to Africa, publicising his country’s plan for granting independence to its colonies, which was done in 1960. He made the announcement in a meeting held in August that was broadcast over Radio Brazzaville, a city within sight of Leopoldville, on the other side of the Congo River. Many families belonging to the Bakongo and Laris tribes lived in both cities. To some extent, the cities were but two halves of a single unit, where French and the African languages were spoken. Obviously, the announcement of French decolonisation had a tremendous impact on the local population of Leopoldville and all of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In December 1958, representing the recently-created Congo National Movement, Lumumba took part in the African Conference of Accra, which had been called by Kwame Nkrumah. The Congo National Movement was influential throughout the country, but its main strength was in the northeastern province and Stanleyville, now Kisangani, its capital. On his return, Lumumba gave a fiery pro-independence speech before a large crowd in Leopoldville.

There was a new and larger outbreak of violence in Leopoldville on January 4, 1959, this time anti-colonial in nature, protesting the banning of a meeting of Kasavubu’s Bakongo Abako party. The violence lasted for three days, in the course of which entire blocks were burnt and turned into ashes. The Force Publique bloodily repressed the uprising, with official figures stating that 42 people were killed and 250 wounded.

In view of that explosive situation, young King Baudouin quickly announced in Brussels that he would “lead the Congolese to independence in prosperity and peace”. The Belgian businesses and settlers, the Force Publique and the most reactionary circles managed to halt the king’s precipitate announcement in Brussels and turn it into a deferred and imprecise plan to be carried out in stages of at least four years.

In a fiery speech responding to this affront, Lumumba announced that, “The divorce between Belgium and the Congo is definitive. The Belgians don’t even want to study our proposals. Therefore, today, I am launching a decisive plan of action for the liberation of the Congo. It is better to die than to put up with a regime of servitude any longer. We must win our independence.”

Uprising broke out again, this time in several parts of the country. The repression was brutal, with thousands of dead and wounded. In the midst of Belgian-Congolese confrontation, bloody clashes broke out between tribes, and secessionist initiatives were proposed.

Kasavubu and Kanza sought the independence and separation of the Lower Congo, most of whose population were of the Bakongo ethnic group. It included Leopoldville. In Katanga, Moise Tshombe, a wealthy merchant, and Godefroid Munongo sought the secession of the great south-eastern mining centre. Jean Bolikango, in the northern region of Equateur, and Albert Kalonji, in Sud Kasai, were other separatist leaders.

Lumumba and his Congo National Movement spoke out for immediate and full independence and the unity of the Congo. From his bastion in Stanleyville, Lumumba led the people’s protests against the colonialist delays. As a result, he was captured and imprisoned.

In January 1960, Belgium was forced to call a meeting of the most prominent Congolese leaders. The representatives of the diverse political currents and regions of the country who participated demanded that Lumumba be freed so that he could take part in the Brussels conclave. And because of his talent, tact and firm adherence to principles, Lumumba had become the guiding force of the Congolese nationalists.

The date of independence was set for June 30, 1960, preceded by an election in May to elect the members of six provincial assemblies and of the bicameral national parliament , to serve for three-year terms. The members of parliament were to appoint the head of state and prime minister, who would be in charge of forming the government of the Republic of the Congo, according to the provisional constitution decreed by the Belgian parliament. Dozens of political parties took part in the election. The Congo National Movement obtained the most deputies in both chambers and Lumumba set about creating a government representing all the parties, ethnic groups and regions, which would work for the required unity of a country obtaining its independence. It was an immense task, but he achieved it. Lumumba, as the leader of the Congo National Movement, became head of government and minister of national defence. Kasavubu, the leader of the Abako, was head of state.

The first clash with the colonialists, seeking to play a new colonial role, took place during the ceremony proclaiming the country’s independence. King Baudouin gave a speech praising Belgium’s civilising work in the Congo, its generous concession of independence and the ties of friendship that united the two peoples. He eulogised Leopold II, his father’s great-uncle. Lumumba’s response was not diplomatic, but an angry expression of the Congolese people’s feelings. Among other things, Lumumba said: “While it is true that we are now proclaiming our independence in agreement with Belgium – a friendly country with which we are now equals – it is also true that no Congolese worth of the name can forget that independence has been won through daily struggle. It has been an impassioned struggle, in which we have spared no forces, sufferings, sacrifices or blood…who can forget the bullets that have killed so many of our brothers or the cells into which those who didn’t want to submit to a regime of oppression, exploitation and injustice – the tool of colonialist rule – were cast? In short, I ask that the lives and property of our fellow citizens and foreigners residing in our country be respected unconditionally. If the conduct of any of them leaves something to be desired, our justice will result in their expulsion from the territory of the Republic; if their conduct is good, they will be left in peace, because they, too, work for the country’s prosperity.”

Lumumba wound up his reply by saying, “Thus, both inside the country and abroad, the new and independent Congo will, with my government, advance toward wealth, freedom and prosperity.”

If the Belgian colonialists and their NATO allies had harboured any hopes of breaking the will of the leader of full independence for the Congo, Lumumba’s history-making speech put paid to all that.

This position of Lumumba led to an imperialist conspiracy to topple and assassinate him. And since his death, the Congolese people have known no real or meaningful independence. And to this very day, they are still struggling to gain full control of their country and its resources that are being exploited by all sorts of unscrupulous characters.

This is a short historical background to the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose 50th anniversary we today mark. It has been 50 years of continuous struggle against exploitation, repression, marginalisation, abuse and all sorts of injustices against the Congolese people. To overcome these challenges and problems, the Democratic Republic of Congo requires leaders who see farther and who are selective; self-sacrificing leaders with prestige. These have to be created because they don’t seem to exist now in the required numbers. The sooner self-sacrificing, capable leaders arise, the sooner the many challenges and problems facing the Congolese people will be overcome. We believe that someday the Congo will have reached the final stretch leading to the overcoming of her challenges and problems. And the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo will, one way or another, free themselves from their current challenges and problems.

This is what this 50th anniversary brings to our minds. And on this day, we wish the Congolese people and their leaders all the best. All we can say is aluta continua – the struggle continues!

Labels: COLONIALISM, DRC, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 6:10 AM