A Different Congo - a short TL

Hey y'all. I've been away for quite a while (studies, writer's block), but I'm back and with a short TL just to get back in the game.

Note: this is just a prologue. The PoD will be revealed in chapter 1 ;).

A Different Congo



Prologue: the Road to Independence, 1950-1960.

The Belgian Congo gained its independence in 1960. The process started in the 1950s with the formation of political organisations by the Congolese, most of which were ethnically and/or tribally based (except for the National Congolese Movement or MNC, Mouvement National Congolais, of Patrice Lumumba) which in part laid the basis for future internal conflict.

The largest of the indigenous Congolese parties springing up from the 1950s onward was the Association des Bakongo or ABAKO, founded in 1950, which was an ethnic association that promoted the interests and language of the Bakongo (or Kongo) people, as well as Bakongo-related ethnic groups. Joseph Kasa-Vubu and his ABAKO organisation stood at the forefront of ever increasing insistent demands for both independence and federalism. Other less successful ethnic associations included the Liboke lya Bangala that defended the interests of the Bangala speaking people living in the northeast of the Congo near Sudan and Uganda, the latter still a British colony at the time. Another major ethnically based party was the Fédékaléo which represented people from the Kasai region, but later split into several groupings. Though these organizations represented ethnic groups from all over the Congo, they usually based themselves in the colonial capital of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), since one reason for their existence was the need to maintain ethnic ties after the mass migration to urban areas.

Another source of political groupings was the various Alumni Associations whose members were mostly former students of Belgian Christian schools in the Congo. Most of the major politicians of the period were Alumni members, and the associations were used to create networks of advisors and supporters.

The third group of political tributaries were the Cercles (coteries or groups) which were the urban associations that sprang up in the cities of the Congo, which were designed to foster solidarity amongst the évolués, the educated and westernized Congolese middle class that enjoyed privileges other Congolese did not although they remained subservient to the Belgians. In the words of Patrice Lumumba, the head of the Cercles of Stanleyville (now Kisangani), the Cercles were created to “improve intellectual, social, moral and physical formation" of the évolués”. In 1958, together with Joseph Ileo and Cyrille Adoula, of which the former was the author of the “Manifesto of the African Consciousness” (Manifeste de la Conscience Africaine), Lumumba founded the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC), a national independence party intended to be non-tribal.

Belgium came under foreign pressure, including pressure from both the US and the Soviet Union, from the early 1950s to grant the Belgian Congo its independence as it had ratified UN Resolution 73 which advocated the right to self-determination. Therefore Belgian professor A.J. van Bilsen created the “Thirty Year Plan for the Political Emancipation of Belgian Africa”, assuming it would take that long to establish an educated elite to replace the Belgian administrators. The Belgian government and many of the évolués were suspicious of the plan – the former because it meant eventually giving up the Congo, and the latter because Belgium would still be ruling Congo for another three decades. A group of Catholic évolués responded positively to the plan with a manifesto in a Congolese journal called Conscience Africaine, with their only point of disagreement being the amount of native Congolese participation. The ABAKO party, one of the largest political parties, rejected the plan as the Congolese that supported it weren’t of Bakongo ethnicity. This plan was never made official and, moreover, all early political efforts were hampered because Belgium had made no plans for Congolese independence. There were only nine university degree holders and there were no Congolese in the entire Force Publique, the colonial army, with a rank higher than that of sergeant.

The Belgian Congo was rife with unrest and this exploded in the 1959 Stanleyville Riots. ABAKO had gathered steam over the preceding few years by consolidating political control over much of the lower Congo and Leopoldville. By early 1959, much of the lower Congo was beyond the control of the colonial authorities. The Belgians forbade ABAKO from meeting and this caused widespread rioting in the colonial capital from January 4th to January 7th 1959 during which 34 Congolese perished. On January 12th Kasa-Vubu was arrested and the Belgians stated that he would be released on March 13th.

Subsequently, the Belgian government announced constitutional reform that was to increase Congolese participation in the colonial government, but only in an advisory capacity. They also indicated that the end result of the process would eventually be independence. The Belgians hoped this would satisfy the demands of the more moderate Congolese for inclusion in the political process while simultaneously neutralizing the more extreme Congolese nationalists with the promise of eventual independence. The end result was the opposite of what was intended, namely an upsurge of political activity: over fifty political parties were registered, nearly all of them based on tribal groups. Nationalist demands grew more extreme as parties competed with each other. There was further rioting, during which 24 people were killed, in Stanleyville on October 31st 1959 after Patrice Lumumba was arrested following a meeting of the MNC.

Lumumba had humble beginnings and little indicated he would lead one of the largest countries of Africa. He was born in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province on July 2nd 1925 and he was a member of the Tetela ethnic group. Raised in a Catholic family as one of four sons, he was educated at a Protestant primary school, a Catholic missionary school, and finally the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. He subsequently worked in Leopoldville and Stanleyville as a postal clerk and as a travelling beer salesman. In 1951, he married Pauline Opangu and in 1955, Lumumba became regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he worked on editing and distributing party literature. After travelling on a three-week study tour in Belgium, he was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzlement. His two-year sentence was commuted to twelve months after it was confirmed by Belgian lawyer Jules Chrome that Lumumba had returned the funds, and he was released in July 1956. This gave him the opportunity to found the MNC as described above, later becoming the organization's president.

Lumumba and his team represented the MNC at the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by influential Pan-African President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Lumumba further solidified his Pan-Africanist beliefs. He could not have foreseen at the time how rapid the developments would be in immediate future, leading to independence of the country in two years time to everyone’s amazement.
 
This...

Looks...

AWESOME!

Can't wait to see more. Are we going to have Patrice Lumumba stay on as head of Congo or will we still have Joe Mobutu just as in OTL?

And what about the infamous 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman?
 
Chapter I: Independence, the Congo Crisis and the Escape of Lumumba, January 1960-January 1961.


Faced with the loss of control in their colony, the Belgians organised the Roundtable Conference in Brussels in January 1960, desperate as they were to avoid a colonial war like the one in Algeria the French were embroiled in. The Belgians initially wanted a three to four year transitory period, but the Congolese delegation insisted on immediate independence and would only accept a delay of a few months at most. They got what they wished for, for better or for worse.

After the May 22nd elections, a government with ABAKO leader Joseph Kasa-Vubu as President and MNC leader Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister was formed. The independence ceremony on June 30th was a public relations disaster: in a paternalistic speech King Baudouin referring to the “genius” of his ancestor Leopold II who first colonized the Congo and urged the Congolese not to “abolish Belgian institutions unless they were sure they could do better”, it was an affront to the Congolese; in turn, Lumumba, who wasn’t on the program despite being the Prime Minister, cited the eighty-year-long oppression and exploitation of the Congolese population, resulting in the deaths of millions and the humiliation of the Congolese people as a whole, in a speech considered inappropriate by Western leaders which earned him plaudits from the audience, to the embarrassment of the Belgian king and his entourage who briefly considered skipping the rest of the ceremonies and flying straight back to Belgium.

Almost immediately after independence, the soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the Congolese army mutinied because Lumumba raised salaries for all government employees except for the military. Another grievance was that all officers and senior NCOs were Belgians, keeping Congolese soldiers from being promoted past the rank of sergeant; the commander of the Force Publique was General Émile Janssens and he was not the most diplomatic of men: in an attempt to remind the soldiers of their oaths of loyalty and obedience, he wrote on a blackboard, “after independence = before independence.” This was not a message the rank and file members of the army were prepared to hear. By the end of the day the garrison had mutinied against its white officers and attacked numerous European targets.

This led to an intervention into Congo by Belgian forces in an ostensible effort to secure the safety of its citizens. Whilst the danger to Belgian citizens and other foreigners was real, the intervention of these forces violated the sovereignty of the new nation, as it had not asked for Belgian assistance. In an attempt to conciliate the soldiers, the Congolese government decided to “Africanize” the army by promoting all personnel one rank and changing its name to Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC). The flight of officers left the 25.000 man force still armed but totally uncontrolled. This left the new country without an effective instrument of central control and was an important causative factor in the rapid descent of the country into chaos.

On July 11th 1960, with the support of Belgian business interests and over 6.000 Belgian soldiers, the south-eastern province of Katanga declared independence as the State of Katanga under the leadership of Moise Tshombe, leader of the local CONAKAT party. Tshombe was known to be close to the Belgian industrial companies which mined the rich resources of uranium (which had contributed to the Manhattan Project), copper and gold. Katanga was one of the richest and most developed areas of the Congo and without it, Congo would lose a large part of its mineral assets and thereby government income. Katanga was supported by Belgium, European mercenaries (most of them from Belgium) and by South Africa.

The South Kasai region sought independence in similar circumstances to neighbouring Katanga. Ethnic conflicts and political tensions between leaders of the central government and local leaders plagued the diamond-rich region and communal violence between the Baluba and Lulua erupted on October 11th 1959 in Luluabourg. The colonial administration responded by lending its support to reconciliation talks at LakeMunkamba. These ended in January 1960 with a call for all Luba peoples scattered throughout the Congo to be repatriated to Kasai. On June 14th 1960, days before the colony was to become formally independent, officials declared the independence of Kasai (not of Congo) and proclaimed the Federal State of South Kasai. Lumumba appointed Barthelemy Mukenge, a Lulua, as governor, appearing to favour one side in the conflict. On August 8th 1960, the autonomous Mining State of South Kasai was finally proclaimed with its capital at Bakwanga. Albert Kalonji, a Luba chief, was named president of South Kasai to later become the monarch of the unrecognised country, and Joseph Ngalula was appointed head of government.

In July 1960 the United Nations intervened after passing Resolution 143, though the ONUC (United Nations Operation in the Congo) was not allowed to use force. Dissatisfied with the passive attitude of UN forces, Lumumba, who was eager to deal with the two renegade provinces, made true on his threat to request for Soviet military assistance. While Lumumba had clearly stated he wasn’t a communist, the United States saw this as a classic communist takeover similar to the one that had occurred in Cuba just a year beforehand. The CIA subsequently supported Kasa-Vubu and Mobutu in their efforts to get rid of Lumumba.

On September 5th 1960, President Joseph Kasa-Vubu dismissed Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and announced the decision via the radio station of Leopoldville. In his place, he appointed Joseph Ileo who was a respected moderate, in stark contrast to Lumumba who was now considered to be a communist despite stating that he was neither communist nor capitalist but a pan-African nationalists; in the dualistic view of the world held by the two sides in the Cold War, there was no room for such distinctions and one was therefore either pro-Western or pro-Soviet. Lumumba refused to accept his dismissal and in turn announced over the radio, that Kasa-Vubu was deposed, thereby completing the chaos the country was in as no-one now knew who to listen to. Ileo tried to form a new government but did not manage to get his new government approved by parliament while, in a stark contrast, Lumumba's position was confirmed by a parliamentary vote of confidence. In order to instil calm, the UN closed all Congolese airports that they held by means of the radio station in Leopoldville, thereby halting the Soviet supported airlift of Congolese troops to Kasai. Kasa-Vubu was able to continue broadcasts from Brazzaville across the border and made a further announcement on September 10th that the Lumumba government was dissolved.

On September 12th, forces loyal to the Chief of Staff of the Army, Joseph Mobutu, placed Lumumba under house arrest at the Prime Minister's residence, the former governor’s residence and on September 14th, with the CIA’s assistance, Mobutu seized power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution. Mobutu declared Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu to be “neutralised”, though leaving the latter in office. All Soviet advisors were ordered to leave. Lumumba was again placed under house arrest, but this time with a guard of UN troops for his protection.

After the dismissal of Lumumba, his Vice Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga set up a rival government in the eastern city of Stanleyville with the help of pro-Lumumba forces. On November 27th, in the pouring rain, a Chevrolet left the residence of the Prime Minister and drove through the encircling cordon of soldiers to take his servants back home, as usual. This time, however, Lumumba was lying pressed behind the front seats underneath the legs of those sitting in the rear. In the poor weather, the ANC guard was even less thorough than usual in inspecting the car and thusly allowed Lumumba to escape Leopoldville. He left the car for safety reasons at the Astoria Hotel and got into a Guinean embassy car driven by an official and a column of three cars formed: a Fiat carried Lumumba himself and his wife and son; a blue Peugeot carried Akunda, former head of Mpolo’s cabinet, and Wingudi, the Prime Minister’s administrative secretary; the third car was the Chevrolet with Lumumba’s servants in it.

Lumumba successfully crossed the SankuruRiver which was the last major obstacle, and on the other side a solidly nationalist support base was waiting to greet him enthusiastically. He reached the Lumumbist-nationalist bastion of Stanleyville, where his supporters eagerly awaited him, on December 6th and together with Gizenga he formed a rival government there which was pretty much the horror scenario of the Americans because, as expressed by US ambassador Timberlake, it was feared in Washington DC that the charismatic leader with his large support base would be able to regain control over the central government from there.

The country was now de facto controlled by four different regimes: the Lumumba-Gizenga government based on Stanleyville, the weak Kasa-Vubu government in Leopoldville supported by Chief of Staff Mobutu, and independent Katanga and South Kasai. The conflict soon escalated with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev blocking resolutions in the UN Security Council that were phrased in a way that explicitly or implicitly didn’t recognise the Lumumba-Gizenga government based in Stanleyville as the official government. As far as the Soviets were concerned, the deposition of Lumumba by Kasa-Vubu had no legal bearing considering the largely figurehead role of the President whereas the function of Prime Minister wielded actual power. Kennedy, on the other hand, argued for a completely new government to be formed.

In the fragmented Congo, Lumumba now controlled the eastern Orientale province, Kivu province, eastern Kasai and northern Katanga which have him control of roughly 44% of the populace while Mobutu, after his coup, suspension of the constitution and his declaration that Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu were neutralized, controlled the two more developed western provinces, Équateur and Léopoldville, and thereby 47% of the populace. The third and fourth parties in this de facto civil war were the State of Katanga and South Kasai with the remaining 9% of the populace between them, with the former also in control of the country’s mining assets.

The events in the Republic of Congo, mainly the successful escape of Lumumba and his establishment of a government in the eastern part of the country which could count on a broad base of popular support, inspired events elsewhere. Fulbert Youlou ruled as the the first president of the Republic of the Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville, not to be confused with Congo-Kinshasa, the official name of which was practically the same), but leftist labour elements and rival political parties, inspired by the events taking place in their eastern neighbour of the same name, instigated an uprising that ousted him in January 1961. The military of Congo-Brazzaville took charge of the country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government headed by Alphonse Massamba-Débat who, as head of the National Revolutionary Council, became Prime Minister. The country adopted “scientific socialism” as its official ideology and established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea and North Vietnam. The need to do something was clear to all in the Kennedy Administration.
 
I've recently been writing a Congo timeline as well. It's such a colourful part of history that it's a shame not many have thought of exploring it before. The key positions in Lumumba's government were occupied by people from over 10 different political organisations so it's no wonder they turned on each other quickly enough. Interested to see where you take it.
 
Very cool. Taking down Lumumba is now going to be Job One for the United States, meaning that some of the pressure will be taken off the other separatist regions. The Belgians will have a chance to consolidate their fiefdom in Katanga, and the Luba will have some breathing space to establish facts on the ground. If Katanga and Kasai are loudly and publicly anti-communist - and at least the former probably will be - they might be left alone for some time.

The military advantage should be with Mobutu. The United States will be arming him to the hilt, whereas the Soviets can't do much to help Lumumba even if they want to - Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia were still British at this point, Sudan was under an anti-communist military government, and the Congo Republic doesn't border any of the provinces that Lumumba and Gizenga control. On the other hand, Mobutu's control of the west might not be very firm - Gizenga is from Bandundu, which was part of Léopoldville province at the time, and will have widespread support there.

Another potential flashpoint is the UN mission. In OTL, Lumumba's assassination triggered the authorization for ONUC to use force. That won't happen here, but the United States will put pressure on the UN troops to act against Lumumba. Assuming that Kennedy can catch the Soviets napping, he could push through a resolution authorizing the UN force to restore government control over all the separatist regions (although in practical terms, Lumumba would be the first target). If the UN's first military mission in Africa gets hijacked for neo-colonial ends, that could tarnish the UN in the eyes of all Africans. In a worst-case scenario, Western leftists will volunteer to fight for Lumumba in the style of the Lincoln Brigades, and clash with the US-backed United Nations troops.

This could become a serious mess, although you already knew that.
 

abc123

Banned
Tje main problem is: who is the legitimate government of Congo? For USA that's Mobutu, for Soviets ( and the rest of the world ) that's Lumumba, for Belgians nobody ( and support to Katanga & Kasai ) etc.
So I really don't see any UN brokered agreement here...
 
The Soviets can veto a UN intervention if I'm not mistaken.

Chapter II: The Congolese Civil War, 1961-1969.

The events in central Africa convinced Kennedy to support Mobutu, while at the same time trying to initiate talks via diplomatic meanders: the two main parties in the Congolese Civil War did not recognise each other, while their superpower patrons didn’t recognise the regime that wasn’t on their side; subsequently, the two sides negotiated via the two governments’ embassies in Berlin, the Leopoldville government having established an embassy in West Berlin while the Stanleyville government had its diplomatic representation in East Berlin. Kennedy, while supporting the Leopoldville government, was adamant about not getting involved directly with boots on the ground because the United States was stepping up its military activities halfway across the globe in Vietnam. That fitted neatly with Khrushchev’s desire to keep Congo from becoming a flashpoint in the Cold War, knowing the limitations of his strategic nuclear forces compared to those of the United States.

Kennedy supported the Mobutu regime with generous funding, starting with a $100 million dollar loan, and equipment such as M48 Patton medium tanks and later also with the M60 first generation main battle tanks, F-4 Phantom II jetfighters, M16 rifles and bazookas and Belgium, as per Kennedy’s desire to avoid direct US intervention, sent trainers to help discipline and organise the ANC.

The Soviets did the same for the Lumumba-Gizenga government and they also did this indirectly, using their puppet state Czechoslovakia to send trainers, weapons and technical assistance. Prague complied, doing so via Congo-Brazzaville (Mobutu’s hold over Leopoldville province wasn’t water tight because Gizenga was from there and had support there) that was now pro-communist, and through newly independent Tanganyika from late 1961. Lumumbist forces were equipped with T-55 tanks and later also the newest T-62 tanks, MiG-21 jetfighters, AK-47 assault rifles and RPG-7 shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket propelled grenades. The revolutionary AlgerianFront de Libération Nationale or FLN and Cuban leader Fidel Castro by way of the revolutionary, guerrilla leader and military theorist Che Guevara also sent support to the Lumumba-Gizenga government as proxies of the USSR. The Soviet Union also directly financed the government in Stanleyville, starting with an initial $100 million dollar endowment, allowing it to set up an administrative apparatus and enabling it to fund its army and said army’s campaigns.

Hereby, the two sides dug in and the Congo became the site of another proxy war between the Soviet Union and the United States, though it would be more than support from the superpowers that would determine the outcome.

Lumumba, charismatic leader that he was, didn’t find it difficult to drum up support for his cause, denouncing both the Leopoldville government and Katanga as imperialist and neo-colonial ploys, stating upon properly installing his government in Stanleyville by way of inaugural speech: “Leopoldville and Katanga are but extensions of the imperialist hold over our country and its natural resources that began in 1885. Just look at who’s supporting Tshombe; it is the Belgians! And look at who is supporting Leopoldville; it is the new American interest in our country! Our struggle for independence is not yet complete, but the perseverance of the Congolese people shall ensure that the just cause that we all dream of shall in the end prevail. Rise up my brothers!” This speech, apart from this paragraph a repeat and rephrasing of his independence speech, was broadcast by radio in much of Congo and gained him popular support. His armed forces were greatly inspired although ill-trained and ill-disciplined as Che Guevara duly noted in his Congo Diary: “What the Congolese lack in skill and organisation, they make up for with great revolutionary fervour. I’m confident the revolution can succeed in Africa.”

In the meantime, the Kasa-Vubu government backed by Mobutu initially gained support not through nationalistic speeches but from various ethnic minorities by promising a far-reaching federalization of the country that would grant them a large measure of autonomy. Considering the superior resources the United States could pump into the sinkhole that was the Congo, the Leopoldville government in the west initially scored major successes, even if it failed to set its priorities straight on US advice thanks to Mobutu’s control freak like nature. They first attacked the diamond rich South Kasai regime and the armed forces of the unrecognised state proved insufficient against Mobutu’s army. They were under equipped, particularly in the departments of armour and airpower and subsequently enemy aircraft pummelled their defence with impunity. In a bloody attrition campaign of guerrilla resistance, South Kasai managed to hold Mobutu’s forces back, but in September 1961 the latter nonetheless managed to cut off the capital of Bakwanga from the outside world; he deceived the defenders by feigning attacks with his armour, believed to be his main force, only to have his infantry advance from the jungle and surprise them. Mobutu ruthlessly at the same time bombed the city to crush the morale of its defenders while at the same time promising a lenient treatment to those who surrendered, only to massacre thousands once the city finally fell on October 5th.

The war was thusly reduced to a war with three parties, the third being Katanga under Moise Tshombe. Using money earned from the country’s considerable mineral wealth, the Katangese President successfully funded an army of his own, for a large part consisting of Belgian, British, Rhodesian, French and white South African mercenaries; calls for these irregulars to be removed from the equation fell on deaf ears in the capital of Elizabethville. The Katangese government did concessions to foreign companies and they brought security forces of their own to consolidate their business interests, further augmenting Tshombe’s position. First and foremost business interests in the country, however, was still the existing Belgian Union Minière du Haute Katanga (Mining Union of Upper Katanga) mining company, which would continue to be the prime financier of the country as it enjoyed unlimited funding from the Banque de la Société Générale de Belgique (Bank of the General Society of Belgium). Immediately upon the province’s succession it deposited a sum of $35 million on Tshombe’s bank account. The funds were used to buy modern Belgian rifles, heavy machine guns, mortars, armoured cars while importing tanks and aircraft from the People’s Republic of China (which is to be understood in the context of the Sino-Soviet Split).

After the fall of South Kasai in October 1961, an equilibrium formed in the Congolese Civil War: the Leopoldville Government maintained its position through superior quality of its forces; the Lumumbist Stanleyville Government held its ground due to its highly motivated support base which had a superior size vis-à-vis Leopoldville’s army; and Katanga stood fast thanks to its powerful financial position thanks to mining and foreign business interests.

Such a status quo, however, couldn’t last forever, and it didn’t. Northern Rhodesia became formally independent on October 22nd 1964 as the Republic of Zambia. Zambia was opposed to the white minority regime ruling South Rhodesia that unilaterally declared its independence a year later on November 11th 1965 as the Republic of Rhodesia. From 1965 on, Zambia started to support a black insurgency in Rhodesia and set up training camps for them on its own territory, resulting in cross border raids. Zambia took up a hostile stance toward Tshombe’s Katanga which was allied to Rhodesia and prevented anything from Rhodesia to reach the rebellious Congolese province, either by land or by sea. Coupled with the fact that Tanzania (until April 1964 Tanganyika, but renamed after the country’s union with Zanzibar) was supportive of Lumumba’s cause and that aid through Portuguese Angola was intermittent because of the ongoing colonial war there, Katanga was geographically isolated which prevented it from exporting and importing weapons and ammunition.

The local population of Katanga had never been consulted on the province’s independence and the popular thought of the time that its independence was based on nationalist sentiment was genuine, was false. In fact, leaders in the north were adamantly opposed to the secession and recognised the Stanleyville Government instead. Moreover, the fact that Europeans increasingly started to dominate the province’s internal affairs didn’t sit well with the local population. After a successful guerrilla war and popular uprising against Tshombe, the mineral rich Katanga province was largely taken by Lumumbist forces. Lumumba nationalized the mining operations there, though retaining white personnel out of a sense of pragmatism. The income from cobalt, copper, tin, uranium, diamonds proved a formidable financial boost to buy more weapons from his Eastern Bloc sponsors.

A second factor in the Congo War was the sudden coup d’état of Mobutu in November 1965, a mere two weeks after Rhodesia unilaterally declared its independence from Great Britain. The newfound military dictator declared a state of emergency and assumed sweeping, almost absolute, powers while reducing parliament to a rubberstamp institution. He also reduced the number of provinces and curtailed their autonomy to centralize power in his hands, which resulted in a major decrease of the regime’s popular support base since it had promised autonomy earlier. As far as Mobutu’s Western supporters were concerned this wasn’t an immediate problem since Mobutu had been de facto ruler anyway. But the actions of the newly christened Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga(“the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”) were extremely inconvenient indeed.

Early in his rule, Mobutu consolidated power by publicly executing political rivals, secessionists, coup plotters, Lumumbists, communists and other threats to his rule. To set an example, many were hanged before large audiences, including former Prime Minister Evariste Kimba, who, with three cabinet members – Jérôme Anany (Defense Minister), Emmanuel Bamba (Finance Minister), and Alexandre Mahamba (Minister of Mines and Energy) – was tried in May 1966, and sent to the gallows on May 30th, before an audience of around fifty thousand spectators. The men were executed on charges of being in contact with Colonel Alphonse Bangala and Major Pierre Efomi, for the purpose of planning a coup. Thanks to his paranoia, thousands were executed, and many more were tortured by means of electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, the extraction of teeth and nails, cutting off feet, hands and limbs (and of breasts in the case of women), rape, and castration. Resistance against his rule increased strongly with terrorist attacks and a guerrilla, which sent his regime into an orgy of violence and weakened its control in the longer term.

Secondly, he nationalized foreign-owned firms and forced European investors out of the country. In many cases he handed the management of these firms to relatives, close associates and important members of his own Ngbandi ethnic group who stole the companies’ assets. Mobutu and his cronies started to siphon away so much money to himself that the country quickly became a textbook example of a kleptocracy and nepotism which led to rampant corruption as government officials weren’t being paid on time (if at all). Hyperinflation also struck the country and while the country suffered under economic crisis, warfare, poverty and general disintegration, he owned a fleet of Mercedes-Benz cars and chartered airliners for his private use. His rampant ethnically based nepotism contributed to the disillusionment among minorities who had expected autonomy, as promised by Kasa-Vubu; many defected to Lumumba’s side.

President Lyndon B. Johnson made the extremely unpopular decision to send 18.000 “advisors” to the Congo, all the while claiming the United States Army wasn’t at war in Central Africa. This took place around the same time as the Americanization of the Vietnam War with American troop strength increasing from a mere 16.000 in 1963 to 350.000 in 1966 as the peace process bogged down. The anti-war movement seriously got off the ground from 1965-’66 on university campuses in the US and abroad while draft dodging became an increasingly common phenomenon because many refused to die for a cause in which they didn’t believe in a wretched jungle halfway across the world. This, combined with race riots and a soaring crime rate, allowed the Republicans to win the 1966 House of Representatives Election based on a platform of reduction of US military deployment overseas.

In order to gain support for his “Great Society” domestic agenda, he had to concede to the Republicans a reduction of troop strength in Vietnam and the Congo. Mobutu saw this and in his rhetoric became increasingly anti-American, going so far as to accuse the CIA of making plans to overthrow him, making him a liability rather than an asset. Support to Mobutu came to a complete stop after the victory of Richard Nixon in the 1968 Presidential Election. The African dictator’s actions, ironically, led to a self-fulfilling prophecy as he was indeed assassinated on February 17th 1969 in an operation supported by CIA operatives, having been deemed a threat to US interests in the Congo by Nixon and the State Department. Étienne Tshisekedi, one of the few politicians opposed to Mobutu that had managed to retain a position of power under the latter, assumed the office of President.

While Nixon focused on the Vietnamization of the Vietnam War by gradually limiting the US presence there to completely withdraw in 1973, a ceasefire was declared between the two fighting parties in Congo on March 5th 1969 on the urging of both US President Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev. Thusly, the Congolese Civil War finally came to an end after nearly a decade of chaos, destruction and death that had cost the lives of one million people. Peace finally reigned over the battlefields in the heart of Africa, until then the heart of darkness.
 
Great TL Onkel Willie! It'd certainly go in my subscription box if you were to continue it or add more depth. It could potentially end up like Linkwerk's Fountainhead Filibuster TL should you attempt to expand the story.
 
Chapter III: Reunification and Reconstruction, 1969-2013.

Under supervision of the UN and under the protection of UN bluehelmets, elections were organised in Congo on May 1st 1969 for a constitutional assembly. Lumumba’s MNC gained the largest share of votes, although the party didn’t gain an absolute majority with only 33.9% of popular vote. Lumumba was faced with the demands of ethnically and tribally based parties on which he relied to have a majority in the assembly and therefore he couldn’t realize his vision of a unitary Congo. Most politicians in the country were vehemently opposed to a centralized state considering the experiences with such a state under Mobutu; Lumumba, despite his charisma, wasn’t able to assuage such fears and instead had to live with a federalized Congo, and some declare that it was because the visibly aged and war weary leader had lost some of his fervour and strength of will.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, named as such to distinguish itself from the Republic of the Congo, more commonly known as Congo-Brazzaville, was divided into seventeen provinces based on the country’s largest ethnic groups: firstly there were the Luba (18%), Mongo (17%) and Kongo (12%) peoples, 47% of the entire Congolese population, which are the three largest of the Bantu group that constitutes 80% of the population; then there are the Ngbandi, Ngbaka, Manvu, Mbunja, Moru-Mangbetu, Zande, Logo and Lugbara, the Central Sudanese/Ubangian group; the Kakwa and Alur ethnicities, constituting the Nilotic peoples, also each gaining their own province; the Mbuti, Twa, Baka and Babinga which are collectively known as the pygmies also each gained their own province; lastly, the capital of Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville) became a separate city-province. These provinces were divided into prefectures, 35 in total at the time and since then increased to 67 in number, that represent the various subdivisions within the dominant ethnic group, the only exception being Kinshasa where prefecture and province coincide.

Each province had its own provincial parliament and its own cabinet with power to legislate unless such legislation clashed with the laws issued by the central government in Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville), but this rarely occurs since the provincial and national governments concern themselves with different affairs. While the central government primarily concerns itself with public works, subsidies, tariffs, usage of public land, immigration, currency, national defence and foreign policy, the provincial governments took care of property law, education, estate and inheritance law, commerce, banking, labour law, banking and insurance, morals, public health and quarantine laws, building codes, corporate law, land use, water and mineral resources (the latter’s profits were split fifty-fifty between the central government and the provincial government), judiciary and criminal procedure law, civil service law and electoral law (including parties).

The country subsequently had seventeen official languages: French was used as the sole language for communication on a federal level and for the capital of Kinshasa; on the provincial level government communications were bilingual, namely in French and the official provincial language; in some prefectures communications of an official nature are trilingual, taking into account the dominant dialect of that subdivision of the dominant ethnic group.

The central government designed in the country’s new constitution was a bicameral parliament consisting of a Chamber of People’s Deputies, elected through a system of proportional representation and with a 3% electoral threshold that prevented too great a political fragmentation, and a Senate consisting of provincial representatives, one for each province, appointed by the elected provincial government. The former is the country’s legislative body while the latter has a controlling, supervising function. Elections on the provincial level and federal level would both be held every four years.

The constitutional assembly completed its work, producing the second longest constitution in the world after that of India, on January 16th 1970 which is since then celebrated as constitution day, an official holiday. Lumumba called it "a day of joy for the Congolese people". The constitutional assembly then proscribed new elections and elections for a federal government took place on February 20th 1970. The MNC’s federalist concessions proved popular because it gained a spectacular 38% of the popular vote. The now nearly 45 year old Patrice Lumumba was once again Prime Minister of the Congo, this time presiding over a cabinet of moderates like Joseph Ileo and Cyrille Adoula rather than quasi-Marxists like Pierre Mulele.

Lumumba II, as this new government is often referred to, was faced with the immense task of rebuilding a country devastated by war and Mobutu’s corruption, nepotism and ineptitude. First and foremost problem was money with the Congolese franc having become practically worthless due to hyperinflation of several thousand percent. A new currency was introduced known as the “New Congolese Franc” which cut twelve zeroes from prices. This New Congolese Franc was subsequently pegged to the US dollar to stabilize its value, preventing too strong inflation in the climate of continued economic crisis. Additionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided the country with a 1 billion dollar loan for its reconstruction. Besides that, the country’s mineral wealth – copper, diamonds (the country has 30% of the world diamond reserves), uranium, cobalt (the country is the largest producer of cobalt worldwide) and tin among others – was mined and most of it was exported to raise more funds.

The Congolese central government embarked on a wide range of public works to strengthen the country’s integrity and boost economic development; in tandem with this, ministries were erected for the country’s needs, and at the peak of its size in the early 70s the government counted no less than 50 ministries (as opposed to 13 today). The railways of the country formed the primary area of focus, considering roads were less necessary because few owned a car at the time. The country had had approximately 125 kilometres of track at the time of independence, owing to the fact that transport was largely conducted by river, and those tracks had been damaged during the war due to sabotage.

The first major railroad, the construction of which commenced in July 1970, was to connect Kinshasa with the port city of Matadi some 250 kilometres to the southwest, thereby tripling the existing network in length. By 1980, the length of the railroad network had increased twenty fold from a mere 125 kilometres to 2.500 kilometres and continued to grow afterward even if the building fury of the early 1970s slowed down. Currently, the country’s track total is 7.000 kilometres and the railroad network connects the country’s major cities, thereby reducing travel time from days by river to a mere few hours. The country initially employed steam locomotives because they were easily and cheaply purchasable because most countries were phasing them our or had already done so. Congo wouldn’t completely phase out steam locomotives until the mid 1990s when diesel powered locomotives decisively took over.

The state also invested strongly in education to turn back the developments of the 1960s that had led to increased illiteracy rates. Before independence, the country had operated 5.500 primary schools and these were now rebuilt and supplied with teachers and teaching materials. By 1990, the number of primary schools had increased to 25.000 where 200.000 students enrolled every year and 12.000 secondary schools where around 145.000 students enrolled annually. The country has also, since the 1970s, expanded its academic infrastructure, and at present around 75.000 Congolese are attending college; the first university was Lovanium which had largely been abandoned during the civil war, but which was reconstituted in 1972 with seven faculties: medicine, mathematics, science, technology, philosophy, arts and humanities, and humanities and social sciences. Literacy rates have subsequently reached the 80% marker, placing it in the same category of African countries as Congo-Brazzaville, Libya, South Africa and Botswana, which are not coincidentally among the more economically successful African states.

A major factor in the successful reforms in the country is the country’s internal stability provided by its armed forces. The Civil War had left the country with large armed groups, which were subsequently reorganised into the country’s standing army which in 1969 numbered 1.9 million soldiers, roughly a tenth of the population. Thanks to the support of the United States and the USSR during the civil war to “their side” said army was also armed to the teeth with a mix of US and Soviet equipment: the air force was equipped with Bell AH-1 Cobra and Mil Mi 24 Hind attack helicopters as well as MiG-21, MiG-23 and F-4 Phantom II jetfighters; the army was equipped with AK-47 assault rifles, M16 rifles as well as M48 Patton medium tanks and M60, T-55 and T-62 main battle tanks; the navy, still the smallest branch of Congo’s armed forces, was equipped with a wide array of patrol vessels to control the Congo River, still a major traffic artery.

Congo’s relative military strength and regional projection capabilities allowed it to actively support the socialist leaning but anti-communist UNITA in the Angolan Civil War in the 1980s while at the same time conducting negotiations between the main combatants. In the context of the Cold War, a peace between UNITA and the Marxist-Leninist MPLA was hardly possible, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc and the end of the Cold War, the MPLA suddenly found itself in a much weaker position. This allowed Lumumba, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the time, to broker a ceasefire in 1989 that paved the way for elections that resulted in a coalition of UNITA and moderate communists in 1990. It would prove an inspiration in ending the Mozambican Civil War (in which Congo was not militarily involved). Congo also played a pivotal role in the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars, being among the first to clamour for United Nations and/or African Union intervention. In the case of Liberia, a peace was brokered in 1993 and Congolese troops were among those sent to enforce this peace; one of the results was that President Charles Taylor was indicted of war crimes and sent to The Hague. In Sierra Leone, Kinshasa played a similar role by supporting the RUF that cited the government’s oppression and corruption as the reasons for their rebellion (all the while committing crimes of their own), resulting in a compromise peace in 1999. The latest deployment of the Congolese army is its detachment of ground troops in Mali to assist the weak central government in its fight against Islamic insurgents.

The aforementioned equipment is largely in use even today which makes the Congolese army obsolete by Western standards, but equal if not superior to the armed forces of surrounding countries. Moreover, the country has modernized its army since the 1990s with T-72 main battle tanks, BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers and MiG-29 jetfighters. With a 500.000 strong active army it’s slightly smaller than Iran’s and thusly the world’s tenth largest army, and with 2 million reserve forces and paramilitary forces included (Congo still has compulsory military service), the number jumps to 2.5 million men, making the Congolese army the ninth largest in terms of total troop strength (behind the United States and ahead of Taiwan).

Even so, the country’s economic growth was limited due to hefty state control that limited private initiative, something which was imposed out of fear that foreign capital would gain control over the economy and dictate government policy. The corruption that continued to plague the country wouldn’t completely disappear thanks to this, even if it lessened significantly. This would begin to change from the 1990s.

Lumumba was re-elected into office as Prime Minister in 1974 and 1978 and was therefore Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo until 1982, after which he decided to take things a bit more slowly as he too couldn’t escape age. He ran for the more symbolic position of President in 1986 after a four year break (he continued to serve as a member of parliament for the MNC during that time) and won. He was subsequently re-elected in 1990, but did not choose to run for a third term, instead preferring to remain on as a member of parliament. He chose to retire from politics altogether in 2000 at age 75 after suffering from a minor stroke, but he is still active as a motivational speaker and public figure in Congo, and Africa in general.

From the mid 1990s onward the Congolese economy saw major privatizations and decidedly started booming, one major factor being the mining of coltan, of which the metal tantalum, a key component in the manufacture of mobile phones, is extracted. This market boomed from the 1990s and is still growing today, resulting in an average 7% economic growth, to which the development of the IT sector and the services sector have contributed enormously. The country’s nominal GDP per capita has subsequently risen to $3.500 ($5.200 GDP (PPP)) which places it on the 112th spot ahead of Iraq and behind Indonesia. Congo’s total nominal GDP is currently 245 billion which makes it the world’s 39th economy ahead of Nigeria and behind Chile.

During that same period, investment from the People’s Republic of China picked up, a trend that is ongoing. Chinese companies and entrepreneurs have expressed a great deal of interest in Congo’s mining sector and its IT sector, as well as the fact that the Congo is a low wage country in general. Subsequently, they have invested in the development of infrastructure in the country and, because Congo’s stability is key, have provided the Congolese army with weaponry such as the Type-88 main battle tank and Shenyang J-8 third generation jetfighters, deeming these enough for any threats the Congolese army could be faced with.

As a result of economic development and military modernization, the Congo has become a world player by African standards and prospects seem bright. Because of the transformations since the 1980s, Congo is considered to be a regional great power and nowadays it acts as such by throwing its weight around in the African Union and interfering with the affairs of sub-Saharan African states. Thereby the country has decisively abandoned Lumumba’s dual ideology of pan-African ideals and Congolese nationalism in favour of the latter.

The developments of the last 40 years, in short, have transformed the Congo from a war torn and impoverished country plagued by famine and disease into one of the strongest countries of Africa, both a major regional booming economic powerhouse and a military force not to be taken lightly. Congo is today predicted by some to become the dominant country of Africa and a new great power in the 21st century, predictions that are happily received by the now nearly 88 year old Lumumba who is still a public figure and whose name is mentioned in the same breath as the names of Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara. Now, a new generation of leaders carries on his legacy into the next century.
 
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The Soviets can veto a UN intervention if I'm not mistaken.

That's why I said "if Kennedy can catch the Soviets napping." Presumably he didn't, and the UN force remained in the background as peacekeepers without a peace.

The Soviets did the same for the Lumumba-Gizenga government and they also did this indirectly, using their puppet state Czechoslovakia to send trainers, weapons and technical assistance. Prague complied, doing so via Congo-Brazzaville (Mobutu’s hold over Leopoldville province wasn’t water tight because Gizenga was from there and had support there) that was now pro-communist, and through newly independent Tanganyika from late 1961.

Gizenga is from the wrong end of the province, though - the part that's now Bandundu. Any smuggling would have to be done through the area that is now Equateur, which was Mobutu's home region. There would be some opposition to him there too, but also plenty of loyalists, and sending weapons convoys across would be risky. On the other hand, some supplies might be airlifted from Brazzaville via Central African Republic airspace - David Dacko might be willing to allow transit.

Tanganyika: fair enough. This would involve Mwalimu taking an explicit side in the Cold War, which he was reluctant to do in OTL, but he liked to give aid to African revolutionaries, so this might work.

I also agree with 037771 that you should scale back the hardware - both sides would probably get some old planes, a few obsolete tanks (although most of the Congo is terrible tank country) and lots of small arms and rocket launchers.

Such a status quo, however, couldn’t last forever, and it didn’t. Northern Rhodesia became formally independent on October 22nd 1964 as the Republic of Zambia. Zambia was opposed to the white minority regime ruling South Rhodesia that unilaterally declared its independence a year later on November 11th 1965 as the Republic of Rhodesia. From 1965 on, Zambia started to support a black insurgency in Rhodesia and set up training camps for them on its own territory, resulting in cross border raids. Zambia took up a hostile stance toward Tshombe’s Katanga which was allied to Rhodesia and prevented anything from Rhodesia to reach the rebellious Congolese province, either by land or by sea. Coupled with the fact that Tanzania (until April 1964 Tanganyika, but renamed after the country’s union with Zanzibar) was supportive of Lumumba’s cause and that aid through Portuguese Angola was intermittent because of the ongoing colonial war there, Katanga was geographically isolated which prevented it from exporting and importing weapons and ammunition.

This is plausible also, but I wonder if a longer-lasting Katanga conflict would affect the timetable for Zambia's independence. Britain might think twice about giving Northern Rhodesia independence in the middle of a war zone, especially if Southern Rhodesia (which at the time was still its colony, and hence an extension of Britain itself) seemed likely to get involved. The British might also crack down harder on the Southern Rhodesians. Either or both of those measures could, naturally, create conflicts of their own.

The local population of
Katanga had never been consulted on the province’s independence and the popular thought of the time that its independence was based on nationalist sentiment was genuine, was false. In fact, leaders in the north were adamantly opposed to the secession and recognised the Stanleyville Government instead. Moreover, the fact that Europeans increasingly started to dominate the province’s internal affairs didn’t sit well with the local population. After a successful guerrilla war and popular uprising against Tshombe, the mineral rich Katanga province was largely taken by Lumumbist forces.

This could definitely happen, especially since the Lumumbists and their allies have probably been sending aid to the anti-independence factions for years at this point.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, named as such to distinguish itself from the Republic of the Congo, more commonly known as Congo-Brazzaville, was divided into seventeen provinces based on the country’s largest ethnic groups: firstly there were the Luba (18%), Mongo (17%) and Kongo (12%) peoples, 47% of the entire Congolese population, which are the three largest of the Bantu group that constitutes 80% of the population; then there are the Ngbandi, Ngbaka, Manvu, Mbunja, Moru-Mangbetu, Zande, Logo and Lugbara, the Central Sudanese/Ubangian group; the Kakwa and Alur ethnicities, constituting the Nilotic peoples, also each gaining their own province; the Mbuti, Twa, Baka and Babinga which are collectively known as the pygmies also each gained their own province; lastly, the capital of Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville) became a separate city-province. These provinces were divided into prefectures, 35 in total at the time and since then increased to 67 in number, that represent the various subdivisions within the dominant ethnic group, the only exception being Kinshasa where prefecture and province coincide.

Bad idea. And I mean really bad idea.

First, it's impossible to demarcate territorial boundaries for many Congolese ethnic groups - there are many areas which are homelands to more than one ethnic group, and others where homelands overlap. A case in point is the Ituri conflict of OTL, which pitted Hema against Lendu. Both the Hema and Lendu lived in the same place, and had historically intermarried (much like Hutus and Tutsis in precolonial Rwanda) and - again like Rwanda - the Hema were more prosperous because the Belgian colonial authorities had favored them. Ethnic provinces wouldn't prevent conflicts like this - in fact, they'd only entrench the power and wealth of the dominant group and the resentment of all the others.

Then, there's the problem of ethnic groups which are almost, but not quite, big enough to make the cutoff. They'd be put into a province designed to be dominated by another ethnic group, or possibly divided between two or more such provinces, and if OTL Congolese history is anything to go by, they won't take that lying down. It seems to me that this plan would set up something like the "provincette" era of OTL, only more so.

Of course, coming up with a better plan isn't easy - small provinces can lead to warlordism, large provinces to corruption and ethnic conflict, and a unitary state would be hard to administer with Congo's infrastructure. If I had to choose, I'd probably increase the number of provinces about the same way that you did, but (1) draw them territorially rather than along ethnic lines, and (2) include a constitutional provision like New Caledonia's which requires all parties above a certain size to be represented in government. This would ensure consociational unity governments across the board - and thus a reasonably fair distribution of patronage - rather than dominance by a single party associated with the largest ethnic group. A bill of rights assuring cultural autonomy for minorities might also help, although the hard part would be enforcing it.

There probably would need to be special measures taken for the "pygmy" peoples, but there aren't really enough of them to justify provincial status - their territories might possibly become autonomous federally administered regions not part of any province.

the provincial governments took care of property law, education, estate and inheritance law, commerce, banking, labour law, banking and insurance, morals, public health and quarantine laws, building codes, corporate law, land use, water and mineral resources (the latter’s profits were split fifty-fifty between the central government and the provincial government), judiciary and criminal procedure law, civil service law and electoral law (including parties).

The provision regarding mineral resources is sensible, and avoids the problem of Nigeria, where the more politically powerful regions siphon off most of the income from the oil-producing region. In practical terms, though, this would mean that 40 percent of mineral revenue would find its way into the pockets of provincial officials, 40 percent to federal officials, and maybe 20 percent to development.

The central government designed in the country’s new constitution was a bicameral parliament consisting of a Chamber of People’s Deputies, elected through a system of proportional representation and with a 3% electoral threshold that prevented too great a political fragmentation, and a Senate consisting of provincial representatives, one for each province, appointed by the elected provincial government.

Good, the threshold will encourage the formation of multiethnic parties.

A major factor in the successful reforms in the country is the country’s internal stability provided by its armed forces. The Civil War had left the country with large armed groups, which were subsequently reorganised into the country’s standing army which in 1969 numbered 1.9 million soldiers, roughly a tenth of the population.

This is a huge standing army for a poor country to maintain, especially if it also has to keep up large amounts of hardware. I don't have revenue figures, but my guess is that you can either have investment in transport and education, or a 1.9-million-man standing army, but not both. And if Congo starts projecting power all over the place, its fiscal problems will be even worse.

What is certainly possible is for Congo to have a smaller, but well-equipped and elite, standing army, with a large ready-reserve consisting of civil war veterans. This army would still be larger and stronger than those of Congo's neighbors, enabling it to be a militarily strong regional power.

Anyway, despite the above comments, I like this scenario a lot - Congo doesn't get nearly enough attention, a stronger and richer Congo is very possible, and I could see a surviving Lumumba being remembered along with Mandela. I'd like to see some more detail and stories from this universe if you plan to write them.
 
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