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
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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.
Note: this is just a prologue. The PoD will be revealed in chapter 1
A Different Congo
Prologue: the Road to Independence, 1950-1960.
Prologue: the Road to Independence, 1950-1960.
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.