Mercenary-ruled state in Africa 1960s

Was there any way that there could've eventuated during the 1960s post-colonial turmoil in places such as the former Belgian Congo, a country in Africa ruled by white mercenaries, along the lines of the CONDOTIERRI-controlled Mediterranean states of the Middle Ages ? IIRC, Jacques 'Black Jack' Schramme of No. 5 Commando had aspirations of establishing such a mercenary utopia in the Congo during the mid-60s. Could the likes of Schramme, 'Mad Mike' Hoare and Bob Denard have been able to achieve such an objective in the course of their ops in Africa, or would the weight of anti-colonialist world opinion have prevented such an enterprise from ever coming to fruition ?
 
Denard ruled the Comoros (sp?) Islands off the coast of East Africa at various times before being overthrown and imprisoned by the French (I think). However, that was more of a personal dictatorship (with him being the "power behind the throne" rather than being the open ruler most of the time).

A larger-scale operation on the African mainland would probably require a longer Congo war. Perhaps Lumumba escapes the Mobutu-Belgium-CIA-whomever plot to kill him, establishes himself in the city he was fleeing to when he was arrested, and has a civil war against Mobutu and the other independence leader who Lumumba disliked. That'll provide more instability and more opportunities for mercenaries and the like.
 
Matt Quinn said:
Denard ruled the Comoros (sp?) Islands off the coast of East Africa at various times before being overthrown and imprisoned by the French (I think). However, that was more of a personal dictatorship (with him being the "power behind the throne" rather than being the open ruler most of the time).

A larger-scale operation on the African mainland would probably require a longer Congo war. Perhaps Lumumba escapes the Mobutu-Belgium-CIA-whomever plot to kill him, establishes himself in the city he was fleeing to when he was arrested, and has a civil war against Mobutu and the other independence leader who Lumumba disliked. That'll provide more instability and more opportunities for mercenaries and the like.

After that, I would say any mercenary that could establish something of a stable and "progressive" (respecting human rights) regime might be welcomed by the West. Do that and they might be able to escape foreign intervention.
 
The secessionists in Katanga formed a government that didn't follow "Kill Whitey" as a national policy (unlike the Simba insurrectionists) in the 1960s; perhaps the white mercenaries have some sort of spat with the UN (which came in to put down the Katangan secession) and switch sides.

Mineral-rich Katanga, which is more hospitable to white people than other parts of the Congo, could become a mercenary-ruled (or at least mercenary-backed) state in Africa. Owing to their mineral wealth, they could easily become something like Switzerland, which didn't get into many wars in medieval Europe, but supplied tremendous numbers of mercenaries for everyone else's wars.

The Katangan secessionist gov't was democratic (to my knowledge); I wonder if you can square a democratic state (with a large population of black civilians) with a bunch of white mercenaries. Perhaps there's a House of Reps that EVERYONE votes in (and thus, we assume, is dominated by the local black population), and some kind of Senate or even House of Lords (or perhaps House of Warriors) that represents the interests of the mercenaries and any sort of local African warrior group.

Does that seem interesting?
 
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