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Elisabethville, The Republic of Katanga

July 29, 1992




It was a truly surreal sight. Even in the unprecedented era of mass protests that had shaken the world since Budapest, the mass protest playing out in this African capital was something nobody expected.

It wasn't just a protest of the poor and downtrodden. Factory workers and white collared suits all marched together, chanting the same slogans and holding the same signs. This was not the protest of single ethnic group demanding recognition of their right to exist. Men of all ethnic groups, black and white, waved the Katangan flag. Not even Abel Muzorewa or Walter Sisulu, builders of so-called Rainbow Nations, could claim such unity in their own nations. This was not the protest of a religious sect demanding an end to persecution. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and shamans all marched together, united for a moment by a single faith: change. The protesters were not even confronted by military thugs, the common enemy of democracy on the African continent. Many soldiers even marched alongside the protesters.

In this protest, individuals, divided by race, wealth, and privilege, and brought together by circumstances beyond their control, all came together as one nation, shouting slogans like En Dehors and Liberte pour Tshisekedi.

The long time President had spent decades building a Katangan identity. It was his dream that the territory he stole from a young state in chaos could evolve into a nation, and the diverse people he had dragged with him, kicking and screaming, could become one.

His dream had come true today. But in an irony, he had become the figure that the people united against. His picture, crossed out with a red "X", were carried by protesters. Effigies of him were burned by the miners in Kolwezi. Even within his palace 20 kilometers away, built from ill-gotten gains, he could not hide from that reality. Even his pet sycophants could no longer reassure him. Even the soldiers guarding his fortress were becoming more reluctant to keep the rabble out. Like many men that get comfortable in power, he overstayed his welcome. The question was, would he go quietly, or would he dragged out?

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How did a nation forged from neocolonialism, greed, and geopolitical intrigue evolve into the "Singapore of Africa"? How did the descendants of the colonizers and the descendants of the colonized believe themselves to be of one nation? For this is the story of the Republic of Katanga.

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