The path to independence of the Belgian Congo (Congo-Leopoldville at independence and Zaire from 1960) was marked by intense rivalry between regionalist or federalist parties on the one hand and nationalist non-ethnic parties on the other, and by a direct attempt by neo-colonial forces to control the party politics of a country on the eve of independence.

We saw, that Belgian post-war policy in the Congo emphasized economic and social progress without political development. The Belgians hoped to insulate the Congolese from the political nationalism that was sweeping over the continent. However, this was an unrealistic aim.

The Congo could not be isolated from events in neighbouring countries. Leopoldville, the capital and largest city, faced French Congo and its capital Brazzaville just over the river- De Gaulle's offer of independence to Congo-Brazzaville in 1958 was bound to cause a stir in Leopoldville. Moreover at the Brussels World Fair in 1958 many Congolese delegates came into contact with a wider world and absorbed new ideas. But already in

1957 the Belgians had shifted their Congo policy by accepting the need for constitutional change.

The main reason for this shift of policy was an economic one. The economic depression which began in 1955-6 led to a fall of investment and a rise in urban unemployment, which were compounded by a sudden fall in copper prices on the world market in 1957. The Congo suddenly assumed a less attractive face to Belgian business. Moreover, the Catholic Church saw the need for political change and in 1956 called for the association of Africans in the administration of the country.

The Church was hedging its bets for fear of confronting a future anti-clerical African government. In 1956 a Catholic study group was set up in Leopoldville and issued a manifesto calling for African-Belgian partnership and independence in thirty years' time. Joseph Ileo, a future Prime Minister, was prominent in the study group.

Patrice Lumumba became the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) when the country achieved independence in 1960. He was assassinated the following year.

The first stage in constitutional advance was the holding of communal elections in provincial capitals in 1957-8. The elections gave a powerful boost to the creation of ethnic-based political parties, as the new parties usually evolved out of ethnic associations. For example, the ABAKO, founded in 1950 as a society to foster the culture of the Bakongo, the predominant ethnic community in the lower Congo around Leopoldville, was transformed by its president, Joseph Kasavubu, into a fully-fledged political party.

The ABAKO went further than the study group's manifesto and demanded early independence. ABAKO won the election in Leopoldville. The migrant Kasai association won in Elisabethville (later Lubumbashi); which aroused the Katanga (Shaba) ethnic groups to unite in 1959 and eventually form a party known as CONAKAT (Confederation des Associations Tribales du Katanga) led by Moise Tshombe, a failed businessman related to the royal house of the Lunda. CONAKAT from the beginning received considerable financial assistance from the largest European mining company in Katanga, Union Miniere. Two other major European companies. Forminiere and Tanganyika Concessions, also backed CONAKAT. These three companies exploited Katanga's vast deposits of copper, zinc, cobalt, uranium, coal and manganese. Union Miniere. For example, made net profits of 31 billion Belgian francs in the period 1950-9. Belgian and British business interests which controlled these companies were determined to build up CONAKAT as a party to protect their interests.

JOSEPH KASAVUBU became the first president of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) after the country won its independence from Belgium in 1960. Kasavubu had emerged in the 1950s as a spokesman for Congolese rights

In contrast to the regionally and ethnically based ABAKO and CONAKAT, there arose in 1958 the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). The MNC was strong among the Bangala speakers in Equatorial Province around Stanleyville (later Kisangani), but it was foremost a movement which attempted to transcend ethnicism. Its young leader, Patrice Lumumba, was a man of truly nationalist outlook. Lumumba came from the Batefela, a sub-group of the Mongo who lived in three out of the country's six provinces. He had been brought up by Christian parents among the evolues of Stanleyville, and developed as a marginal man free of the influence of tribal affinities. Lumumba began his career as a post-office clerk and continued it as a sales manager for a brewery in the capital. A tall, slim man of impressive charm and skill as an orator, Lumumba entered politics to advocate his strong beliefs in nationalism and pan-Africanism. As a nationalist he wanted not only early independence but to see a strong central government which would weaken ethnicism.

He believed, like Kwame Nkrumah, that strong national unity within each newly-independent African state was the only sound base for African unity. Lumumba's organizing ability and skill in cementing alliances with smaller parties enabled him to build the MNC into a nationwide organization.

There is an obvious comparison between the MNC in the Congo and the CPP in Ghana in the way they both fought for a centralizing nationalism against ethnic and regional forces. Kwame Nkrumah himself drew this comparison, when he wrote:

The trends of national movements in both countries, though fundamentally different in points of detail, had certain basic characteristics in common; their struggle for national independence was to some extent the struggle between nationalism and tribalism; more explicitly, between a unitary system of government and federation.

The situation which faced the Congo on the eve of independence did not differ profoundly from that which threatened Ghana's independence at the period of the ascendancy of the National Liberation Movement of Ashanti, the Togoland Congress, the Anlo Youth Association, the Northern People's Party and the Muslim Association, all of which were designed to destroy the CPP movement. As in Ghana, I was convinced that the Congo needed a strong unitary form of government. Events in the Congo since independence have only Strengthened this conviction.7

At the end of 1958 Lumumba attended the All-African People's Conference in Accra, He returned in January 1959 and called for immediate independence. The same month spontaneous and serious riots broke out in Leopoldville. The unemployed of the city wrecked Belgian property.

No Belgians were killed, but 50 Africans died in the counter- violence the Belgians used to suppress the riots. The riots were sparked off not by Lumumba's return but by the banning of an ABAKO meeting. Kasavubu was arrested and jailed for five months. The riots spread to provincial cities and this convinced the Belgians that they could not delay independence. The Belgians announced they would give way and accept independence in the next year, I960.

Faced with the prospect of an MNC government, the ABAKO at first opted for separatism and advocated the creation of a Lower Congo state, which could then unite with French Congo across the river, soon to be independent under the leadership of a Mukongo, Abbe Youlou. Strong Belgian resistance to the idea of Bakongo separation led the ABAKO to adopt a more realistic policy of alliances with other parties to ensure Bakongo domination of the Congo.

The Brussels constitutional conference of January I960 revealed that the Congo was fairly evenly split between federalists and unitarists. The main federalist groups were ABAKO. CONAKAT and Albert Kalonji's Kasai breakaway wing of the MNC. On the unitarist side, the MNC was joined by Antoine Gizenga's Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA), a socialist party. The conference fixed independence for 30 June I960, after a constitution had been formed and elections held.

Figure 86: Joseph Désiré Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko) seized control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a 1965 coup. Mobutu ruled the country (renamed Zaire in 1971) for more than three decades, stifling political opposition and amassing huge sums of money.

The May I960 constitution considerably assisted the neo-colonial interests which were now openly active in the Congo's politics. The constitution provided for a centralized two- chamber legislature and also provincial governments and assemblies with powers over local affairs. The provincial assemblies would be in a position to assist foreign big businesses. In spite of this concession to the federalists, CONAKAT demanded the right of secession for Katanga.

Anglo-Belgian mining interests increasingly feared Lumumba's radicalism and that if he came to power he would either heavily tax the mining companies or even nationalize them. The big mining companies were heartened by the May I960 elections to the Chamber of Deputies which failed to produce a clearcut result.

Most of the 137 members were representatives of small parties with loose affiliations. Lumumba's MNC won 36 seats, the ABAKO won twelve and CONAKAT only eight. Overall, unitarists won 72 seats against 65 for federalists, but the figures were fluid as members changed allegiance. Of equal significance, CONAKAT won the largest number of seats in the Katanga Provincial Assembly; Tshombe became provincial President and began to talk of secession.

On 12 June a coalition government was formed, with Kasavubu as President, Lumumba as Prime Minister and Gizenga as Deputy Prime Minister. Lumumba was adamant on the appointment of Kasavubu as President, in spite of the misgivings of his followers. Lumumba had convinced himself that such an appointment was essential in order to break the parliamentary deadlock, to make the capital safe for the new government, and to help towards national unity.

However, there was little chance of unity after Lumumba's reply to King Baudouin's speech at the independence celebrations on 30 June. Baudouin's speech was extremely paternalistic and patronizing. The King of the Belgians referred to the courage and civilizing role of Leopold II, warned the Congolese against tribal struggles, advised them to work hard, and praised the colonial police. Lumumba was suing to making a strong reply. He dismissed colonialism as 'the humiliating slavery imposed on us by forces, and launched into a devastating and detailed catalogue of the evils of Belgian rule. Lumumba's undiplomatic honesty contrasted with Kasavubu's reading out the obsequious text prepared for him. The Belgian Government was now determined to overthrow Lumumba at the first available opportunity, and Kasavubu was fully prepared to assist them in such an enterprise.

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