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Zusammenfassung von The Congo from Leopold to Kabila

Name: The Congo from Leopold to Kabila
Rating: 4.4 (76 reviews)
Author: Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

A People’s History

4.4 (76 Bewertungen)

28 Min.

Kurz zusammengefasst

The Congo from Leopold to Kabila by Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is a detailed history of the Democratic Republic of Congo from the colonial period to the end of the Mobutu era. It analyzes the impact of external forces on the country and the struggles of the Congolese people for self-determination.

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Afrikas Geschichte Europäische Geschichte Kolonialismus & Imperialismus

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The Congo from Leopold to Kabila
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What’s in it for me? Unpick one of the most complex and interesting histories of Africa.

The mighty Congo River in central Africa is 4,380 kilometers long. In the English-speaking world, it is associated with one of the greatest pieces of English literature: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The river gave its name to two modern countries that border it, the Republic of the Congo and the massive Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). These blinks look at the fascinating and terrifying history of DRC as its people fought for their democratic rights.

Like much of Africa, DRC emerged out of decades of colonialism and interference by European powers, before gaining independence. Even after independence, many ex-colonies found themselves essentially still subject to external coercion. DRC was no exception to that trend once it was granted independence in 1960.

Throughout the Cold War, DRC found itself a mere pawn in a global struggle. In its fight against global Communism, the supposedly democratic USA supported the installation of the strong man General Mobutu, whose appointment stalled the progress of the democratic movement for decades. To this day, the fight for democracy in the Congo continues.

In these blinks you’ll learn:

why the colonial racial mentalities of the Belgians led to the Rwandan genocide;
how the US stymied parliamentary democracy in the Congo; and
why Mobutu renamed the country “Zaire” during his dictatorship.

After King Leopold II’s reign of terror, the Congo became a colony that fueled Belgian economic development.

In the middle of Africa lies the massive territory today known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It originally comprised numerous African kingdoms and the majority of its 250 different ethnic groups spoke varieties of Bantu languages.

During the “Scramble for Africa” that began in the nineteenth century, the major European powers sought to colonize and control swathes of Africa for profit. In 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium claimed the Congo for his own personal territory. Leopold’s cover was a humanitarian mission aimed at the region’s inhabitants – but there was nothing humanitarian about it.

Instead, what emerged was an inhumane system with the sole purpose of filling Leopold’s personal coffers. And there was much to exploit in this resource-rich region. Leopold’s new “subjects” in the Congo Free State were coerced into extracting rubber and minerals.

It is estimated that 10 million people were murdered as part of this exploitation. Gruesomely, mutilation and rape were used routinely and systematically as punishment when extraction quotas were not met or when slaves refused to work.

The rest of the world slowly became aware of the horrors that were taking place. Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness was, for instance, famously set there.

The Congo Reform Association (CRA), founded in the UK in 1904, aimed to instigate an international movement protesting Leopold’s rule and succeeded in winning over the US Government. International diplomatic pressure finally forced Leopold to hand over his personal fiefdom to the Belgium parliament in 1908.

Although this hand over of control was theoretically a step forward, Belgian’s rule was still colonial in nature; Belgian economic growth was fueled by the brutal oppression of Congolese people and the stripping of the region’s natural resources. Beyond rubber, mineral resources such as copper, gold, diamonds and uranium were plundered. Timber was also highly sought after, as were agricultural products such as coffee, tea and cotton.

The legacy of external colonial interests in the Congo’s natural resources is still felt to this day. In fact, it may explain why democracy has struggled to gain a foothold ever since.

The democratic movement in the Congo emerged from an alliance between anti-colonialism factions.

The new Belgian rulers of the Congo were pretty contented. As far as they were concerned their “model colony” was just that. Unfortunately, this perception was far removed from reality.

For starters, they were still colonizers employing all the usual tricks of repression. Most notably this included a divide and rule strategy designed to preemptively strangle any possibility of revolt. As part of this, they bribed local kings to betray their own subjects to the colonizers.

The Congo Crisis began as messy decolonization but ended with international forces engineering a new status quo.

Lumumba was installed as the new Prime Minister, but it didn’t take long for the first cracks in his government to form; the “Congo Crisis” had begun.

What precipitated the crisis was a power vacuum. Only a few trained bureaucrats remained after Belgian administrators left in 1960, which meant that tribal leaders suddenly found themselves more powerful than Lumumba’s own government.

The “second independence” movement failed due to internal weaknesses and external interference.

The Congo Crisis had come to an end. However, US interference had not succeeded in putting the cork back in the bottle. After all, this new “moderate” government was simply taking instructions from abroad, and it stank of neocolonialism. It did not take long before a “second independence” movement emerged. Like the first, it demanded democracy, economic rights for the non-ruling class and freedom from foreign powers.

The second independence movement began in earnest in 1963, with resistance revolving around two separate fronts.

Mobutu was propelled into power by the US in 1965. His rule left the Congo in moral and economic decay.

For champions of democracy, the repression of the second independence movement might have seemed like the light had gone out. However, in the mid-1960s it briefly looked as though the momentum would swing back in their direction. In 1964 Tshombe and his moderate allies enacted a new constitution. Then, in May 1965, the first national elections without violence or need for outside observers since independence were held.

The US, however, had other ideas. For them, parliamentary democracy was too “chaotic.” They saw this new moderate leadership as too weak to prevent the country dissolving. In the name of stability, then, the Western powers went in search of a strongman to keep the region secure and amenable to their interests.

Mobutu lost foreign backing after the Cold War, allowing the movement for multiparty democracy to advance.

Ironically, external forces would ultimately be how Mobutu’s dictatorship was brought to an end. The groundwork was laid, nevertheless, by numerous Congolese factions and organizations that fought for multiparty democracy.

The struggle had been building since the first decades of Mobutu’s rule, with the Catholic Church and political groups in exile playing no small part. A student movement also pushed democratization of processes on campuses.

The CNS created a united front for democracy, but it failed to implement a framework.

The CNS did not operate by halves. Its 2,842 delegates came from all rungs of society, with TV and radio broadcasters gathering to communicate proceedings to the entire country. Everyone felt that it was sure to be a major landmark in Congolese history but, ultimately, it was unsuccessful.

The conference sought to examine the country’s past, evaluating how expectations for independence had fallen flat. Then, it aimed to look forward, to find a way out of the political, social, economic, cultural and moral crisis that engulfed the country.

The conflict in Rwanda brought about Mobutu's fall from power. The First and Second Congo Wars followed.

The failure of the CNS signaled the return of dictatorship to Zaire. Things were also taking a turn for the worse in the neighboring states of Rwanda and Uganda.

The roots of the ethnic violence that emerged lay in the colonial era. Rwanda had been home to two once amicable ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. However, once it became a Belgian territory, individuals’ ethnicities were required to be stated on identity cards. The Belgians also decided that they would rule Rwanda through the Tutsis, turning them into a ruling elite.

Now that conflict is over, the future of the Congo depends upon national dialogue.

The country – now renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo – was left weakened after the war with Rwanda and Uganda.

The Congolese people were vulnerable; a new enemy had emerged in the shape of their own president. Kabila refused to act as a puppet for Rwanda and Uganda in their desired control over the Congo’s resources, as had been intended. Instead, Kabila was keen to be seen as a president in his own right, cutting off ties with the Rwandans and Ugandans to establish his dictatorship.

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Worum geht es in The Congo from Leopold to Kabila?

The Congo from Leopold to Kabila (2002) is the history of the Congolese democratic movement in the twentieth century. The history begins with Belgian colonial rule, working its way through Mobutu’s reign of terror, before looking at the Congo Wars and concluding with the prolific unrest still rampant at the turn of the century. This survey illuminates how exploitative external interests and internal weaknesses have hampered the Congolese democratic movement and proposes how it might still advance.

Wer The Congo from Leopold to Kabila lesen sollte

Curious minds interested in Congolese history and its democracy movement
Students of colonial and postcolonial history
Africans and non-Africans seeking African history as told from an insider perspective

Über den Autor

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is a Congolese scholar-activist who specializes in African politics. He is a consultant in public policy, governance and conflict-related issues. He was James K. Batten Professor of Public Policy at Davidson College and Professor of African Studies at Howard University. His publications include Conflict in the Horn of Africa, and he was co-editor of The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World.

Nzongola-Ntalaja also served as a delegate to the Sovereign National Conference of Zaire and was later Deputy President of the National Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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