When We Were Kings: Historical background

The People's Democratic Republic of the Congo

Located in Central Africa, The People’s Democratic Republic of the Congo, like much of Africa, was colonised by European powers. It became a Belgian colony in 1906. However, following Nationalist demonstrations, Belgium agreed that the Congo would become independent on June 30, 1960. The country changed its name to the Republic of the Congo and was initially governed by President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Shortly after gaining independence, a military mutiny took place and as a result Joseph Mobutu was appointed as army chief of staff. As the military insurrection spread, the Belgian civil servants began to flee the country, which prompted intervention by Belgian troops.

In July 1960, Congolese rebel leader, Moise Tshombe declared the mining town of Katanga an independent state under his leadership. Early in 1961 disagreements between the President Kasavubu and Prime Minister, Lumumba resulted in them dismissing one another, whereupon Mobutu seized power.

Mobutu immediately had his troops arrest Lumumba, and handed him over to the Katangese. On 9 February 1961, Lumumba was murdered by Tshombe’s white mercenaries.

With the country politically divided, fighting broke out between Lumumba’s supporters, headed by Antoine Gizenga, Mobutu’s government and Tshombe’s Katanga. Eventually Gizenga’s forces were defeated in January 1962, while Tshombe’s held out until January 1963.

In 1964 a new uprising took place, with anti-Government rebels in Kivu and Northern Katanga seizing control of a large area around Stanleyville. Tshombe became Prime Minister and he subsequently changed the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Still under the leadership of Mobutu, the Congolese National Army succeeded in suppressing the rebellion with the aid of mercenaries and former members of Tshombe’s army. Mobutu once again seized power in November 1965 and was elected President five years later.

In 1971 the country was renamed the Republic of Zaire and Mobutu’s party, the Popular Movement of the Revolution, was declared the only legal political party. Although Mobutu was re-elected in 1977 and again in 1984, his policies attracted widespread international criticism and charges of corruption.

In 1991, following countrywide rioting, he agreed to share power with the opposition and promised to have multi-party elections.

However, Zaire was not just experiencing problems internally. Deteriorating relations with neighbouring African states (notably Rwanda) and conflict between various ethnic groups (the Hutus and the Tutsis) led to an escalation in violence.

In the course of the fighting between the Rwandan Hutus and Tutsis, much of which was taking place in Zaire in 1996, President Mobutu ordered that the Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsis) be expelled back into Rwanda. The Banyamulenge had been in Zaire for over two hundred years, but had recently been victim of attacks from the Rwandan Hutu militias, who were also continuing to attack the Rwandan government.

October 1996 saw Zaire accuse the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan army of arming and organising anti-Mobutu guerillas. Zaire, allied with the Hutu militia, launched an attack on the Banyamulenge.

A section of the Banyamulenge rebelled against the orders to retreat back to Rwanda and joined the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo. The ADFL was made up of rebel group from different areas of Zaire, all with the intention of overthrowing President Mobutu. Laurent Kabila, who had created the Kabila People’s Revolutionary Party in 1967, led the Alliance and united all the rebel groups. They also had the backing of the Rwandan government who were keen to see an end to the fighting between the Hutu militias and Rwanda.

Initially the ADFL took control of the east of Zaire, but as the rebellion strengthened, receiving the backing of governments in Uganda, Namibia, Angola and Burundi, it was not long before they seized the capital of Zaire; Kinshasa. In all, the rebellion lasted seven months, ending on May 17, 1997. Mobutu relinquished power shortly before the Alliance took over.

The end of Mobutu’s reign of supremacy was greeted with great celebrations and in the wake of the Alliance’s victory Kabila declared himself President and changed the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kabila’s initial popularity soon declined as political opponents claimed that he was merely acting on behalf of foreign governments such as Rwanda. Less than six months after gaining power, Kabila was accused of obstructing UN investigations into claims that the ADFL had massacred vast numbers of Hutu while in the process of taking over the country.

In September 1998, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, a Goma based rebel group, attempted to take control of Kinshasa. Kabila’s forces were able to prevent this, but the CRD continued to fight, taking the city of Kisangani in the north east of the country. This led to the rebels seizing virtually the entire east side of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, causing 700,000 refugees to flee the war zone. In 1999 Kabila attempted to have peace talks with the rebels, but they refused, claiming that the country did not belong to Mr Kabila.

Between 1998 and 2000, nine countries were sucked into a war that fractured the Congo and divided the continent of Africa with reports of up to 2,600 people dying every day. Rwandan and Ugandan troops traded gunfire at the borders and rival rebel groups within the Congo continued to fight to overthrow Kabila.
On January 16 2001, global news agencies began to carry unconfirmed reports that President Kabila had been killed in a coup attempt in the capital, Kinshasa. Reflecting the confusion that reigned across the Congo and the embattled regime’s need to shore itself up, reports later in the day from senior Congolese government sources stated only that Kabila had been shot and wounded by one of his own bodyguards in an attempted coup.
The Congolese authorities finally abandoned the pretence three days later and confirmed that Kabila had been assassinated. He was 61. The man who had so recently been hailed as the Congo's saviour following the overthrow of Mobuto Sese Seko had himself become equally reviled in a fraction off the time.
Kabila’s son, Joseph Kabila Mulubakat , 31, succeed his father and in an early tour of the UN and foreign governments, explained his intentions of seeking to unify the country, promising to implement a peace accord signed but blocked by his father
The UN stated towards the end of March that Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia had all met the commitment to pull back nearly 10 miles at about 100 key locations along the 1,500 frontline in the Congo. By 29 March, the UN was able to begin deploying peacekeepers as the international momentum for peace increased

Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeking to re-open investigations into the murder 40 years ago of Patrice Lumumba, Africa's most promising post-colonial leader, alleging that the Belgian Government is responsible for his murder

The American Civil Rights Movement

The American Civil Rights movement aimed to gain greater social, political and economic equality for black Americans in the face of centuries of discrimination and segregation primarily in the Southern States of the USA. It gathered momentum in the 1940's.

Prior to 1955, some Rights had been established such as the desegregation of the armed forces in 1948 and the Supreme Court decision of 1954 which declared segregated public schools to be unconstitutional.

In 1955, a new phase in the struggle for civil rights was initiated by the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. This non-violent protest was organised by the city’s black leaders in protest at the arrest of Rosa Parks, a black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. For a year, the black people of Montgomery walked, car-pooled and hired black-owned taxis instead of riding on the buses despite legal harassment, intimidation, and violence.

Martin Luther King was asked to lead the boycott. It ended successfully in 1956 with a mandate from the Supreme Court outlawing all segregated public transport in the city. Following the bus boycott, civil rights activists now employed a strategy of non-violent action, which used marches and boycotts intended to force southern communities to abandon their segregation laws. For a time, the issue of civil rights seemed about to threaten civil war.

For the civil rights movement, non-violent protest inspired by the example of Gandhi in India was its most effective form of action and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as its most eloquent spokesman. King was leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and he set out to employ his non-violent strategy in community after community throughout the south.

Prior to 1963, the Civil Rights Movement achieved many individual successes in certain states but in that year the movement began to pressure the federal government for drastic change. In August 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom saw 250,000 black and white Americans come to the capital to pledge their support for a pending civil rights bill.

Congress responded by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act prohibited segregation or discrimination in public facilities, employment and schools. In 1964 the 24th Amendment was ratified, which ended the use of poll tax. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 following the Selma–to–Montgomery march in Alabama, which publicised continuing disenfranchisement. This act outlawed literacy tests and other similar devices designed to exclude blacks from polls. A century after their emancipation, black Americans had finally gained legal equality.

The Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam was founded in 1930 in the USA and was led by Elijah Muhammad. His teachings concentrated on Islam being the religion of black people, while Christianity was that of whites. He taught that God is black and the devil is white, which he claimed was proven by all the evil perpetrated by the white race.

The Nation of Islam encouraged independence and self-help, advocating the development of separate hospitals, industries and educational institutions. It was their belief that the black people of America should have a separate state, either in America or Africa. It was insisted that trying to integrate was a waste of time and that the relationship in America between whites and blacks was like a bad marriage.

Malcolm X, who became the principle voice for the Nation of Islam, claimed that the inevitable result of racial integration was intermarriage and interbreeding, which would destroy the purity of both races.

The movement grew following the second World War, particularly throughout the 1950s and 1960s, which saw the explosion in Civil Rights Movements. By 1958, the Nation of Islam had over 15,000 members. Malcolm X’s controversial speeches were extremely influential in the growth of the Nation of Islam.

Muhammad Ali, the World Heavyweight boxing champion (and at that time arguably the most famous black man in the world) was also a member of the NOI, which generated much publicity and media coverage. As the NOI grew into a vast organisation in the 1960s, so it began to splinter. The expulsion of Malcolm X in 1963 saw the Nation of Islam divide into two, with Malcolm subsequently setting up the Organisation of Afro–American Unity, which preached racial solidarity.

Elijah Muhammad was succeeded as leader by his son Wallace in 1975. With this change came a change in the organisation’s methods. Black nationalism was replaced with orthodox Islam and Americanism and the movement changed its name to the World Community of Islam in the West.

Controversial figure, Louis Farrakhan, The National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam, disliked this change in direction. He attempted to reconstruct the NOI as it had previously been. In the 1990s, Farrakhan’s organisation grew and he is now one of the most influential black leaders in America.

Bibliography

• Perry, B Malcolm – 'The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America'
• Bute, E. L. & Harmer, H. J. P. 'The Black Book'
• Cone, J. H. Martin and Malcolm and America
• Finkenbine, R 'Sources Of the African–American Past'