Congo (101 page)

The lines at the end of this chapter were taken from the collection
Esanzo
by Antoine-Roger Bolamba, one of the loveliest works of Congolese poetry.

CHAPTER 6

The literature dealing with Congo’s decolonization is abundant, but often also of inconsistent quality, dated and exaggeratedly “white” in its views. The very best book about the period remains
Politics in the Congo
by Crawford Young (Princeton, 1965). Almost half a century after its first publication, the reader is still amazed to see how—so soon after the events themselves—the author was able to lucidly analyze and document the major processes. In doing so, Young was undoubtedly helped by the fabulous work already done by the Centre de Recherche et d’Information Socio-Politiques (CRISP) in Brussels, an inspiring and conscientious documentation center where researchers such as Jean Van Lierde, Benoît Verhaegen, and Jules Gérard-Libois have done pioneering work. CRISP’s yearbooks and studies of political movements remain to this day an indispensable source for historical research into the 1950s and 1960s in Congo. CRISP also published Young’s standard work in French.

Another older, but still highly valuable study is that by Paule Bouvier,
L’accession du Congo belge à l’indépendance
(Brussels, 1965). More recently, Zana Aziza Etambala has collected a sizeable amount of new archive material in two highly readable volumes,
Congo 55/65: Van Koning Boudewijn tot president Mobutu
(Tielt, Belgium, 1999), and
De teloorgang van een modelkolonie: Belgisch Congo (1958–1960)
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 2008). Of the many memoirs published concerning the turbulent decolonization, those by Jef Van Bilsen, a key figure in the process, are extremely worthwhile,
Kongo 1945–1965: Het einde van een kolonie
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 1993).

Concerning the international context of the Congolese struggle for independence, I profited greatly from Pierre Queuille,
Histoire de l’afro-asiatisme jusqu’à Bandoung: la naissance du tiers-monde
(Paris, 1965), and Colin Legum,
Pan-Africanism: A Short Political Guide
(New York, 1965).

Kinshasa’s youth cultures have been described by Didier Gondola in
Villes miroirs: Migrations et identités urbaines à Kinshasa et Brazzaville, 1930–1970
(Paris, 1997). The above-mentioned work by Filip De Boeck also gives attention to the phenomenon of the “bills” and the “
moziki
.” The political dimension of Congolese soccer is the subject of an excellent documentary by Jan Antonissen and Joeri Weyn:
F.C. Indépendance
(2007). The violent rioting in the capital in 1959 has attracted a great deal of attention. Jacques Marras and Pierre De Vos wrote the accessible
L’équinoxe de janvier: Les émeutes de Léopoldville
(Brussels, 1959), but
J’étais le général Janssens
(Brussels, 1961) by General Émile Janssens, who commanded the Force Publique and was therefore far from impartial, is also worth reading.

The first generation of political figures has been dealt with widely. Concerning Kasavubu, see Benoît Verhaegen and Charles Tshimanga,
L’Abako et l’indépendance du Congo belge: Dix ans de nationalisme kongo (1950–1960)
(Tervuren, Belgium, 2003). On Lumumba, see Jean Omasombo Tshonda and Benoît Verhaegen,
Patrice Lumumba: Jeunesse et apprentissage politique, 1925–1956
(Tervuren, Belgium, 1998), and their sequel,
Patrice Lumumba: De la prison aux portes du pouvoir, juillet 1956–février 1960
(Tervuren, Belgium, 2005). The best study of Lumumba was written by Jean-Claude Willame,
Patrice Lumumba: La crise congolaise revisitée
(Paris, 1990). Other works have come mostly from the outspokenly partisan, with all inherent advantages and disadvantages; what the reader gains in terms of
histoire vécue
(history as it was lived) is usually lost to a lack of nuance and perspective. Pierre De Vos wrote the very readable, but not always accurate
Vie et mort de Lumumba
(Paris, 1961); Francis Monheim seemed head-over-heels in love when he wrote
Mobutu, l’homme seul
(Brussels, 1962); and Jules Chomé avoided seeming enraged but was very much so when he published
Moïse Tshombe et l’escroquerie katangaise
(Brussels, 1966). In
La pensée politique de Patrice Lumumba
(Paris, 1963), Jean Van Lierde brought together Lumumba’s most important speeches, articles, and correspondance. The foreword by Jean-Paul Sartre is, aside from its predictability, still impressive.

Studies examining the partisan squabbling with greater distance are also rare. P. Caprasse, however, with his
Leaders africains en milieu urbain (Elisabethville)
(Brussels, 1959), provided a magnificent sociological approach that went far beyond the local focus of his Katangan fieldwork. He devoted special attention to the rhetoric with which tribal awareness was exploited. Luc Fierlafyn went further in the same vein and submitted the political texts of that day to an interesting rhetorical analysis,
Le discours nationaliste au Congo belge durant la période 1955–1960
(Brussels, 1990).

CHAPTER 8

The whirlwind of events that combined around the formation of the First Republic have been subjected to examinations numerous enough to fill a bookcase. A recent and broad historical survey is lacking, but solid studies have appeared concerning all individual aspects. Walter Geerts’s
Binza 10: De eerste tien onafhankelijkheidsjaren van de Democratische Republiek Congo
(Ghent, Belgium, 1970) still provides a clear introduction. Zana Aziza Etambala’s
Congo 55/65: Van koning Boudewijn tot president Mobutu
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 1999), and Jef Van Bilsens highly important
Kongo 1945–1965: Het einde van een kolonie
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 1993) also provide accessible points of departure for the interested reader. The above-mentioned CRISP yearbooks are essential reading as well.

Concerning the mutiny within the national armed forces, Louis-François Vanderstraeten wrote the definitive study,
Histoire d’une mutinerie, juillet 1960: De la Force Publique à l’Armée nationale congolaise
(Paris, 1985). He gave a great deal of attention to the atmosphere of panic, the sudden exodus of the remaining Belgians, and the Belgian military intervention. For a vivid picture of those days, see two books by Peter Verlinden,
Weg uit Congo: Het drama van de kolonialen
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 2002), and
Achterblijven in Congo: een drama voor de Congolezen?
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 2008). Marie-Bénédicte Dembour wrote an interesting anthropological study on the perspective of the former colonials,
Recalling the Belgian Congo
(New York, 2000).

How the Congo crisis drew Africa into the Cold War is the subject of a truly magnificent analysis in the epic documentary by Jihan El Tahri,
Cuba, une odyssée africaine
(Arte, 2007). The film not only includes interviews with Cuban veterans, but also with leading Congolese, Russian, and American figures of that day: it is a stunning portrait of the Cold War machinations within Africa. For the American perspective, see Stephen R. Weissman,
American Foreign Policy in the Congo 1960–1964
(Ithaca, NY, 1974), and Romain Yakem-tchouk,
Les relations entre les États-Unis et le Zaïre
(Brussels, 1986). For the communist perspective, see
Le monde communiste et la crise du Congo belge
, edited by Arthur Wauters (Brussels, 1961), and Edouard Mendiaux,
Moscou, Accra, et le Congo
(Brussels, 1960). Former CIA boss Larry Devlin recently published his strikingly frank memoires,
Chief of Station, Congo: A Memoir of 1960–67
(New York, 2007). More recently, Frank R. Villafaña has drawn attention to the confrontation between left- and right-wing Cubans in Congo in
Cold War in the Congo: The Confrontation of Cuban Military Forces, 1960–1967
(New Brunswick, NJ, 2009).

The UN operations have been the subject of commentary from various authors. Georges Abi-Saab analyzed the implications for international law in
The United Nations Operation in the Congo 1960–1964
(Oxford, 1978). Claude Leclercq granted a great deal of attention to the situation on the ground in
L’ONU et l’affaire du Congo
(Paris, 1964). Georges Martelli delivered a very negative verdict in
Experiment in World Government: An Account of the United Nations Operation in the Congo 1960–1964
(London, 1966). The United Nations played such a striking role that other forms of multilateralism have tended to be somewhat neglected. Concerning the establishment of the Organization of African Unity and its contribution to the conflict, see Catherine Hoskyns,
The Organization of African Unity and the Congo Crisis
(Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1969).

Lumumba’s murder is know best of all from the oft-translated classic by Ludo De Witte,
De moord op Lumumba
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 1999). In Belgium the book prompted the establishment of a parliamentary investigative subcommittee consisting of four historians charged with combing the available archives with a view to establishing the extent of Belgian culpability in the killing. Their report was bone dry but scrupulous: Luc De Vos et al.,
Lumumba: De complotten? De moord
(Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, 2004). For the American involvement in the affair, see Madeleine Kalb,
The Congo Cables: The Cold War in Africa, from Eisenhower to Kennedy
(New York, 1982), and the recent article by Stephen R. Weissman, “An Extraordinary Rendition,”
Intelligence and National Security
(2010). For the perspective of two Congolese politicians who had once been Lumumba’s allies, see Cléophas Kamitatu,
La grande mystification du Congo-Kinshasa: Les crimes de Mobutu
(Paris, 1971), and Thomas Kanza,
Conflict in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Lumumba
(Baltimore, 1972).

A thoroughgoing study of the Katangan succession was written surprisingly soon after the events themselves is by Jules Gérard-Libois,
Sécession au Katanga
(Brussels, 1963). For the historical roots of that secession, see Romain Yakemtchouk,
Aux origines du séparatisme katangais
(Brussels, 1988).

The uprisings in Kwilu and the east of the country have been dealt with exhaustively in the studies by Benoît Verhaegen,
Rébellions au Congo
(Brussels, 1966–1969), and the two-volume collection of abstracts,
Rébellions-révolution au Zaïre 1963–1965
, edited by Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch et al. (Paris, 1987). See
Les rébellions dans l’est du Zaïre (1964–1967)
, edited by Herbert Weiss and Benoît Verhaegen (1986), an important thematic issue of
Les Cahiers du CEDAF
, a periodical publication by the Centre d’Etude et de Documentation Africaines. Ludo Martens wrote two sympathetic biographies about Pierre Mulele and his wife Léonie Abo,
Pierre Mulele ou la seconde vie de Patrice Lumumba
(Berchem, 1985), and
Une femme du Congo
(Berchem, 1991). An excellent journalistic account of the Congolese rebellion is by Jean Kestergat,
Congo Congo: de l’indépendance à la guerre civile
(Paris, 1965).

The social and economic conditions during the First Republic have received much less attention than the political and military infighting, yet there is a highly accurate picture of life in the big city by J. S. Lafontaine,
City Politics: A Study of Léopoldville, 1962–63
(Cambridge, UK, 1970). Concerning the complex question of the colonial stock portfolio and the negotiations dealing with its return to Congo, see Jean-Claude Willame,
Eléments pour une lecture du contentieux belgo-zaïrois
(Brussels, 1988).

CHAPTER 9

An outstanding, even formidable, introduction to Mobutu’s life and work can be gleaned from the documentary by Thierry Michel,
Mobutu, roi du Zaïre
(Brussels, 1999). Readers wishing to dig more deeply into that period would do well to start with the highly illuminating chapter about the Second Republic by Jacques Vanderlinden in
Du Congo au Zaïre, 1960–1980
, edited by A. Huybrechts et al. (Brussels, 1980). To see how a political elite plundered the national economy, consult Fernard Bézy et al.,
Accumulation et sous-développement au Zaïre 1960–1980
(Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 1981), and David J. Gould,
Bureaucratic Corruption and Underdevelopment in the Third World: The Case of Zaire
(New York, 1980). But no one out to make a serious study of the era should omit the bulky study by Crawford Young and Thomas Turner,
The Rise and Decline of the Zairean State
(Madison, WI, 1985). That book focuses on the first half of the Mobutu regime, the period 1965–80, and provides a very convincing picture of how the state first became omnipresent and omnipotent, then fell into total disarray. Its style is sober, yet it contains a wealth of documentation. By far the most important book about this era.

Original Zairian sources from that period are numerous, but consistently fettered by fear of the regime. There is propaganda in abundance, without a drop of critical analysis. It was only outside the borders of the national territory that one could curse out loud. In Paris, Cléophas Kamitatu, cofounder of the Parti Solidaire Africain, wrote two well-documented works that also provide virulent critique of the regime,
La grande mystification du Congo-Kinshasa: Les crimes de Mobutu
(Paris, 1971), and
Zaïre: Le pouvoir à la portée du peuple
(Paris, 1977).

Two recent American books have provided a backstage glimpse. Mobutu’s personal physician, the American William Close, father of actress Glenn Close, published his recollections of a turbulent period,
Beyond the Storm
(Marbleton, WY, 2007). Although his analysis is not always profound, the anecdotes are often highly revealing. For a better understanding of the ties of friendship between America and Zaïre, readers can best turn to Romain Yakemtchouk,
Les relations entre les États-Unis et le Zaïre
(Brussels, 1986), and the memoirs of CIA agent Larry Devlin,
Chief of Station
, mentioned above.