*NewAfrican *     FEBRUARY 2000

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      CONGO

      COVER STORY

      Lumumba: 'We shall show the world what the black man can do when he is
allowed to work in freedom'

      Story by Osei Boateng.

      Patrice Lumumba was born in 1925 in Stanleyville (now Kisangani) in
Congo's Orientale Province. He was from the Batelela tribe, a sub-group of
the Mongo tribe. In 1957, he was employed in the Stanleyville Post Office,
and later became the sales manager of the Bracongo Brewery in Leopoldville.

      In his early years, Lumumba was like any other Congolese evolue - the
small African elite groomed by Belgium in the hope that they would look
after its interests after independence. Lumumba, however, was different in
one respect - he read widely and voraciously, and assimilated new ideas; his
main interests being philosophy, economics and law.

      Initially, the Belgians were reluctant to leave what was, and still
is, potentially the richest country in Africa. By 1958, Congo was producing
50% of the world's uranium (almost all of it bought by America), 75% of the
world's cobalt, 70% of the world's industrial diamonds, and it was the
world's largest producer of rubber.

      More than 80% of the uranium in the American atomic bombs dropped on
the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 came from Congo's
heavily guarded mine at Shinkolobwe. In terms of Western geo-political
interests at the height of the Cold War, Congo was a very important country.
Where else could they get rubber so cheap to manufacture the tyres of their
military vehicles than Congo.

      This is where the Congolese evolue mattered. They had to keep Belgium
and its allies watered and fed at all times, even after independence. But
Lumumba turned the plan on its head when he returned from the 1958
All-African Peoples Conference in Accra, Ghana, called by President Nkrumah.
His radicalism made him enemy number one of the Western allies. And they
called him a "communist". It was a dangerous nickname to have in those days.
But there was no turning back for Lumumba and his Movement National
Congolaise (MNC).

      Within a year of the Accra conference, Lumumba had transformed the MNC
into a national movement with a mass base. It outshone all the other
politcal movements in the country, including Joseph Kasavubu's ABAKO and
Moise Tshombe's CONAKAT. These were more or less tribally-based groups. But
the MNC stood out as a national movement. Later, one of the MNC stalwarts,
Joseph Ileo, broke away with his followers to form the MNC-Kalonji. But that
did not dampen the spirits of Lumumba.

      His personal popularity alarmed the Belgians who arrested him in
January 1959 for "inciting a riot" in Leopoldville. Fifty people died and
200 were injured in the revolt which started over the refusal by the Belgian
authorities to grant an MNC request to hold a mass meeting. On the second
day of the revolt, the colonial security forces shot dead 26 Congolese and
wounded over 100.

      Though there was no evidence that Lumumba had incited the crowds, he
was yet sentenced to six months imprisonment. His trial coincided with a
round table conference in Brussels on 20 January 1960 to discuss the
constitutional future of the Congo. It was attended by the four leading
movements in the country - MNC, ABAKO, CONAKAT and BALUKAT. All four, for
once, presented a united front and demanded national independence and the
release of Lumumba.

      The writing was clearly on the wall, and Belgium had to play ball.
Lumumba was immediately released and flown to Brussels to join his
colleagues at the conference which demanded that 1 June 1960 be fixed as
Congo's independence day. Belgium agreed with a little amendment:
independence day would be 30 June. The delegations flew home to prepare for
the independence elections. It would mark the end of 80 years of King
Leopold/Belgian rule in Congo.

      While Belgium was losing its grip over Congo, American capital was
surreptitiously creeping in. In fact big business had had a foothold in the
Congo since 1908. Two of the companies that shaped the history of Congo were
the Union Miniere de Haut-Katanga founded in 1906 (mining copper, uranium,
cobalt etc) and the Societe Internationale Forestiere et Miniere du Congo
(Forminiere) which started mining diamonds in the Congo in 1907. By 1929,
Congo had become the world's second largest diamond producer, after South
Africa. Forminiere also had gold and silver mines in the Congo, in addition
to vast cotton, oil palm, cocoa and rubber plantations, cattle ranches,
sawmills and a chain of shops.

      Union Miniere was largely controlled by Belgian, French and British
interests while Forminiere was controlled by American interests. But in
1950, the Rockefeller Group became a major shareholder of Union Miniere by
buying into one of Miniere's subsidiaries, Tanganyika Concessions. This
opened the door for American interests in Union Miniere. It was therefore
vital that Congo remained in the Western sphere of influence.

      The plan was simple: either Belgium got the "right people" to run the
country after independence, or Congo's independence would be aborted! Sadly
for Belgium, the "right people" did not win the independence elections,
despite all attempts by Brussels and its Western allies, including the
mining giants Union Miniere and Forminiere, to influence the outcome.

      Over 100 parties contested the May 1960 parliamentary elections, but
Lumumba's MNC won convincingly, taking 33 of the 137 seats at stake. The
MNC's nearest rival, the Parti Solidaire African (PSA), led by Antoine
Gizenga and Piere Mulele, won only 12 seats. Kasavubu's ABAKO also won 12
seats and the PNP (Parti National de Progres led by Paul Bolya - the party
formed by the Belgians in 1959 and on which they pinned their hopes to win
the elections) won only 8 seats. Brussels was so embarrassed that it could
not release the results and kept them secret for three years.

      In the meantime, the minister for Congolese affairs, Ganshof van der
Meerch, tried to capitalise on the non-announcement of the results to
appoint, first Joseph Ileo, then Cyrille Adoula to head the government. But
Congolese public pressure finally forced Ganshof to ask Lumumba to form the
government.

      On 23 June 1960, Congo's first nationally elected government was thus
formed, with Lumumba as its first prime minister, and Joseph Kasavubu as the
ceremonial president. King Baudouin of Belgium flew to Leopoldville to
perform the official handover. It was here that Lumumba gave his "tears,
fire and blood" speech that so angered the Belgians.

      Before King Baudouin's arrival, Lumumba's cabinet had decided that the
country should present a united front at the independence celebrations, and
that the titular president, Joseph Kasavubu should reply to the King's
speech. (Congo's Loi Fundamentale, published by Belgium as the defacto
national constitution for the country, had invested supreme power in the
prime minister. The president, as in Israel, Germany and elsewhere, only
played a ceremonial role, with no executive powers).

      On independence day, 30 June, King Baudouin, then 30 years old,
surprisingly (or was it?) chose to make one of the most undiplomatic
speeches ever heard by the world. Standing before millions of ecstatic
Congolese in Leopoldville, the King said:

      "The independence of the Congo is the crowning of the work conceived
by the genius of King Leopold II, undertaken by him with courage and
continued by Belgium with perseverance. [King Leopold and his agents had
murdered an estimated 10 million Congolese between 1885 and 1908. Yet King
Baudouin, enthroned in 1951, continued:]

      "For 80 years, Belgium has sent to your land the best of its sons -
first to deliver the Congo basin from the odious slave trade which was
decimating the population, later to bring together the different tribes
which, though former enemies, are now preparing to form the greatest of the
independent states of Africa...

      "Belgian pioneers have built railways, cities, industries, schools,
medical services and modernised agriculture. .. It is your task, gentlemen,
to show that we were right in trusting you.

      "The dangers before you are the inexperience of people to govern
themselves, tribal fights which have done so much harm, and must at all
costs be stopped, and the attraction which some of your regions can have for
foreign powers which are ready to profit from the least sign of weakness..."

      You could well imagine the long faces that greeted the King's speech.
Even the moderate Kasavubu, who replied on behalf of the new Congo nation,
had to drop the second half of his prepared speech praising the King.

      Lumumba, not scheduled officially to speak that day, could not hold
himself any longer. And he was not known to be a waffler. He took the podium
and went straight to the point:

      "Men and women of the Congo, who have fought for and won the
independence we celebrate today, I salute you in the name of the Congolese
government.

      "I ask you all, friends who have fought relentlessly side by side to
make this 30th of June 1960 an illustrious date that remains ineradicably
engraved on your hearts, a date whose significance you will be proud to
teach to your children, who will in turn pass on to their children and
grandchildren the glorious story of our struggle for liberty.

      "For, while the independence of the Congo has today been proclaimed in
agreement with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal on an equal
footing, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that
independence has only been won by struggle, a struggle that went on day
after day, a struggle of fire and idealism, a struggle in which we have
spared neither effort, deprivation, suffering or even our blood.

      "The struggle, involving tears, fire and blood, is something of which
we are proud in our deepest hearts, for it was a noble and just struggle,
which was needed to bring to an end the humiliating slavery imposed on us by
force.

      "Such was our lot for 80 years under the colonialist regime; our
wounds are still too fresh and painful for us to be able to forget them at
will, for we have experienced painful labour demanded of us in return for
wages that were not enough to enable us to eat properly, nor to be decently
dressed or sheltered, nor to bring up our children as we longed to.

      "We have experienced contempt, insults and blows, morning, noon and
night because we were 'blacks'. We shall never forget that a black [man] was
addressed tu, not because he was a friend but because only the whites were
given the honour of being addressed vous.

      "We have seen our lands despoiled in the name of so-called legal
documents which were no more than a recognition of superior force. We have
known that the law was never the same for a white man as it was for a black
[man]: for the former it made allowances, for the latter, it was cruel and
inhuman.

      "We have seen the appalling suffering of those who had their political
opinions and religious beliefs dismissed as exiles in their own country,
their lot was truly worse than death. We have seen magnificent houses in the
towns for the whites, and crumbling straw huts for the blacks; a black [man]
could not go to the cinema, or a restaurant, or a shop that was meant for
'Europeans', a black [man] would always travel in the lowest part of a ship,
under the feet of the whites in their luxurious cabins.

      "And finally, who can ever forget the shooting in which so many of our
brothers died; or the cells where those who refused to submit any longer to
the rule of a 'justice' of oppression and exploitation were put away?

      "All this, brothers, has meant the most profound suffering. But all
this, we can now say, we who have been voted as your elected representatives
to govern our beloved country, all this is now ended. The Republic of Congo
has been proclaimed, and our land is now in the hands of its own children.
Together, brothers and sisters, we shall start on a new struggle, a noble
struggle that will bring our country to peace, prosperity and greatness...

      "We shall show the world what the black man can do when he is allowed
to work in freedom, and we shall make the Congo the focal point of
Africa..."

      The expression on King Baudouin's face as Lumumba uttered those words
could not be described in friendly terms. No wonder Congo was allowed only
two weeks of peace after independence under Lumumba's government.

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