ETHNIC AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS IN POSTCOLONIAL BELGIAN COLONIES IN AFRICA

In the Congo, political instability started as soon as the Congolese gained their independence from the Belgians in 1960. Congo is a multiethnic country with about two hundred ethnic groups. Most of the ethnic groups speak languages of the widespread Bantu family: Kongo, Mongo, Luba, Bwaka, Kwango, Lulua, Luanda, and Kasai. There are also Nilotic-speaking peoples near Sudan and some “pygmies” in northeastern Congo. Although there were several political parties, the two most prominent were Joseph Kasavubu’s ABAKO, a party based among the Kongo people, and Patrice Lumumba’s Congolese National Movement. After the June 1960 elections, Lumumba became prime minister and Kasavubu the ceremonial president.

Immediately after independence on June 30, 1960, ethnic and personal rivalries—influenced by Belgium, other European nations, and the United States—sent the newly independent country into political crisis. On July 4, the army rebelled. Seven days later, Moise Tshombe, the provisional president of Katanga, in a move instigated by the Belgians, declared the mineral-rich Katanga province an independent country. Subsequent political problems led to military intervention by the Belgians, who claimed that they intervened to protect Belgian citizens from attack. On July 14, the United Nations Security Council authorized a force to help to establish order in the Congo, but this force was unable to bring the seceded Katanga province to order. As a result, Lumumba asked the Soviet Union to help him bring Katanga back to Congo. On September 5, President Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba as prime minister. Lumumba in turn dismissed the president, creating a political stalemate.

Joseph Mobutu, who later changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko, was appointed army chief of staff by Lumumba. Taking advantage of the political conflict between the president and the prime minister, Mobutu encouraged the military to revolt. The United States and Belgium provided the money that Mobutu used to bribe the Congolese army to commit treason against their properly elected government. The United States, Belgium, and other Western governments aided Mobutu in overthrowing the government of Lumumba as part of their cold war rivalry with the communist bloc countries led by the Soviet Union. Mobutu was used as a Western stooge to stop an alleged communist incursion into Africa.

On January 17, 1961, the government of Moise Tshombe in Katanga, with the full support of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), murdered Lumumba and two of his associates in cold blood. Besides the cold war rivalry, the other main reason for killing Lumumba and supporting the secession in the provinces of Katanga and Kasai was for Belgians to secure controlling interests in the rich mineral resources of the Congo.

After the assassination of Lumumba, many governments ruled Congo in rapid succession: Évariste Kimba, Joseph Ileo, Cyrille Adoula, and Moise Tshombe. But in 1965, after ruling from behind the scenes for four years, Mobutu finally overthrew Kasavubu in a coup widely believed to be sponsored by the CIA. Mobutu ruled for thirty-one years and pauperized the Congo. Mobutu and his supporters were so corrupt and stole so much money from the Congolese people that his government was described as a kleptocracy, or government by thieves. When Laurent Kabila drove him from power in 1997, Mobutu’s wealth deposited in foreign banks was in excess of $4 billion.

Despite Mobutu’s dictatorship, relative peace reigned during most of his regime. In 1966 he renamed the Congolese cities of Léopoldville (Kinshasa), Stanley-ville (Kisangani), and Elisabethville (Lubumbashi). In 1971, in a continuation of his Africanization policy, the Congo River was renamed the Zaire River and consequently, Congo was renamed the Republic of Zaire.

In Rwanda, independence brought increased ethnic tensions because of the policies of the Belgian colonial administration. There had been vicious cycles of violence beginning in December 1963 when Hutus killed more than 10,000 Tutsis and sent about 150,000 into exile. The worst of the genocide took place in 1994 when nearly a million Rwandan citizens (mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus) were massacred. This well-planned genocide started when the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were shot down, allegedly by Tutsi rebel soldiers. Hutus went on a rampage, killing Tutsis in their midst with the aim of exterminating them. The killing stopped only when Paul Kagame, with the help of Uganda, led a Tutsi army that drove the Hutu-led military into exile in neighboring Congo.

The Rwanda genocide of 1994 helped exacerbate ethnic and political tensions in the Congo. As the strategic importance of Mobutu disappeared with the end of the cold war, little or no attention was paid to the Congo. Mobutu in his bid to stay in power for life did not build a strong army. His inability to disarm the ex-Rwandan soldiers and perpetuators of the 1994 genocide who were now living in Congo led to the invasion of the Congo by a combined army of Tutsi-led governments of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda and the Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila. It was relatively easy for this army to overrun Congo. Mobutu first escaped to Togo and then to Morocco, where he died a few months later from cancer. On reaching Kinshasa in May 1997, Kabila declared himself president and changed the name of Zaire back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kabila’s inability to disarm the Hutu militia and to share power with his former Tutsi allies led to war with his allies. In 1998 Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda jointly invaded Congo, and Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Chad, and the Sudan fought on the side of Kabila’s Congo. This conflict has been labeled “Africa’s war.” Although fighting stopped in 1999, rebel groups continued their attacks on defenseless civilians and the Congolese central government. In 2001, when Kabila was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, he was succeeded by General Joseph Kabila, his son. The new leader signed a peace treaty with the rebel groups and appointed four vice presidents hailing from former rebel groups. In 2006 a new constitution was written and approved for the Third Republic, and elections were conducted with Joseph Kabila emerging as victorious. Rwanda also has a new constitution, and amnesty was granted for most of the Hutu genocide perpetrators. Since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has successfully conducted both local and national elections.

Several Belgian colonial policies sowed the seeds of racial and ethnic rivalries that led to the killings of millions of Africans and also sent millions more into exile from the former Belgian colonies. First, the post-colonial political leaders of Congo and Rwanda continued the Belgian colonial policies. Second, these leaders exacerbated ethnic rivalries and tensions to stay in power. Third, most of the ethnic tensions in these countries are caused by rapid population growth and the fight for scarce resources by the leaders of the various ethnic groups. Fourth, European and American governments and the multinational business and interests have fueled ethnic conflicts in Africa’s former Belgian colonies for their own purposes. For example, Belgian and other foreign interests engineer these conflicts so they can continue to loot the resources of Africa. Finally, the constant interventions of the Belgians in the affairs of their former colonies of Congo and Rwanda have made ethnic and political rivalries worse. In spite of this legacy of the colonial period, political developments in the Congo and Rwanda (peace agreements, new constitutions, and new elections) show that there is a new hope for the former African colonies of Belgium.