Silence on the African Plains – The History of the Congo
The history of the Congo is dark and the role of Western powers in shaping this history has led to an eerie silence on all things to do with the African plain.
The device you’re reading this on is more likely than not a benefactor of the rich resources of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo - One of the most natural resource-rich countries in the world has not known peace since the arrival of European colonisers. The Congo’s traumatic history has directly contributed to the exploitation, displacement, murder, and sexual devastation of millions of men, women, and children. The world’s race to the bottom in carbon emissions will only further this exploitation as we rely on Congolese resources to power electric vehicles, devices and more; we are complicit to capitalist destruction and therefore Congolese murder. The history of the Congo is dark and the role of Western powers in shaping this history has led to an eerie silence on all things to do with the African plain.
The history we wish to forget
The various Congolese peoples living in the vast region had long-known strife and political disruption prior to King Leopold II’s conquest of the land in the 19th century. The catastrophic effect of the Transatlantic slave trade sewed seeds of mistrust between local chiefs, and instability that stretched between the Kongo Kingdom in the West, and the Luba-Lunda states of the East. The starry future offered by Europeans to the various chiefs of the region if they sold their prisoners of war into slavery, not only incentivised further conflict but rewarded it. So by the time the Belgian King wished to call Congo his own, intra-regional conflict, a decreasing population, and superior weaponry left much of Congo at the mercy of the foreign ruler.
Under Leopold’s sole dictatorship, the ‘civilising’ of the Congolese people was a mission to enslave, exploit and extract all but life from them. ‘The root of the evil’ of Leopold’s colonial Congo was that ‘the government of the Congo was above all a commercial trust, everything else was orientated towards commercial gain’ – Roger Casement, 1904. Although Belgian officials tried to cover up much of the disgusting acts exercised in service of their King, images of people of all ages with limbs missing, whilst Belgian soldiers loom in the background can be found across the internet. Troops, when not burning villages, would routinely amputate, murder and rape those that did not meet unreasonable work quotas, or those they just felt deserved it.
Much of the colonial history of the Congo is generally accepted as horrific, but twenty-five years ago when writers were uncovering some of the stories of the period, elderly colonial officials blamed any wrongdoing on Leopold’s army of African soldiers (not themselves who led them). Leopold was a genocidaire who never stepped foot in the Congo; this is the footing the Congo began on.
Out of the darkness of Belgian Kingship
Emerging stories of the horrors occurring in the Congo and mounting pressure from the international community would transfer the ‘Congo Free State’ from Leopold’s rule to the Belgian government in 1908. For the next 50 years, Belgian colonialism would nurture Anti-colonial sentiment through its inability to devolve political powers in the colony. Rather than teach some level of political experience as was the case in some of the British territories in Africa, total rule was exercised from Belgium to the people. By the late 50s calls for self-determination were widespread across the nation as well as the world. So, the pitiful local government reforms introduced in 1957 to appease the Congolese were overlooked as too little too late. After Anti-colonial riots broke out in ironically – Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), the famous Round Table of Congolese nationalist parties was arranged and unanimously agreed independence was the only way forward. On June 30th, 1960, Congo celebrated its first Independence Day, although celebrations would not last for long.
Western decolonisation, deliberation, and destruction
Patrice Lumumba is one of the most important figures in Congolese history. He was imprisoned in his early life for his active involvement in politics and after his release would only be further involved in nationalist movements with the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). Different from other nationalist parties fighting for independence in the 50s, Lumumba emphasised the pan-African values of inclusivity across ethnic groups and so his large following reflected the many ethnic groups of the Congo. Lumumba would be arrested again for inciting riots in 1959 in the lead-up to local elections, but despite this the MNC won a majority. Strong pressure from the MNC would lead to his release before the historic Round Table, as they refused to participate without Lumumba present.
Lumumba, a strong figure of national unity, would eventually become the Prime Minister after June 30th, but mutiny from the army, Belgian military involvement, and secession of Katanga a mineral-rich region of the Congo, led to massive instability across the young nation. The UN began a disappointing peacekeeping mission on Lumumba’s request but had little effect in ending the secession, to which he approached the unwilling United States. It was only once he approached the Soviet Union that the US became involved in the crisis, and it would undoubtedly lead to his death.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first US president known to authorise the assassination of a foreign leader, an official note taker recalled the President ordering Allen Dulles, the then director of the CIA to assassinate Lumumba during a National Security Council Meeting. An attempt to poison Lumumba ended prematurely when he was placed under house arrest after being removed from Office which the US and Belgium supported. Although Lumumba was shot dead by Congolese soldiers in 1961, the United States and the Western agenda orchestrated the entire plot leading to his death through bribery, anti-Lumumba protests and more.
The Aftermath
Once the US had removed the leader democratically chosen by the Congolese people in the most anti-American fashion, Congo’s army chief of staff Mobutu took power and would be supported by American aid and the CIA, all whilst Western capitalists drained Congo of its rich resources. When Mobuto’s regime collapsed in 1997 it led to a war that killed between two and five million people, a result of US interference and sins that the country has yet to atone for.
There is so much more to say about the period before and after Mobutu's autocracy, the massive corruption, which included the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis in the state as well as in eastern Congo where many prosecuted Tutsis also resided. This genocide would be a turning point that ended Mobutu’s reign, but it would not be the end of violence in the region as two civil wars followed. The constant instability spanning hundreds of years has fractured the ethnic groups of the country, and militias in the incessant search for power have continued to exploit the one group at the heart of all this history – the people.
Rebel groups have fought to secure the control of resources like mining zones for cobalt, and subjected children to rape, torture and slavery – those who do not work endlessly in mines for indecent wages, often are recruited as child soldiers in a cycle of destruction and sufferation.
Many are responsible for the tragic events occurring now in the Congo, but ultimately the past cannot be changed only reconciled. Although Rwanda finances the biggest rebel group M23 and so the conflict, the exploitation of the people is financed by the West and China who nurture instability through the constant need for cheap conflicted resources. It is therefore against capitalist nature to end the suffering of the Congolese people, as profits cannot work alongside improving conditions.
Leopold II has long been forgotten, confined to the pages of murderous history books as a poor and unqualified King, but his beliefs still live on. He once said: “Cut off hands - that's idiotic. I'd cut off all the rest of them, but not hands. That's the one thing I need in the Congo” – words that still reign true through Western exploitation today.
Information Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo/History
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/may/13/features11.g22
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrice-Lumumba
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/24/congo-lumumba-cia-amends/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/cobalt-mining-crisis-congo-explained