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Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ari Marshall

LIU Global College

GAPC 302: Anti-Racism, Indigenous rights & Allyship

Louise Togo

November 30, 2022

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When thinking about colonization, our minds often first think of nations such as the British,

French, Spanish, Portugal, and the Dutch, rarely does the name King Leopold the II of Belgium

come to mind. This is what makes the colonial history of Democratic Republic of the Congo

(DRC), unique and terribly cruel. From 1885 to 1908 it was ruled by a single man, King Leopold

the II of Belgium; it was relinquished by King Leopold the II at that time to be ruled by the

nation of Belgium until 1960 (Cordell et. al., 2022, section. history). King Leopold II swindled

control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called the Congo Free State) at the

conclusion of the 1884-1885 Berlin West Africa Conference which laid out the rules of colonial

conquest for European powers in Africa and was known as ‘scramble for Africa’(Getz, n.d. para.

3) (Rannard & Webster, 2020, para. 21). King Leopold II hid his colonial ambitions under the

facade of being a great humanitarian and abolitionist who wanted to help the Congolese people

rebuild after the transatlantic slave trade and its’ lasting impacts on the country (Getz, n.d. para.

3). Rather than utilize the Congo Free State as a colony for the benefit of Belgium or follow

through on his promises of ‘civilizing’ the Congo Free State and bringing about improved living

conditions, King Leopold II privatized the land and used the Congolese people solely for his

personal benefit. Under King Leopold II’s rule Congolese people were forced to produce ivory,

rubber, and valuable minerals; when quotas were not met extremely inhumane scare tactics were

used, including limb amputation and child kidnapping (Rannard & Webster, 2020, para. 24-27).

The inhumane treatment of people from the Congo Free State led to rampant disease and famine

which claimed the lives of an estimated 10 million Congolese people (Rannard & Webster, 2020,

para. 27). By 1908, a British missionary and journalist by the name of Edmund Dene Morel was

working at Elder Dempster & Company, a shipping company that put Edmund Dene Morel into

contact with the authorities of the Congo of the Free State and alerted him to the extreme
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atrocities committed against the Congolese people by King Leopold II’s army, the Force

Publique (Snider, 2015, para. 1). Edmund Dene Morel launched a campaign for the

relinquishment of the Congo of the Free State from King Leopold II and circulated images of

severed hands and burned villages that led other European colonial powers, who were exploiting

territories all across Africa themselves, to deem King Leopold II regime too barbaric and

thereafter the Belgian parliament forced King Leopold II to surrender his personal fiefdom to the

state of Belgium (Rannard & Webster, 2020, para. 32). Although Belgium, upon gaining control

of the Congo Free State now named the Belgium Congo, eliminated the most horrendous forms

of torture such as limb amputation, it maintained a clear colonizer mindset with the surpression

of any political opposition and kept Congolese people in slave-like working conditions (Cordell

et. al., 2022, section. history).

The Belgian Congo independence movement was birthed in 1957 when Belgium passed

statut des villes “statute of the cities”, a local government reform in the Belgian Congo that

afforded the Congolese the first taste of any sort of democracy (Cordell et. al., 2022, section.

history). The demand for citizenship and constitutional changes in nearby French colonies,

coupled with the two world wars and the overall demand by worldwide rural masses for rights,

gave rise to turmoil in the Belgian Congo; which was ripe for nationalist sentiment and the

onslaught of a revolution (Cooper, 2014, p. 468) (Cordell et. al., 2022, section. history). In 1956

a political manifesto was released by a group named Alliance des Bakongo, a rising Congolese

political party, that called for immediate emancipation of the Belgian Congo from Belgium;

under its leader Joseph Kasavabu, the Christian based group Alliance des Bakongo a became a

leader in the voice for independence (Cordell et. al., 2022, section. history). Quickly, nationalist

movements spread throughout the Belgian Congo and a new group unaffiliated to any ethnic
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group called Congolese National Movement was created. It was spearheaded by Congolese

politician and African nationalist Patrice Lumumba (Cordell et. al., 2022, section. history). `

Belgium officially granted the Democratic Republic of the Congo independence on June

30, 1960 but as seen with many decolonization movements, the nation was in chaos within a

week (Kaplan, 1967, p. 24). From 1960 to 1965 the newly independent Democratic Republic of

the Congo found itself in political turmoil; the associated violence cost 100,000 lives. The fight

for leadership over the Democratic Republic of the Congo was between Joseph Kasavubu, the

leader of Alliance des Bakongo, backed by the United Nations and Western capitalist nations,

and Patrice Lumumba, the African nationlist backed by the majority of the Congolese people,

and who the United States suspected was a communist (Hurst, 2020, p. 5). Sadly, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo hardly got to try its hand at independence as right off the bat

its internal conflict was overshadowed by the Cold War and the fight between western capitalist

nations and the communist bloc (Hurst, 2020, p. 4).With the two leaders vying for power of a

country with vested interests from outside powers, Army Chief of Staff Joseph Mobutu with the

support of western nations, mobilized a military coup d’état and ousted both leaders from power.

This resulted in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba by Katangan rebels (Hurst, 2020, p. 5).

Joseph Kasavubu was reinstated as the president of Democratic Republic of the Congo until

1965 when he was ousted by a second coup d’état by military leader Joseph Mobutu who had

convinced western leaders he was the best candidate to stomp out communism (Hurst, 2020, p.

5).

Seeking to unite the nation under an African identity with himself the savior, Joseph

Mobutu changed the name Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Republic of Zaire; named

after the river that runs through the Congo in 1971, and then the following year named the
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country after himself (Smith, 1997, para. 13). From then on Mobutu maintained his one party

dictatorship despite numerous internal coup d’état attempts and external threats (Britannica,

2022, para. 9). Under Mobutu’s rule the Republic of Zaire saw endless government corruption,

decline in infrastructure, inflation, widespread poverty, and other symptoms characteristic of an

oppressive regime; while Mobutu himself amassed one of the largest personal fortunes in the

world (Britannica, 2022, para. 9). After ruling from 1965-1977 Mobutu was overthrown by

another coup d’état led by Laurent Kabila, who renamed the country the Democratic Republic of

the Congo. He was subsequently shot in an attack at his palace in 2001 (Staff, 2021, para. 2).

Decolonization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by armed conflict,

poverty, death, and atrocities committed by various groups vying for power, and has left the

Democratic Republic of the Congo one of the poorest countries in Africa; one that also did not

see a peaceful transition of power until 2019 (Twardowski, 2022, para. 1).

In order to understand the contemporary status of the people of the Democratic Republic

of the Congo it is necessary to understand its brutal colonial ruling under King Leopold II of

Belgium and then by the state of Belgium; and the subsequent Congo Crisis between 1960 and

1965 in which there was a fight for control of the nation events have led to ongoing violence in

the country since the end of the Congo Crisis in 1965. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is

arguably one of the richest nations on earth in terms of natural resources, but it has a violent

history with its roots in colonization which led to violent wars and corrupt governments. This has

left the Democratic Republic of the Congo ranked 179th of 189 countries in 2019 on the Human

Development Index which measures the average health, education, and standard of living in a

country (Poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo, n.d, para. 4) (Rasure, 2011, para. 1). The

World Bank describes the Democratic Republic of the Congo as among the top five poorest
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nations in the world with just under 60 million people living on less than $2.15 a day. It is further

estimated that 1 out of every 6 Congolese people live in extreme poverty (World Bank, 2022,

para. 3). Along with poverty, the Democratic Republic of the Congo faces numerous healthcare

problems with 42% of children under the age of five being stunted. Stunted is defined as

impaired growth as a result of malnutrition, frequent illness, and/or other negative health

conditions caused by insufficient health services (World Bank, 2022, para. 11). Lack of access to

education and illiteracy is prominent, the primary completion rate is only 67% and secondary

completion rate is considerably less at 34% for men and only 16% for women (World Bank,

2022, para. 12). Women also face specific hardships with half of women experiencing physical

violence and a third having suffered sexual violence. Early marriage rates are common as shown

by a survey in 2007 indicating nearly 40% of women in their early twenties were in union or

married under the age of 18 (UN Women, n.d., para. 3). An estimated 62% of women work in

agriculture but earn significantly less than men and own fewer valuable assets (World Bank,

2022, para. 14).

Decolonization on the surface level may sound simple; a state withdrawing from its

colony but to dig deeper into decolonization is to understand it is a long process. For the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Newbury (2012) states “Indeed, in some respects it

continues today, at least in the eyes of many people in eastern Congo, who feel the formal

demands of the colonial state are reflected in the informal impositions of the current state- and or

neighboring states'' (p. 131). Newbury (2012) is explaining that under colonial oppression,

Congolese people were kept in extreme poverty and were banned from education, which as

written above, has lasting effects on a nation. Congolese people were never afforded a state

structure of their own to address their needs as people, to represent their interests at the
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international level, or to give adequate protection from invasion, exploitation, and occupation

(Newbury, 2012, p. 131). Newbury describes the decolonization of the Democratic Republic of

the Congo in four distinct phases. The first phase started the moment independence was granted

from June 30, 1960, and ended with the assassination of Patrice Lumumba on Janaury 17, 1961.

The second phase was characterized by local level struggles for power as Lumumba’s people

were forced to flee and a military coup d'état occurred on November 24, 1965 which brought to

power the military coup d’état leader Joseph Mobutu. The third phase of decolonization was

from 1965 to 1997 in which Mobutu led an autocracy, financially and militarily supported by

western governments, which led Congolese people even further from their needs of economic

and cultural security. The fourth and final phase began in 1996 when Rwanda invaded the

Democratic Republic of the Congo. The revolt was led by Laurent Kabila who captured the

capital city of Kinshasa in 1997 and was inaugurated as president after having successfully

orchestrated a coup d'état against Joseph Mobutu, who had lost support of western governments

at the close of the Cold War and was forced to flee (Newbury, 2012, p. 132). Overall, these

phases express a time of hope after Belgium granted independence, a moment of local struggle

between leaders fighting for power, a long time of repression under the dictatorship of Joseph

Mobutu, and occupation. The end result as described by Newbury (2012) is that the Congolese

people are denied true sovereignty, legitimacy, or any opportunity for them to establish a

government that addresses the needs of its people (p. 132).

Effective decolonization has been incredibly difficult to achieve for the Democratic

Republic of the Congo because the state has never been established for the people for longer than

a year or so (Newbury, 2012, p. 132). The independence movement from within the Democratic

Republic of the Congo was the only short amount of time there was a cohesive vision for the
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nation. No further political coherence has been achieved because from the start of decolonization

two different groups within the Democratic Republic of the Congo were vying for power; with

the struggle ending with the western supported, and possibly orchestrated, death of Patrice

Lumumba. Within two weeks of decolonization, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was

faced with a military rebellion from Congolese people caused by the racial exclusivity practiced

by the Belgium military officers which sent white military personnel fleeing, a Belgium attack on

the country in the name of protecting its fleeing citizens, and a Belgium backed succession of its

wealthiest region Katanga (Newbury, 2012, p. 132). The results of these events left the newly

independent Democratic Republic of the Congo without a functioning military, lacking a

working government, and without any financial resources because Katanga, its wealthiest

section, had seceded. In desperation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo had to turn to

international players for help; the devastating effect of this cry for help to other countries who

had no vested interest in the Congolese people other than exploitative work, was that the

Democratic Republic of the Congo never had a chance to build a government of its own that was

structured for its own people and strong enough to fight inside rebellions and outside threats

(Newbury, 2012, p. 132).

Thus far efforts to achieve decolonization have included the Belgium repatriation of

84,000 Congolese artifacts that Belgium had collected since the colonial period and kept in its

African Museum that was established in 1898 in Brussels. The repatriation of Congolese items

has been criticized as an elitist move as the catalog of artifacts will only be made available to

Belgium and Congolese experts and the Congolese government; ordinary citizens will have no

access to the information in order to request that these items be returned to their specific

territory. Other decolonization efforts have been minimal as Belgium has refused to issue an
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apology to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for decades, and to this day has still come up

short of a full apology. A small hint of apologies was issued on June 8, 2022, by Belgian King

Philippe who expressed his regrets at the atrocities and violence that had occurred against

Congolese people during the era of colonization, but gave no indications of wealth repatriation.

At this point, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is under fragile leadership from

Felix Tshisekedi who assumed power peacefully in 2019, although the elections were contested

(Al Jazeera, 2019, para. 9). It is currently facing the rapidly rising threat of a Tutsi ethnic

minority separatist group called M23, who the Democratic Republic of the Congo accuses

Rwanda of supporting, as Rwanda’s president is of Tutsi descent (Kabumba, 2022, para. 10). The

Democratic Republic of the Congo is endowed with the world's second largest river, rich and

fertile soil, and valuable minerals such as copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, uranium, coltan and

oil, which theoretically makes it one of the richest countries on earth in terms of natural

resources (Snow, 2013, para. 21). Unfortunately, for the Congolese people its enormous possible

wealth is a downright curse as outside powers have always sought to destabilize and exploit it.

Forced slave labour of mining these precious materials gave King Leopold II a personal fortune

and later the state of Belgium. The United States reaped the benefits derived from the

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s rich mines that produced the uranium it needed to drop

atomic bombs on Japan during WII, however while western nations defended their own freedoms

abroad, the Congolose people were beaten, tortured, mulitated, raped, and many other

horrendous atrocities were committed against them if their exploitors demands were not met

(Snow, 2013, para. 34). It is because of violence in the colonial era of the Democratic Republic

that it never had the foundations of education to build its own government for its own people.

The Congolese people fell victim to a cold war they were never a part of because their dictator
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was supported by western governments. Joseph Mobutu exported minerals to fuel western

economies during the Cold War, while he himself bled the Democratic Republic of the Congo

dry of funds and amassed a huge personal fortune (Snow, 2013, para. 43-44). Congolese people

continue to suffer today with the majority of its people living in poverty with lack of access to

education, healthcare, and many women who are victims of domestic violence, lower literacy

and education rates, high fertility rates, and a lack of any means to improve their living standards

(World Bank, 2022, para. 11). Despite the evident suffering, Belgium and it is not unreasonable

to say the United States as well, owes the Congolese people a full acknowledgement of the

atrocities that were committed against them, apology, and reparations for the wealth they stole

out of the country; the genocide Belgium committed against the Congolese people under the

facade of Christianity, and the joint agendas that both nations have had throughout

decolonization and the cold war that led to further Congolese deaths under corrupt western

puppet regimes.
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