Things I Didn’t Know about Africa
The longer I stay here the more I realize just how much I did not know about Africa before I came here. For example, I didn’t know there were 52 countries on the continent and nearly as many languages. I confess that I believed African cultures were pretty much the same all over the continent – obviously this is not true. Here’s a list of every country on the continent. Until Ken and I started studying African geography I had never heard of more than half the countries on the list.
• Algeria
• Angola
• Benin
• Botswana
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo
• Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea Bissau
• Guinea
• Ivory Coast
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Libya
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Reunion
• Rwanda
• São Tomé and Principe
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Africa
• Sudan
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Togo
• Tunisia
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zanzibar
• Zimbabwe
Many of these countries have histories steeped in poverty, violence and political unrest. It is my intent to research as many of these countries as possible and report my findings here. I hope you’ll find it interesting and maybe even useful. Since I have already written extensively about Rwanda, I’ll start this project with our neighbor to the west, Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC. DRC has been in the news lately because of their recent presidential elections. However, to get a broader picture of DRC let’s start with a history lesson.
Democratic Republic of Congo – Early History
Europeans first explored DRC in 1870 and subsequently administered the country until the 1920s. King Leopold II of Belgium wanted the land that would later become the Congo as a colony. The country was formally acquired by Leopold at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. This area became his personal property and was renamed Congo Free State.
King Leopold headed a brutal regime whose sole intent was to exploit as much profit out of Congo as possible through the sale of rubber from the abundant rubber trees. Leopold made a fortune in rubber sales, erected and named several buildings after himself and was responsible for the deaths of scores of Africans as a result of rubber production. “During the period between 1885 and 1908, between five and fifteen (the commonly accepted figure is about ten) million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and diseases. A government commission later concluded that the population of the Congo had been "reduced by half" during this brutal period.To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique (FP) was called in. The FP was an army, but its aim was not to defend the country, but to terrorise the local population. The Force Publique made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives as a means of enforcing rubber quotas a matter of policy; this practice was disturbingly widespread..” In 1908 the Belgian Parliament finally bowed to international pressure and took over the Free State from King Leopold, thus making it a Belgian colony colony called The Belgian Congo.
Belgian Administration during the 1960s
During the period of Belgian administration, life for the Congolese people became somewhat better as schools and hospitals emerged and offered the people limited access. Infrastructure included construction of a large railway. In addition to rubber, Congo was rich in uranium. Congo supplied the uranium the USA used to build atom bombs that would destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By this time, Congolese life expectancy was 55; today it is 51.
Congo was emerging as a developing country rich in natural resources with an impressive infrastructure. However, the local people lacked political power since the country was ruled by Europeans in Beligum. As a result, the upper class among Congolese initiated a revolt to end the inequity. The Belgian Congo achieved independence on June 30, 1960 under the name Republic of Congo.
Joseph Mobutu became chief of staff of the new Congo army. Taking advantage of the existing leadership crisis, Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to create sentiment sufficient to inspire mutinous action. With financial support allegedly from the USA and Belgium, Mobutu made payments to his soldiers in order to generate their loyalty. The aversion of Western powers towards communism and leftist ideology in general influenced their decision to finance Mobutu's quest to maintain "order" in the new state by neutralizing existing leadership in a coup by proxy.
On January 17, 1961, Katangan forces, supported by the Belgian government's desire to retain rights to mine for copper and diamonds in Katanga and South Kasai and the US CIA’s desire to remove any leftist sympathizers in the region, assassinated leader Patrice Lumumba. Amidst widespread confusion and chaos, several governments led by technicians, took over in quick succession
Following five years of extreme instability and civil unrest, Joseph Mobutu, now Lieutenant General, overthrew Kasavubu in a 1965. He had the support of the US because of his staunch opposition to Communism, which would presumably make him a roadblock to Communist schemes in Africa. It is also argued that the Western support for Mobutu was also related to his allowing businesses to export the many natural resources of Zaire without worrying about environmental, labor, or other regulations that protect against corruption and abuse. A one-party system was established, and Mobutu declared himself head of state. He would occasionally hold elections in which he was the only candidate.
In an effort to spread African national awareness, Mobutu renamed the nation's cities (the country was now Democratic Republic of The Congo – Kinshasa). This city-renaming campaign was completed in the 1970s. In 1971, he renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, its fourth name change in 11 years and its sixth overall.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. relations with Kinshasa cooled, as Mobutu was no longer deemed a necessary Cold War ally, and his opponents within Zaire stepped up demands for reform. This atmosphere contributed to Mobutu's declaring the Third Republic in 1990, whose constitution was supposed to pave the way for democratic reform. The reforms turned out to be largely cosmetic, and Mobutu's rule continued until conflict forced him to flee Zaire in 1997.
Since 1994, Congo has been overrun with ethnic strife and civil war, due in large part to the huge influx of Rwandan refugees fleeing the genocide. The government of Mobutu was toppled by a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila in May 1997. He changed the country's name back to Democratic Republic of The Congo-Kinshasa. His former allies soon turned against him, however, and his regime was challenged by a Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebellion in1998.
UN Peacekeepers to the DRC in 2005
A cease-fire was signed in July, 1999 yet fighting continued, financed by revenues from the illegal extraction of minerals including diamonds. Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state. The new president quickly began overtures to end the war and an accord was signed in South Africa in 2002. By late 2003, a fragile peace prevailed as the transitional government was formed. Kabila appointed four vice presidents, two of whom had been fighting to oust him sincel July 2003. Much of the east of the country remains insecure, primarily due to the conflict and and the continued activity of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda in the Kivue area.
This current period of conflict has been the bloodiest in history since World War II. Almost four million people have died as a result of the fighting. The United Nations is concerned that 1000 people a day are still dying as a result of the conflict and have described 2006 as a "make or break point" for the continuing humanitarian crisis.
Congo had its first multi-party elections since independence on July 30 of this year. Joseph Kabila took 45% of the votes and his main opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba 20%. That was the origin of a two-day fight between the two factions in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. Sixteen people died before police and the UN, took control of the city.
A second round of elections between Kabila and Bemba, was held on October 29.. Rioters destroyed polling stations in Congo's east and electoral officials organized a re-vote over burned ballots in the north. As of this date (November 2006), local Congolese news agencies have declared Joseph Kabila the unofficial winner as a result of the runoff.
From CNN.com November 16, 2006: KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- Incumbent President Joseph Kabila was declared the winner of Congo's tense runoff election, defeating his ex-rebel leader rival in the war-ravaged country's first multiparty contest in more than four decades.
I believe the level of violence in DRC will depend largely on how well Bemba’s supporters accept defeat and just as importantly, their willingness to support their democratically elected president.
