2023-06-29 17:11:25
In the photo, we see Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba conversing with President Joseph Kasa Vubu, on the sidelines of the independence festivities.
Gaston Mutamba Permission
June 30, 1960 was a day of great hope for the Congolese people. The independence of the Belgian Congo was understood as the end of social inequities and subjugation to colonial power. The people sang, that day, the beautiful symphony of independence seasoned with fine promises from politicians. Everywhere there were the same slogans: Down with colonialism! Down with neo-colonialism! Long live freedom! Long live justice! Farewell the chicotte! In the aftermath, a few Belgian settlers kept sermonizing on all the rooftops: “You will regret our departure one day. Don’t think it’s easy to assume independence”. Naturally, no one wanted to believe them. Alone, perhaps Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. As a true visionary, moved by nationalist feelings, he implicitly agreed with them in his speech at the handover ceremony. He says that we have just won the battle for political independence but there remains the other struggle, the most difficult against neo-colonialism and for economic independence. Undoubtedly, as Alphonse Massamba Débat, President of the People’s Republic of Congo, will later assert, the internal enemy is more dangerous than the external enemy. He was probably referring to traitors. Nevertheless! June 30, 1960 was the crowning moment of the great historical marriage between the political class and the people. A marriage which will burst from the first hours of independence.
Great hopes disappointed
Driven by the colonial complex and pressed to appear as the replacements of the colonizers, the political leaders turned their backs on the people. In Parliament, for example, from the first session, deputies spent more than a month discussing their attendance fees. At the Central Market, women selling fresh fish sometimes refused to sell until the arrival of the wives of deputies or ministers. These were known to spend lavishly. They bought without looking at prices and did not ask for change. Thus flew away the beautiful dream of independence. The former Belgian colonizers who did not intend to let go of the country, opposed the Congolese politicians between them. This leads to tribal clashes. They created armed rebellions as well as secessions from the provinces of Katanga and Kasai. Patrice Lumumba was assassinated on January 17, 1961 in Elisabethville (Lubumbashi) by his political adversaries with the help of the Belgian gendarmes. The conflicts resulted in the death of approximately 500,000 people. Thus flew away the beautiful dream of independence. After national reconciliation, this dream will be revived by Prime Minister Moïse Tshombe (from July 10, 1964 to October 13, 1965). His brief mandate restored confidence to the people, who in a few months regained to a large extent their purchasing power and the joy of living. So much so that real human torrents poured into the Tata Raphaël Stadium each time he held a rally there. Alas, the party only lasted 15 months.
Following political disputes and on the decision of President Joseph Kasavubu, Tshombe lost his post as head of government. Political instability ensued, giving Lieutenant-General Joseph Mobutu a pretext to “seize” power on November 24, 1965. His first speeches, as incendiary as those of Patrice Lumumba, reignited the hopes of the people. He harassed the “politicians” of the first legislature with his speeches and “popular” rallies while announcing reforms and the recourse to authenticity. Like the “politicians”, Mobutu will not keep his word either. A new generation of profiteers with devastating and voracious appetites will seize the fruit of the common labor. So that throughout the 2nd Republic, the pampered people will be reduced to a small group of darlings and proteges to whom they will constantly make fabulous liberalities either directly or by less and less sophisticated mechanisms such as embezzlement tolerated from the public purse.
What goes around comes around
Thirty years after independence, the people found themselves faced with another June 30, 1960. This is the date of April 24, 1990. It was supposed to mark the official end of the dictatorship. That day, President Mobutu announced the opening of the democratic era. We saw people crying with joy. They were numerous, as on June 30, 1960, to celebrate this exit from the throes of tyranny. The presidential decision was felt as a new liberation, a departure, this time effective, towards the long-awaited paradise. Mobutu had once again become the leader, the father of the people. Everyone expected him to assume his social role as head of the family with more determination in order to attract more sympathy from the people and better confront his power in democracy. It was the beginning of the long wait for the 3rd Republic which he himself presented as the antidote to all the shortcomings of the management of the 2nd Republic.
Two years after the launch of the democratic process, the situation has hardly changed. However, she got worse. The people continued to mope. Another idea was invented to extricate the people from their frustrations. This was the Sovereign National Conference (CNS). A kind of African palaver. Its work began on August 7, 1991. The supporters of the dictatorship opposed the holding and then the decisions of the forum, which were enforceable and enforceable against all. The CNS ended in December 1992 with an aftertaste of unfinished business. Where were the people after the fever of independence? Nowhere! Insecurity, mutinies, poverty, looting were rampant. Soulless, the people were tossed between lawless individuals. He resigned himself and took refuge in the informal. Informal activities spread to all sectors including spiritual and religious. The political operators were still preparing for another comedy, that of consultations and negotiations.
In October 1996, a rebellion fabricated by neighboring countries broke out in the east of the country. It took the name of AFDL (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo). The entry of rebels into regions was hailed as a liberation. Marshal Mobutu was ousted from power on May 17, 1997. President Laurent-Désiré Kabila then imposed a new dictatorship. The history of the Congo has the annoying tendency to repeat itself. Under revolutionary slogans, the liberators turned into super predators. The people were again deceived. The hope for change turned into a political swindle. The power of Mzee Kabila crumbled with the rebellions and seditions fomented by Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda who found there the means of financing the prosperity of his country thanks to the natural resources exploited illegally in Congo.
After the death of Laurent Désiré Kabila on January 16, 2001 in Kinshasa, his son Joseph Kabila took over. The predation of the country continues unabated. Influence peddling, corruption and misappropriation are becoming commonplace. He first ruled the country as a dilettante and then as a despot. Rwanda is continuing to plunder resources and fomenting unrest. The people who are still betrayed live in precariousness, in absolute misery. Under pressure from the people and the international community, Joseph Kabila organized elections in 2018, in which he was not supposed to stand.
In January 2019, there is a democratic transfer of power between him and Antoine Félix Tshisekedi Tshilombo. The latter inherited a bloodless country and power without state authority over the entire territory. Sixty-three years of skating constitute an enormous waste of time for a country with immense potential, capable of propelling it in less than twenty years into the leading pack of emerging countries. The leaders must pull themselves together by remembering the pact of June 30, 1960.
–
Gaston Mutamba Permission
Happy
0
0 %
Sad
0
0 %
Excited
0
0 %
Sleepy
0
0 %
Angry
0
0 %
Surprise
0
0 %
#long #march #deceived #people #Congo #Indépendant