Page 159 - Volume 1_Go home mzungu Go Home_merged with links

Decades of post-colonial chaos

"Veni, Vidi, Vici, numquam reliquit - ego adduxit inimici mei !"

“ Cohen (1995:11) also indicted the de-colonisation process when he observed that in

many countries the contradictions of the colonial state were passed on to the
independent states through a flawed process of de-colonisation. He argued that 'conflict,

recurring instability, and bad governance in Zaire, Rwanda, and Burundi can be traced
back to the hasty and unprepared granting of independence by Belgium in 1960'. He also
considered the major wars in Angola and Mozambique as arising out of 'panic de-

colonisation from a revolutionary and chaotic Portugal in 1974-75'. Insofar as the war in
Sudan was concerned, he traced it to 'the manner in which the Anglo-Egyptian

administration brought the North and the South together, but kept them apart under a
separatist policy for most of the Condominium rule, and then left them in a centralized

unitary state without constitutional guarantees for the disadvantaged South' (Cohen
1995:12). “

"Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa." 149
Fonkem Achankeng I, ACCORD (2013)
*****

Belgian Congo / Zaire / DRC

“ On the eve of independence, the Congo, a territory larger than Western Europe,
bordering on nine other African colonies/states, was seriously underdeveloped. There
were no African army officers, only three African managers in the entire civil service, and

only 30 university graduates. Yet Western investments in Congo's mineral resources
(copper, gold, tin, cobalt, diamonds, manganese, zinc) were colossal. And these

investments meant that the West was determined to keep control over the country
beyond independence.

***
Following widespread rioting in 1959, the Belgians to the surprise of all the nationalist
leaders said elections for independence could go ahead in May 1960. This in itself

caused confusion and a rush to form parties. In the event 120 different parties took part,
most of them regionally based. Only one, Mouvement National Congolais or the MNC, led

by Patrice Lumumba , favoured a centralised government and had support in four of six
provinces.

***
Within days things fell apart. The army mutinied against Belgian officers. The main

mining area, Katanga, declared itself a separate state under Moise Tshombe, but with
strategic support and encouragement from Belgian mining interests. Belgian troops then