Congo’s Independence

I’m getting to the good part now in this massive book on the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo … first, this is the state of the country when the Belgians left after 75 years of colonialism:

“The first government of Congo inherited from Belgium a well developed infrastructure: more than fourteen thousand kilometers (nearly 8,700 miles) of rails and more than 140 kilometers (about eighty-seven miles) of highways and streets had been built; there were more than forty airports or airfields and more than a hundred hydroelectric and power plants and there was a modern industrial sector (Congo was world leader in industrial diamonds and the world’s fourth largest copper producer). In addition, a start had been made with general health care (three hundred hospitals for natives, plus medical centers and birth clinics) and the country enjoyed an extremely high degree of literacy (1.7 million primary school pupils in 1959) – achievements that were truly striking in comparison with other African countries.”

In 75 years, Congo has made the leap from illiteracy, cannibalism, and mud huts to railroads, airports, and hydroelectric power plants, and has been at peace with itself and its neighbors through most of that entire period while the rest of the world tore itself apart in the World Wars. Now, we are on the precipice of independence from Belgium, liberal democracy, racial equality and the end of white supremacy …

“The run-of-the-mill Congolese, on the other hand, was enjoying it immensely. He believed that a golden age was on its way, that Congo would become prosperous from one day to the next. That, after all, was the promise made him in the dozens of pamphlets circulating around the country. Almost all the parties were making promises that could never be kept, promises that were sometimes grotesque, sometimes downright dangerous.”

The year is 1960, and the Congolese are getting into the spirit of liberal democracy:

“When independence arrives,” an Abako broadsheet read, “the whites will have to leave the country.” That was definitely not one of the conclusions of the round-table conference “The goods left behind will become the property of the black population. That is to say: the houses, the shops, the trucks, the merchandise, the factories, and fields will be given back to the Bakongo.” Little wonder then, with such inflammatory texts, that farmers in Bas-Congo expected nothing short of boundless liberty: “All laws will be abolished, we will no longer have to obey the traditional chieftains, nor the elders, nor the officials, nor the missionaries, nor the bosses ….” In that longing for a sudden, radical turnabout one heard echoes from the days of Simon Kimbangu. Independence itself became a sort of messianic moment that would bring with it “life, health, joy, good fortune and honor.” Kasavubu and Lumumba, both of whom had spent time in prison, grew to become prophets and martyrs. In Kasavubu people saw the resurrection of the king of the old Kongo Empire, while dynamic Lumumba was compared to the Sputnik satellite! Simple people looked forward to nothing less than a cosmic turnabout. Employment and taxes would disappear.”

That part about abolishing all laws and liberation from employment sounds like a scene out of Ferguson, MO.

“Some of them even assumed that, from then on, “the black will have white boys” and that “everyone will be allowed to pick out a white woman for themselves, because they will be left behind and redistributed, just like the cars and other things.” A few hucksters took advantage of that naivete and began selling white people’s homes for the trifling sum of forty dollars … Gullible souls, not realizing they had been swindled, knocked on the doors of white villas to ask whether they could come in and take a look at their new property. Some of them even asked to inspect the woman of the house, because they had just paid twenty dollars for her as well.”

This also sounds like Ferguson and St. Louis … the housing stock there is sure to fall into the hands of the Black Undertow, and already has in many neighborhoods.

Fastfoward to the year 2010 after fifty years of independence has passed in Congo:

“What seemed like a reactionary standpoint at the time was a widely heard lament in Congo in the year 2010, a lament prompted by all the recent misery. Many young people blamed their parents for having demanded independence at all costs. On a street in Kinshasa, someone once asked me: “How long is this independence of ours going to last, anyway?” As a Belgian, I had heard it countless times: “When are the Belgians coming back? After all, you’re our uncles, aren’t you?”

What will they be saying in Ferguson in 2064?