Headlines of the History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

 

Congolese pre-history

A wave of early peoples is identified in the Northern and North-Western parts of Central Africa during the second millennium BC.^{[citation needed]}
They were food producing (pearl millet), with some domestic stock, and
developed a kind of arboriculture mainly based on the oil palm.^{[citation needed]} Several centuries later, around 2,500 BC, bananas were known to some in south Cameroon.^{[citation needed]}

From 3,500 BC to 2,000 BC, starting from a nucleus area in South
Cameroon on both banks of the Sanaga River, the first Neolithic
peopling of northern and western Central Africa can be followed
south-eastwards and southwards.^{[citation needed]}
In D.R. Congo the first villages in the vicinity of Mbandaka and the
Tumba Lake are known as the 'Imbonga Tradition', from around 2,600 BC.
In Lower Congo, north of the Angolan border, it is the 'Ngovo
Tradition' around 2,300 BC that shows the arrival of the Neolithic wave
of advance.^{[citation needed]}

In Kivu, across the country to the east, the 'Urewe
Tradition' villages first show up around 2,600 BC. The few
archaeological sites known in Congo are a western extension of the
'Urewe' Culture which is mainly known in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Western Kenya and Tanzania.^{[citation needed]}
From the start of this tradition, the people knew iron smelting, as is
evidenced by several iron smelting furnaces excavated in Rwanda and
Burundi.^{[citation needed]}

The earliest evidence further to the west is known in Cameroon, and near to the small town of Bouar in Central Africa. Though an ongoing discussion will ultimately give us a better chronology for the start of iron production in Central Africa, the Cameroonian data places iron smelting north of the Equatorial Forest around 2,600 BC to 2,500 BC .^{[citation needed]}
This technology developed independently from the previous Neolithic
expansion some 900 years later. As fieldwork done by a German team
shows, the Congo river network was slowly settled by food-producing
villagers going upstream in the forest. Work from a Spanish project in
the Ituri area further east suggests villages reached there only around
800 BC.^{[citation needed]}

The supposedly Bantu-speaking Neolithic, and then iron-producing, villagers added to and displaced the indigenous Pygmy populations (also known in the region as the "Bitwa" or "Twa") into secondary parts of the country.^{[citation needed]} Subsequent migrations from the Darfur and Kordofan regions of Sudan into the north-east, as well as East Africans migrating into the eastern Congo
added to the mix of ethnic groups. The Bantus imported a mixed economy
made up of agriculture, small stock raising, fishing, fruit collecting,
hunting and arboriculture before 3,500 BC; iron-working techniques,
possibly from West Africa, are a much later addition.^{[citation needed]} The villagers established the Bantu language family as the primary set of tongues for the Congolese.^{[citation needed]}

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The Congo Free State (1877 – 1908)

European exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s — first by Sir Henry Morton Stanley who undertook his explorations mainly under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium,
who desired what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession
of negotiations, Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his
capacity as chairman of the Association Internationale Africaine, played one European rival against the other. The Congo territory was acquired formally by Leopold at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private property and named it the Congo Free State.
Leopold's regime began undertaking various projects, such as the
railway that ran from the coast to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) which
took years to complete. Nearly all these projects were aimed at
increasing the capital Leopold and his associates could extract from
the colony, leading to exploitation of Africans. In the Free State, the
local population was brutalized in exchange for rubber,
a growing market with the development of rubber tires. The selling of
the rubber made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honour himself and his country. 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
widespread. During the period between 1885 and 1908, between five and
15 (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.^[6]The actions of the Free State's administration sparked international protests led by E. D. Morel and British diplomat/Irish patriot Roger Casement, whose 1904 report on the Congo condemned the practice, as well as famous writers such as Mark Twain. Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness
also takes place in Congo Free State. In 1908, the Belgian parliament,
which was at first reluctant, bowed to international pressure
(especially from Great Britain) by taking over the Free State from the
king as a Belgian colony. From then on, it became the Belgian Congo, under the rule of the elected Belgian government.

The Belgian administration: Belgian Congo (1908 – 1960)

Conditions in the Congo improved following the Belgian government's
takeover. Select Bantu languages were taught in primary schools, a rare
occurrence in colonial education. Colonial doctors were to greatly
reduce the spread of African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness.
The colonial administration implemented a variety of economic reforms
that focused on the improvement of infrastructure: railways, ports,
roads, mines, plantations and industrial areas. The Congolese people,
however, lacked political power and faced legal discrimination. All
colonial policies were decided in Brussels and Leopoldville. The
Belgian Colony-secretary and Governor-general, neither of whom was
elected by the Congolese people, wielded absolute power. Among the
Congolese people, resistance against their undemocratic regime grew
over time. In 1955, the Congolese upper class (the so-called
"évolués"), many of whom had been educated in Europe, initiated a
campaign to end the inequality.

During World War I, the Congolese Force Nationale successfully attacked, invaded and occupied German East Africa, which included the present-day Rwanda and Burundi. Belgium continued to administer these colonies under League of Nations mandates after the war, instituting racial policies that set the stage for the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

During World War II, the small Congolese army achieved several victories against the Italians in North Africa. The Belgian Congo, which was also rich in uranium deposits, supplied the uranium that was used by the United States to build the atomic weapons that were used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Political crises (1960 – 1965)

In May 1960, the MNC party or Mouvement National Congolais, led by Patrice Lumumba, won the parliamentary elections, and Lumumba was appointed Prime Minister. Joseph Kasavubu,
of the ABAKO (Alliance des Bakongo) party, was elected President by the
parliament. Other parties that emerged include the Parti Solidaire
Africain (or PSA, led by Antoine Gizenga) and the Parti National du Peuple (or PNP led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko).
(Congo 1960,dossiers du CRISP,Belgium) The Belgian Congo achieved
independence on June 30, 1960 under the name "Republic of Congo" or
"Republic of the Congo" ("République du Congo"). As the French colony
of Middle Congo (Moyen Congo) also chose the name "Republic of Congo"
upon receiving its independence, the two countries were more commonly
known as "Congo-Léopoldville" and "Congo-Brazzaville", after their
capital cities. In 1966, Joseph Mobutu changed the country's official
name to "Democratic Republic of the Congo", and in 1971 it was changed
again to "Republic of Zaïre". Shortly after independence, the provinces
of Katanga (with Moise Tshombe) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership.

Subsequent events led to a crisis between President Kasavubu and
Prime Minister Lumumba. On September 5, 1960, Kasavubu dismissed
Lumumba from office. Lumumba declared Kasavubu's action
"unconstitutional" and a crisis between the two leaders developed.
(Secession au Katanga- J.Gerald-Libois.-Brussels-CRISP) Lumumba had
previously appointed Joseph Mobutu chief of staff of the new Congo army, Armee Nationale Congolaise (ANC).
Taking advantage of the leadership crisis between Kasavubu and Lumumba,
Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to create sentiment
sufficient to inspire mutinous action. With financial support from the
United States 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 Kasavubu and Lumumba in a coup by proxy.

On January 17, 1961, Katangan forces and Belgian paratroops,
supported by foreign interests intent on copper and diamond mines in
Katanga and South Kasai, kidnapped and executed Patrice Lumumba. Amidst
widespread confusion and chaos, a temporary government led by
technicians (College des Commissaires) with Evariste Kimba, and several short governments Joseph Ileo, Cyrille Adoula, Moise Tshombe took over in quick succession. See the book The Assassination of Lumumba by Ludo de Witte.

Zaire (1971 – 1997)

Following five years of extreme instability and civil unrest, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, now Lieutenant General, overthrew Kasavubu in a 1965 coup.
He had the support of the United States on account 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,
labour, or other regulations. A one-party system was established, and
Mobutu declared himself head of state. He would periodically hold
elections in which he was the only candidate.

Relative peace and stability was achieved; however, Mobutu's government was guilty of severe human rights violations, political repression, a cult of personality
(every Congolese bank note displayed his image, his portrait was
displayed in all public buildings, most businesses, and on billboards,
and it was common for ordinary people to wear his likeness on their
clothing), and excessive corruption. Corruption became so prevalent the
term "le mal Zairois" or "Zairean Sickness"^{[citation needed]} was coined, reportedly by Mobutu himself.^{[citation needed]} As soon as 1984, he was said to have $4 billion (USD), an amount close to the country's national debt, deposited in a personal Swiss bank account.
International aid, most often in the form of loans, enriched Mobutu
while national infrastructure such as roads deteriorated to as little
as one-fourth of what had existed in 1960. The term "kleptocracy" was in fact coined to describe Mobutu's embezzlement of government funds.

In a campaign to identify himself with African nationalism, starting on June 1, 1966,
Mobutu renamed the nation's cities (Léopoldville became Kinshasa [the
country was now Democratic Republic of The Congo – Kinshasa],
Stanleyville became Kisangani, and Elisabethville became Lubumbashi).
This 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. The Congo River became the Zaire River. In
1972, Mobutu renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. relations with Kinshasa cooled, as Mobutu was no longer deemed necessary as a 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. The
name of the nation was returned to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, as the name Zaire carried strong connections to the rule of Mobutu.