Feature DRCongo
airport in January 1960, before attending the Congo independence conference
Patrice Lumumba is welcomed at Brussels
ba succeeded in doing so. He clob- bered together a coalition whose mem- bers were: UNC and COAKA (Kasai), CEREA (Kivu), PSA (Léopoldville) and BALUBAKAT (Katanga). Te parties in opposition to the coalition were PNP, MNC-K (Kasai), ABAKO (Léopoldville), CONAKAT (Katanga), PUNA and UNI- MO (Equateur) and RECO (Kivu). It was at this stage that Lumumba demonstrated how far-sighted he was. He convinced his coalition partners that the opposition par- ties should not be ignored and he proposed that they should elect Joseph Kasavubu, the ABAKO leader, as President of the Republic. Lumumba’s coalition partners agreed, and the deal was announced on 24 June, 1960. But unfortunately, Lumumba signed
“Lumumba’s MNC organised itself as a
nationwide party, hatching viable alliances – a massive achievement, when Congo is as big as Western Europe.”
their leaderships originated from. Here is how the larger of the 50 par-
ties performed in the May 1960 gen- eral election: MNC-L was strongest in Oriental Province (Eastern Congo). It won nearly a quarter of the seats in the lower house of parliament (33 out of 137) – thus garnering the highest number of seats for any single party. In the province of Léopoldville, the Parti Solidaire Africain or PSA (led by Antoine Gizenga) narrowly defeated the ABAKO party of Joseph Kasavubu. In Katanga province, the Confédération des As- sociations Tribales de Katanga or CO- NAKAT, led by Moise Tshombe, won narrowly over its main rival, the Asso- ciation Générale des Baluba du Katanga, or BALUBAKAT, led by Jason Sendwe. In Kivu, the Centre de Regroupement Africain, CEREA of Anicet Kashamura,
46 | April 2011 New African
won but didn’t obtain a majority. MNC- L came second there. MNC-L also won in Kasai, despite being obliged to fight against a splinter faction that had become MNC-K (under the leadership of Albert Kalonji, Joseph Iléo and Cyrille Adoula). In the Eastern province, the MNC-
L won a clear majority over the PNP, its only major adversary. Finally, in the province of Equateur, PUNA (led by Jean Bolikango) and UNIMO (led by Justin Bomboko) were the victors. But, as stated above, it was not Lumumba who, based on his performance at the elec- tions, was first called upon by the Belgians to try to form a government. Tat hon- our went to the ABAKO leader Joseph Kasavubu. He failed, and it was then that Lumumba was asked to form a government. To the Belgians’ surprise, Lumum-
his own death warrant in appointing Kasavubu out of the best of intentions. In doing so, he implanted a poisonous Bel- gian spy into his bosom. Lumumba’s ac- tion was acclaimed as an act of states- manship and was endorsed by a vote of confidence in both the Chamber of Depu- ties and the Senate. However, the Belgians began to use
what would have been Lumumba’s po- litical strengths against him. Tey now cultivated Kasavubu, filling his head with sweet words about how Lumumba was young and inexperienced, whereas Kasa- vubu was experienced and sagacious, as recognised in Brussels. He must not allow any “impulsive” acts of the young prime minister to go unchallenged. And they backed their flattery with
massive sums of money. Even more im- portant, the Belgians planted into the Of- fice of the Prime Minister (Lumumba) as his principal aide, a former soldier called Joseph Mobutu. He had been recruited as an agent by the Belgians, while attend- ing the Exhibition of Brussels, following which he stayed on in Belgium as a student of “journalism”. With his military back- ground, it would not have been difficult to teach him the tricks of espionage instead. (To be continued.)
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