Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Tragic State Of The Congo From Decolonization To Dictatorship by Jeanne M. Haskin Front national de liberation du Congo. The left-wing Front national de liberation du Congo (FNLC) was a rebel movement in Zaire . It was founded in 1967 by Brigadier Nathaniel Mbumba from members of the gendarmerie of the Katanga province who had fled to Angola and had the armed arm Armée nationale pour la liberation du Congo . The fighters of the FLNC had initially fought on the Portuguese side in the Angolan War of Independence against the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA). It was one of the first rebel groups to fight the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko . She is said to have received support from the party of the later President Laurent-Désiré Kabilas , the Parti de la révolution populaire . It was based in northeast Angola. In March 1977, in the first Shaba invasion from Angola , they attacked the resource- rich Shaba province (now again Katanga ) in the south of the country. The Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko found himself unable to repel the invasion with his own army. That is why he asked foreign powers for help and was able to fend off the FNLC with the help of Moroccan troops and the French Foreign Legion . A second attack in May 1978, encouraged by reprisals by Zairean government troops, which led to the flight of 50,000 to 70,000 residents of Shaba to Angola, was repulsed by soldiers of the Foreign Legion and Belgium. It remained unclear to what extent the FLNC was supported by states of the Eastern Bloc. It was assumed that Cuba, the Soviet Union or the GDR supported the rebel group. The East German government is said to have been concerned about a lease agreement between Zaire and the West German rocket company OTRAG , which made around 100,000 km² available for test purposes. In May 1977 the government of Zaire expelled the GDR diplomats from the country because of the alleged support of the FNLC. As a result, the FNLC stayed in Angola and took part in the army's campaign against the rebel group UNITA in 1983 as part of the civil war . In 1984 the Angolan government moved the FLNC to northwest Angola, from where they no longer posed a threat to Shaba Province as a concession to the Zaire government. Mobutism. Mobutism , also spelled Mobutuism , was an official party ideology of the Popular Movement of the Revolution ( Mouvement Populaire de la Revolution , MPR) as well as the official state ideology in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during the latter half of the 20th century. Mobutism encompassed and glorified the thoughts, visions, and policies of Zairian president and self-proclaimed "Father of the Nation," Mobutu Sese Seko. The ideology included such major Mobutu initiatives as "Zairianization." Contents. See also References Notes. The Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR) was entrenched as the single legal political party in a one-party state in Zaire. [1] Originally Mobutu designed the constitution of Zaire to have a figurehead opposition party but later claimed that the constitution only recommended but did not demand this and thus a one-party state was created and all other political parties were banned afterwards in 1966. [2] The ideology laid down in the Manifesto of N'sele, incorporated "nationalism," "revolution," and "authenticity." [3] Revolution was described as a "truly national revolution, essentially pragmatic," which called for "the repudiation of both capitalism and communism," favoured "national revolution." [4] The Manifesto of N'sele also laid out the intentions of the government which included expansion of the national government's authority, a program committed to upgrading labour standards, having the country gain economic independence, and the creation of an "authentic nationalism" in Zaire. [5] Mobutu led the MPR and Zaire as a dictator, and denounced the idea of multiple leaders and political parties in the country saying: "In our African tradition there are never two chiefs….That is why we Congolese, in the desire to conform to the traditions of our continent, have resolved to group all the energies of the citizens of our country under the banner of a single national party." [6] Mobutu and the MPR were presented in propaganda as being attributed to the divine and sought to replace Christianity in Zaire with a religious devotion to Mobutu and the MPR with interior minister Engulu Baanga Mpongo once saying to supporters of the MPR: "God has sent a great prophet, our prestigious Guide Mobutu. This prophet is our liberator, our Messiah. Our Church is the MPR. Its chief is Mobutu. We respect him like one respects a Pope. Our gospel is Mobutuism. That is why the crucifixes must be replaced by the image of our Messiah." [7] Mobutu and the MPR pursued a national cultural revival program in Zaire called Authenticité beginning in 1967 which sought to purge colonial European culture from Zaire and restore local culture, such as by forbidding Christian names and culture while promoting local African names and culture as well as forbidding western suits and creating a state-authorized uniform called the abacost . [8] The ideology survives today in such organizations as Nzanga Mobutu's Union of Mobutuist Democrats. See also. Lumumbism, a competing ideology based on the ideas of former prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Related Research Articles. Zaire , officially the Republic of Zaire , was the name of a sovereign state between 1971 and 1997 in Central Africa that is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was, by area, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, the third-largest in all of Africa, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of over 23 million inhabitants, Zaire was the most-populous officially Francophone country in Africa, as well as one of the most populous in Africa. Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the President of Zaire from 1965 to 1997. He also served as Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity from 1967 to 1968. During the Congo Crisis, Mobutu, serving as Chief of Staff of the Army and supported by Belgium and the United States, deposed the democratically elected government of Nationalist Patrice Lumumba in 1960. Mobutu installed a government that arranged for Lumumba's execution in 1961, and continued to lead the country's armed forces until he took power directly in a second coup in 1965. Mpinga Kasenda was a political figure in Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko. Kasenda was the prime minister of Zaire from 1977 to 1979 and the foreign minister from 1993 to 1994. He was killed in a plane crash near the airport in Kinshasa. Holden Álvaro Roberto was an Angolan revolutionary politician and freedom fighter who founded and led the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) from 1962 to 1999. His memoirs are unfinished. The Popular Movement of the Revolution was the ruling political party in Zaire. For most of its existence, it was the only legally permitted party in the country. It was founded by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu on 20 May 1967. Merwin Crawford Young was an American political scientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Jean Nguza Karl-i-Bond was a prominent Zairian politician. Authenticité , sometimes Zairianisation in English, was an official state ideology of the Mobutu regime that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in what was first the Democratic Republic of Congo, later renamed Zaire. The authenticity campaign was an effort to rid the country of the lingering vestiges of colonialism and the continuing influence of Western culture and to create a more centralized and singular national identity. The policy, as implemented, included numerous changes to the state and to private life, including the renaming of the Congo and its cities, as well as an eventual mandate that Zairians were to abandon their Christian names for more "authentic" ones. In addition, Western style attire was banned and replaced with the Mao-style tunic labeled the "abacost" and its female equivalent. The policy began to wane in the late 1970s and had mostly been abandoned by 1990. Sheldon Baird Vance , born in Crookston, Minnesota, was the U.S. Ambassador to Zaire from May 27, 1969 through March 26, 1974. During his tenure, he developed a close relationship with President Mobutu Sese Seko, and became an ardent and vocal supporter of the President; he also supported Mobutu's aspirations for regional leadership and advocated foreign investment in Zaire and "strongly recommended" that the U.S. sell M-16s to Mobutu. According to diplomats stationed in Zaire at the time, Vance "would not permit negative analyses of the Mobutu regime to be transmitted to Washington." Vance's support of Mobutu continued even after he left Zaire; shortly after retiring from the State Department, he joined a law firm representing the Zairian government. He was also briefly sent back to Zaire after his successor, Deane Hinton was declared persona non grata , to patch up the American-Zairian relationship, which had soured considerably during Hinton's tenure. Mobutu Sese Seko's foreign policy emphasized his alliance with the United States and the Western world while ostensibly maintaining a non- aligned position in international affairs. Mobutu ruled Zaire as President for 32 years, from 1965 to 1997. Deane Roesch Hinton was an American diplomat and ambassador. The Manifesto of N'sele was a political document issued in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 19 or 20 May 1967 which set out the official political stance of the Popular Movement of the Revolution, a political party which had been founded by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in 1966. The manifesto was created at an MPR meeting in N'sele, Kinshasa where it was based. Presidential elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 1 November 1970. The only candidate was Joseph Mobutu, who had taken power in a military coup five years earlier. The elections took the format of a "yes" or "no" vote for Mobutu's candidacy. According to official figures, Mobutu was confirmed in office with near-unanimous support, with only 157 "no" votes out of over 10.1 million total votes cast. Mobutu also received around 30,000 more "yes" votes than the number of registered voters, even though voting was not compulsory. The National University of Zaire was a federated university in Zaire. It was formed in August 1971 when the country's three existing universities and 17 technical colleges were merged into a single administrative structure. It was briefly known as the National University of the Congo until the Democratic Republic of the Congo became Zaire in October 1971. The Constitution of Zaire , was promulgated on 15 August 1974, revised on 15 February 1978, and amended on 5 July 1990. It provided a renewed legal basis for the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko who had emerged as the country's de facto dictator after the Congo Crisis in 1965. This is a list of Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zaire. Louis de Gonzague Bobozo was a Congolese military officer who served as commander-in-chief of the Armée Nationale Congolaise from 1965 until 1972. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is common for individuals to possess three separate names: a first name ( prénom ) and surname ( nom ) as well as a post-surname ( postnom ). Each form may comprise one or more elements. For example: Mobutism. Mobutism , also called Mobutuism , was an official party ideology of the Popular Movement of the Revolution ( Mouvement Populaire de la Revolution , MPR) as well as the official state ideology in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during the latter half of the 20th century. Mobutism encompassed and glorified the thoughts, visions, and policies of Zairian president and self-proclaimed "Father of the Nation," Mobutu Sese Seko. The ideology included such major Mobutu initiatives as "Zairianization." The Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR) was entrenched as the single legal political party in a one-party state in Zaire. [1] Originally Mobutu designed the constitution of Zaire to have a figurehead opposition party but later claimed that the constitution only recommended but did not demand this and thus a one-party state was created and all other political parties were banned afterwards in 1966. [2] The ideology laid down in the Manifesto of N'sele, incorporated "nationalism," "revolution," and "authenticity." [3] Revolution was described as a "truly national revolution, essentially pragmatic," which called for "the repudiation of both capitalism and communism," favoured "national revolution." [4] The Manifesto of N'sele also laid out the intentions of the government which included expansion of the national government's authority, a program committed to upgrading labour standards, having the country gain economic independence, and the creation of an "authentic nationalism" in Zaire. [5] Mobutu led the MPR and Zaire as a dictator, and denounced the idea of multiple leaders and political parties in the country saying: "In our African tradition there are never two chiefs….That is why we Congolese, in the desire to conform to the traditions of our continent, have resolved to group all the energies of the citizens of our country under the banner of a single national party." [6] Mobutu and the MPR were presented in propaganda as being attributed to the divine and sought to replace Christianity in Zaire with a religious devotion to Mobutu and the MPR with interior minister Engulu Baanga Mpongo once saying to supporters of the MPR: "God has sent a great prophet, our prestigious Guide Mobutu. This prophet is our liberator, our Messiah. Our Church is the MPR. Its chief is Mobutu. We respect him like one respects a Pope. Our gospel is Mobutuism. That is why the crucifixes must be replaced by the image of our Messiah." [7] Mobutu and the MPR pursued a national cultural revival program in Zaire called Authenticité beginning in 1967 which sought to purge colonial European culture from Zaire and restore local culture, such as by forbidding Christian names and culture while promoting local African names and culture as well as forbidding western suits and creating a state-authorized uniform called the abacost . [8] The ideology survives today in such organizations as Nzanga Mobutu's Union of Mobutuist Democrats. Siege of Jadotville. The Siege of Jadotville took place in September 1961, during the United Nations intervention in the Katanga conflict in the Congo, central Africa, when a company of Irish UN troops were attacked by troops loyal to the Katangese Prime Minister Moise Tshombe. The lightly armed and equipped Irish soldiers fiercely resisted Katangese assaults for six days as a force of Irish and Swedish troops attempted to fight their way through the siege. Although the outnumbered Irish company was eventually forced to surrender after ammunition and supplies were exhausted, and were held prisoner for almost a month, none were killed, while the Katangese and their mercenaries suffered heavy losses. The siege marked the first time since the creation of the Irish State that an Irish Army unit went into battle against another nation's army. Contents. Background [ edit | edit source ] Having had problems with transportation, the Irish UN troops were forced to deploy to Jadotville (present day Likasi) without their full complement of support weaponry. However, their commanding officer, Commandant Pat Quinlan, had the foresight to order digging of defensive positions before the attacks thus saving them from being quickly overrun. On September 13, 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld's United Nations forces launched the offensive against the State of Katanga in order to end its secession and restore it as a province of DR Congo. Soon after, the Katangans attacked the base of UN forces at Jadotville. [7] The contingent of Irish UN troops was sent to protect the Belgian colonists and local population in Jadotville, where they were attacked by those they were originally sent to protect. Battle [ edit | edit source ] The initial attack by the Katangese occurred while many of the Irish troops were attending Mass. Expecting that the men would be unarmed during Mass, the first attackers moved in rapidly. They were spotted and a warning shot by Sgt Billy Ready alerted the entire company to the threat (Ready was soon wounded in the following exchange of fire). [3] This set the stage for a five-day battle. A combined force of European mercenaries, Belgian settlers and local tribesmen attacked the Irish. They had a strength of 3,000 to as many as 5,000 men, mostly tribal bands of Baluba warriors but also many regular French, Belgian and Rhodesian mercenaries armed with a mix of light and heavy armament.They also had air support in the form of a Fouga Magister trainer jet fitted with underwing bombs and machine guns. The Irish UN soldiers had, for the most part, just light personal weapons, a small number of antiquated water-cooled Vickers machine guns, and 60mm mortars. The besieged Irish radioed to their headquarters: "We will hold out until our last bullet is spent. Could do with some whiskey". [7] The Katangese attacked in waves of 600 or so, preceded by bombardment from 81-mm mortars and a French 75-mm field gun. The Irish soldiers successfully defended against massive waves of attackers from their defensive positions. The Irish Support Platoon also knocked out most of the Katangese mortar and artillery positions with effective counter-battery fire from 60-mm mortars. After withstanding four days of repeated attacks, the Irish fired on identified Katangese mortar and machine gun positions with several hours of continuous and concentrated fire from their own mortars and machine guns. The Irish attacks proved accurate and effective. White mercenary officers could be observed shooting native gendarmes to stem the rout caused in Katangese lines. The Katangese then asked Commandant Quinlan for a cease-fire, as their forces had been seriously diminished, and were on the verge of collapse. By this time, their effective strength may have been reduced to 2,000 men. Commandant Quinlan agreed. Several attempts were made to relieve the besieged soldiers by the 500 Irish and Swedish UN troops from the base in Kamina and even by the British Gurkhas, [5] but they were beaten back by a supporting force of mercenaries who were brought in by the Belgians and Moise Tshombe, the premier of Katanga. A feature of the failed attempts to relieve the siege was a series of battles at Lufira Bridge where the Irish and Swedish force was bombed by a Katangese Fouga Magister. An attempt to resupply water to the troops by a Sikorsky S-55 succeeded, but the water was undrinkable because of contamination. The A Company, 35th Battalion, suffered five wounded in action during the six days of the siege. The Katangans, on the other hand, suffered heavy losses. Up to 300 were killed, including 30 white mercenaries, and an indeterminate number of wounded, with figures ranging from 300 to 1,000. However Commandant Quinlan had no access to resupply and reinforcements, and with his transport destroyed by the Fouga Magister jet a break-out was virtually impossible. Quinlan lacked any clear direction or communication from his superiors, and the Katangese gradually infringed on the cease-fire agreement to undermine A Company's position. In the end with his position untenable, without any clear orders or promise of assistance and having run out of ammunition and food and low on water Commandant Quinlan accepted the second offer to surrender to the Katangese. [3] They were held as hostages for almost a month in an effort to extort terms of ceasefire that were embarrassing to the UN, [8] while the Katangese and their mercenary allies bartered them for prisoners in the custody of the Congolese government of Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Aftermath [ edit | edit source ] False reports of the deaths of several Irish soldiers circulated in the media at the time of the attacks. One theory suggests that the Belgian Fouga pilot mistook bed rolls for body bags as he overflew the battlefield. The battle of Jadotville was not, until recently, given much recognition by the Irish state. The term 'Jadotville Jack' became a term of derision across the Irish Defence Forces. No Irish soldier received any decoration for their actions at Jadotville, even though Commandant Quinlan recommended many of his men for the Military Medal for Gallantry (MMG), Ireland's highest award for military valour, for their displays of heroism during the battle. Even though A Company 35th Battalion had tactically defeated a much larger enemy force at Jadotville the Defence Forces buried all record of the battle, presumably over shame that A Company had in fact surrendered. Commandant Quinlan eventually retired as a full Colonel but never served overseas again, and it was recognized by the officers who fought at Jadotville that it was best for one's career not to mention the battle. However the veterans of Jadotville continued to be dissatisfied with the Defence Forces' refusal to acknowledge the battle, and in particular the black mark on the reputation of their CO, Commandant Quinlan. Quinlan, who died in 1997, had his public reputation finally restored only nine years after his death. [9] The veterans of A Company regarded him as an exceptional officer who saved the lives of his men by ordering them to dig in and successfully led his company against an overwhelming enemy force. He was forced to surrender only due to the failings of the UN leadership and preserved the lives of every one of the men he led into battle. In the wake of a campaign for recognition of the Battle of Jadotville by John Gorman, a retired soldier who was a 17-year old Private during the battle, the Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea agreed to hold a full review of the Battle of Jadotville in 2004. A Defence Forces inquiry cleared Commandant Quinlan and A Company of any charge of soldierly misconduct. A commemorative stone honouring the soldiers of A Company was erected in the grounds of Custume Barracks in Athlone in 2005, and a commissioned portrait of Commandant Quinlan now hangs in the Congo Room of the Irish Defence Forces' UN School. Mobutu Sese Seko Congolese President Essay. Mobutu Sese Seko, a member of the Ngbandi ethnic group, was born in Lisala, Belgian Congo, in 1930. After receiving a Catholic education from white missionaries, he began his public life by serving in the Belgian Colonial Army. He was a colonel by 1960 and appointed chief of staff of the Congolese Army by newly independent Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. The struggle for Congolese independence left behind ethnic fighting and soon civil war. By September 1961 fighting erupted between Congolese troops and the United Nations (UN) forces sent to quiet the growing civil discontent. Sensing growing political disarray in the Congo, Mobutu seized power on November 24, 1965, in a successful coup over President Kasavubu following a power struggle between Kasavubu and his prime minister, Möise Tshombe. Mobutu declared himself president for a five-year term, placed Möise Tshombe on trial for treason, and condemned him to death. Mobutu took full executive powers into his own hands. The coup marked the beginning of the Second Congolese Republic and the reestablishment of minimal law and order. Mobutu appointed Colonel Leonard Mulamba as his prime minister and inaugurated a campaign of national reconstruction. This was highlighted by the 1966 establishment of the Movement de la Revolution (MPR), with himself as president. Mobutu went on to eliminate all opposition to his control while centralizing all decision making into his own presidency. Mobutu’s rule was not made official until 1967 when he instituted a new constitution. However, the years between 1967 and 1970 saw substantial clashes with students who had become disillusioned with Mobutu and his authoritarian rule. Nevertheless he was reelected president in 1970. Like many African leaders who would follow, Mobutu embarked on a campaign of pro-African cultural awareness, renaming the country the Republic of Zaïre in October 1971. He ordered all Africans to drop their Christian names, and priests were warned that they would face five years’ imprisonment if they were caught baptizing a Zaïrois child with a Christian name. The Shaba Wars of 1977 and 1978 threatened Mobutu’s constitutionally entrenched presidency. Several thousand soldiers of ex–prime minister Tshombe’s former Katanga army exiled in Angola had become suspicious of Mobutu’s offers of amnesty. In 1977 these same soldiers crossed the border into Shaba province. The continuing economic slump, combined with the attack by the Katanga troops, forced Mobutu to solicit foreign aid to restabilize the country. France, motivated by the opportunity to defeat Communist-backed troops in Africa, airlifted 1,500 elite Moroccan paratroopers into the Shaba region. The rebel army retreated but advanced again a year later in greater numbers. Mobutu persisted in his requests for international assistance and this time received helped from Belgium and France, with logistical support from the United States. The rebels were defeated again. In return for their assistance, France and Morocco urged Mobutu to democratize his increasingly hostile regime. Mobutu responded with pseudo-elections with a secret ballot that allowed 2,000 candidates to contest 270 seats in the legislative council and another 167 candidates to contest 18 elective seats in the political bureau. Mobutu was reelected. The remainder of Mobutu’s presidency would focus on high-profile foreign relations efforts meant to polish the tarnished image of his nation. He restored relations with Israel in 1982 and sent troops into Chad as part of a peacekeeping mission in 1983. Mobutu went on to suspend Zaïre’s membership in the Organization of African Unity in 1984 in support of Morocco’s walkout over the Western Sahara question. Recognizing the failing economic situation in Zaïre, in 1990 Mobutu called for a dialogue between the state and the people of Zaïre. The resulting dialogue saw 100 demonstrating students massacred by troops at Lubambashi in May of that year. Mobutu announced his resignation as chair of the MPR in an attempt to rise above the problems within the party. He went on to establish a special commission to draft a new constitution by April 1991 that finally allowed free operation of political parties. In January 1993 the High Council of the Republic declared Mobutu guilty of treason and threatened impeachment unless he recognized the legitimacy of the transitional parliament set up by the new constitution of 1991. Strikes and disorder followed while Mobutu attempted to reassert his authority. He reconvened the dormant national assembly as a rival to the High Council of the Republic and created a conclave that appointed Faustin Birindwa as prime minister. He announced the dissolution of the High Council and the dismissal of the Birindwa government in January 1994. Mobutu was overthrown in the First Congo War by Laurent-Désiré Kabila. When Mobutu’s government issued an order in November 1996 forcing Tutsis to leave Zaïre on penalty of death, they erupted in rebellion. From eastern Zaïre, with the support of presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Meseveni of Uganda, they launched an offensive to overthrow Mobutu. Ailing with prostate cancer, Mobutu was unable to coordinate the resistance. On May 16, 1997, following failed peace talks, Mobutu went into temporary exile in Togo, but lived mostly in Morocco. Mobutu died on September 7, 1997, in exile in Rabat, Morocco.