Democratic Republic of Congo was populated as early as 80,000 years ago as shown by the 1988 discovery of the Semiki harpoon which is a spear-like weapon with barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish at Katanda. (Katanda is one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, which is believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish).
The Kingdom of Kongo existed from the 14th to the early 19th century. Until arrival of the Portuguese, it was the dominant force in the region along with the Kingdom of Luba, Kingdom of Lunda, the Mongo people and the Anziku kingdom.
INCEPTION
Let’s start at the very beginning, early history has recorded that in the 1300s, the Kongo empire, a highly structured and developed state, ruled over a region that today covers parts of South western Congo, Northern Angola and a slice of the Republic of Congo.
In the late 1400s, Portugese explorers arrived at the mouth of the Congo river establishing the first contact between the Kongo kingdom and Europe.
In the 1500s, like other African states, the slave trade impacted Kongo, and over the next 300 years, more than 5million slaves had been captured and shipped to Brazil. In 1526, Kongo’s king sent a letter to the Portugese King Jao III imploring him to end the practice, stating that his country has been depopulated. In 1568, there was a rise of another structured state, the Kuba federation, now known as Southern Congo which only lasted till the 1910.
In the 1800s, the Kongo kingdom was torn apart by slavery and internal rivalry.
THE BELGIAN
This is perhaps, the most significant and sadly, brutal part of the Congolese history. King Leopold II (9 April, 1835 to 17 December, 1909, of Belgian origin, ruled the Congo Free State for 23 years. He is known for founding and exploitation of the Congo Free State as a private venture. He extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by collecting ivory, and after a rise in price of rubber in the 1890s, forced labour. His regime was characterized by notorious brutality, so much so that he is being compared with the likes of Hitler and Stalin in terms of horror. Thousands were sold into slavery, rape was recorded, men, women, children, had hands amputated for failing to deliver rubber. Millions of Congolese died under his rule, modern estimate range of about 10 million.
BETTER DAYS AHEAD
Europe and United States press agencies exposed conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By 1908, public and diplomatic pressure had led King Leopold II to annex the Congo as the Belgian Congo Colony. On 15th of November 1908, King Leopold II of Belgium finally relinquished personal control of the Congo Free State.
The renamed Belgian Congo was put under direct administration of Belgian government and its Ministry of colonies. The priviledge of Belgian commercial interests meant large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo. There was a high degree of racial segregation as large number of white immigrants who moved to the Congo after the end of World War II came from across social spectrum, but were nonetheless always superior to the blacks.
During 1940s and 1950s, Congo experienced high degrees of urbanization. Notable advances were made in treating diseases such as trypanosomiasis. By 1950, the Congo had a labour force twice as large as that in any African country. The Congo’s rich natural resources, including much of the uranium used by the US nuclear programme during World War II was Congolese.
INDEPENDENCE
Full independence was granted on 30th of June, 1960. The country was very unstable after independence-regional tribal leaders held far more power than the central government-and with the departure of the Belgian administrators, almost no skilled bureaucrats remained in the country. The first Congolese graduated from university only in 1956, and very few in the nation had any idea how to manage a country of such size.
Unrest and rebellion plagued the government until November 1965, when Lieutenant General Joseph-Desire Mobutu, by then commander in chief of of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for five years. President Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire in 1971 and required citizens to adopt African names and drop their French-language ones.
CIVIL WARS
First Congo war (1996-97) also nicknamed Africa’s First World War, was a foreign invasion of Zaire led by Rwanda that replaced President Mobutu Sésé Seko with the rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila, of the Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Congo-Zaire (AFDL). Destabilization in eastern Zaire resulting from the Rwandan genocide was the final factor that caused numerous internal and external factors to align against the corrupt and inept government in the capital, Kinshasa. Following failed peace talks beteen Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country on 16 May. The AFDL entered Kinsasha unopposed a day later, and Kabila named himself president, reverting the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He marched into Kinsasha on 20 May and consolidated power around himself and the AFDL.
Second Congo War (1998-2003)
Kabila demonstrated little ability to manage the problems of his country, and lost his allies. To counterbalance the power and influence of Rwanda in DRC, Ugandan troops created another rebel movement called the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), led by Jean-Pierre Bemba. They attacked in August 1998, backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops. Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by a bodyguard who was then shot dead
Kabila was succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila. Upon taking office, Kabila called for multilateral peace talks to end the war. Kabila partly succeeded when a further peace deal was brokered between him, Uganda, and Rwanda leading to the apparent withdrawal of foreign troops.
The inability of the state and the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping force to provide security throughout the vast country has led to the emergence of up to 70 armed groups around 2016, perhaps the largest number in the world. By 2018, the number of armed groups had increased to about 120.
Culled from the net
Writers Thoughts:
You will agree with me that the Congolese have had it pretty rough, but this reminds me of a quote by Nkrumah, “the task ahead is great indeed and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve- to achieve the highest excellence and the full greatness of man”
LET’S MAKE AFRICA GREAT AGAIN!
Here are a few interesting facts about Africa’s 2nd largest country:
It is home to the 3rd highest mountain, Mt. Stanley
It has an active volcano, Nyiragongo
It is the 11th largest country in the world
It is the 4th most populated nation in Africa
It has over 200 ethnic groups with nearly 250 languages spoken
It is named after the Congo river that flows through the entire country
It has one of the most biologically diverse areas, the Virunga National Park.
Written By: Rafiat Aminu
Informative! 💥