Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
The Congo Part 1
The Congo Crisis
What is officially known as the Congo Crisis began in 1960 and ended in 1965. This is an arbitrary date that centers the conflict in the transitional years following Congolese independence from Belgium and the dictatorial rule of Mobutu Sese Seko. The decrepit corpse of the Congolese government and sovereignty that the Belgian government left the local Congolese resulted in a disintegration of institutions. When the Belgians left, they took their governmental officials with them; they took all the educated bureaucrats they had, and a vacuum ensued, only to be filled by Warlords and multinational conglomerates. The ethnic fissures within the country and government only became more pronounced.
Patrice Lumumba, the first Congolese Prime Minister, was immediately put into the maelstrom of the brutal realities of Cold War politics. Expressing Soviet appreciation stoked the ire of already integrated Belgian and Western influences. His government lacked the means to define itself and teetered. He was kidnapped and assassinated, no doubt through the intelligence gathered by Western countries.
The more Western-allied Joseph Kasa-Vubu was elected as president, a role that was more ceremonial than the prime minister. Kasa-Vubu was heavily supported by the Belgian government, which saw him as restraining Lumumba.
Following the Assassination of Lumumba and the dissolution of his government, rebellions only compounded. Although UN forces were glad to help, stem these rebellions. Kasa-Vubu was installed as having supreme authority following Lumumba's demise, but was ultimately deposed in a coup by Mobutu Sese Seko in 1965 after his government found itself in a standstill.
On Mobutu
Mobutu was chief of staff of the Congolese army during Lumumba's government which helped him consolidate power in the military and maintain influence on the security forces.
Mobutu became the emblematic corrupt African dictator. His country was buoyed by Western donations who in turn were given mining contracts. From 1965-1997 he ruled the Congo with the sole political party, Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution. In 1971 he changed the name of the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Zaire. This was part of a large-scale political policy called Zairization, also known as Authenticité which set out to establish a national identity for the Congo by exorcising elements of imperialism and colonialism. The policy did little to help the local population and mostly concerned trivial changes such as replacing Christian and European names with Congolese names; the Congo--> Zaire, mandating a Maoist-style dress code, and stemming the influence of the Catholic church.
Mobutu ran his country into the ground yet maintained power by ruthlessly suppressing opposition; engaging heavily in cronyism and nepotism, allowing his own clan many of the top roles in his government; and promoting a pervasive cult of personality in which absurd myths and anecdotes about him would proliferate, giving him the aura of a "Great Man."
He owned chalets in Switzerland and mansions on the French Riviera among other real estate properties. His wealth was estimated at 150 million.
Ironically, he was overthrown and fled the country in 1997, after his support of the Hutu refugees during the Rwanda Genocide led to an invasion by the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
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