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DIFFERENT GENERATIONS, SAME FIGHT: COLONIALISM, INDEPENDENCE AND NEOCOLONIALISM IN AFRICA
A short reflection about the last 150 years in Congo as an example of how neocolonialism affects Africa
by Uxío Fernández Ferrás
Some weeks ago, my colleagues and I had the chance to watch a documentary called Soundtrack to a Coup d’État during the 26th edition of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. During the 150 minutes of duration of this masterpiece, we learned about how the CIA used 60’s musicians like Louis Armstrong or Nina Simone to introduce American soft power in the booming African colonies. We also had the chance to listen to several audios and documents from USSR leader Nikita Khruschev, meetings of Malcom X with Fidel Castro or loads of files from the UN Assembly, diverse Western ambassadors (mostly Belgian), etc, which allowed us to have a broader picture of this period of time. And primarily, go deeper on revolutionary figures such as Patrice Lumumba or Andrée Blouin, whose role as a woman fighting for the independence of African colonies deserves, at least, a whole article for herself.
A global overview
The rich but impoverished continent of Africa suffered for decades the dominance of Western imperialism and its consequences. France and the United Kingdom accumulated several possessions all around the continent and lasted during all the 20th century until the last ones got an eventual independence. Apart from the main powers, also Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal were involved in the repartition of the African land. In this article I will focus on another kingdom, the Belgian one, whose rule of the Congo and subsequent independence meant the paradigm of the Western dominance of Africa.
“African societies are rising again.”
Congo was owned by the King Leopold II since 1885 and formally incorporated to Belgium in 1908 this small European country managed for decades a huge territory (75 times the size of Belgium) full of diamonds, uranium, coltan and several diverse elements, indispensable for the functioning of the world in the last century. There, and mostly in its first twenty years of Belgian dominance in the Congo, Leopold II administration committed loads of crimes such as mass assassinations, forced slavery and hand mutilations, killing at least ten millions of people and reducing Congolese population to the half in what is known as “The Unknown Holocaust”.
Independence but not freedom
After some more decades of Belgian rule, in the 50’s and 60’s of the twentieth century, Congolese society started to rise up against the regime. Following a trend in the whole continent where African countries could finally be independent and have a position in the Cold War global context, Patrice Lumumba (surrounded by icons like the revolutionary leader Andree Blouin, compared in Africa with Che Guevara) led the country to its eventual independence in 1960. Many things can be highlighted of Lumumba, one of the most iconic leaders in the continent and key to the impulse of Pan-Africanism ideas during his career. Once independent, however, the country never met peace and stability. The region of Katanga, where most natural resources are found, proclaimed its independence with the support of the Mining Union (Belgian property), Belgium or the USA, who used Congolese uranium for the atomic bomb, for example. There and in Kasai a cruel war had begun, involving both regions (helped by the USA and Belgium), the Congolese government supported by the USSR, NU troops, diverse ethnic tribes… It lasted until 1963, when the NU liberated the capital and defeated the independentist attempt of both states.
“Many things can be highlighted of Lumumba, one of the most iconic leaders in the continent and key to the impulse of Pan-Africanism ideas during his career.”
Contemporary struggles
When the war in Katanga ended, the revolutionary leader Lumumba had already been murdered by the CIA and a Coup d’Ètat had been produced in the Republic of Congo. Dictatorship, cruel wars in the 90’s and 00’s involving a big part of African countries and still conflicts against paramilitary groups (like the M23 in Kivu) in some regions of this huge nation, made the progress and development of one of the richest parts of the world in natural resources impossible. Modern slavery in the mines, sexual crimes and a whole normalization of the violence around the country is the consequence of the Western interference in Congo.
Several foreign companies have been and are extracting material from their mines since independence, using local labour but exporting its benefits. Other countries like Rwanda or Uganda use the instability of the country to steal tons of minerals. The Democratic Republic of Congo, in general, got independence but not real sovereignty. Western economies, highly dependent on its resources, threaten to never leave the country to develop by itself.
X XI Century: the rise of Africa?
However, African societies are rising again. As their grandparents fought for independence during the 20th century, it is now their moment to fight against neocolonialism and start to get real freedom in the whole continent. Some leaders and their societies are rising in recent years to start seeking for real sovereignty. As Ibrahim Traoré is following in Burkina Faso the steps of another revolutionary martyr as Thomas Sankara and countries like Niger or Mali rose up against French interference, Congolese society should take the example of Patrice Lumumba and start building by themselves a promissory future for their nation.
