Independence: A Violent Cause

The road to peaceful independence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is long and complicated, but can be simplified without losing meaning in the following process of events.

1.      Katanga, a south eastern province of Congo, was declared independent on July 11, 1960.

2.      Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasavubu, the prime minster and President at the time (respectively), requested the aid of the United Nations to help unify the country.

3.      On July 14, 1960, the United Nations force was airlifted into the country.

4.      Patrice Lumumba requested help from the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union provided little help to Lumumba. It is important to keep in mind that the Congo civil war paralleled in time to the cold war, a war between the United States and the Soviet Union (6).

5.      Joseph Kasavubu and Patrice Lumumba politically split. This divide in powers was a turn for the worse in terms of the government.

6.      On September 14, 1960 Colonel Joseph Mobutu and the Congolese army took over. Lumumba then became under house arrest.

7.      On January 17, 1961 Lumumba was killed with assistance from the American CIA.

8.      After the death of Lumumba, Mobutu gave power back to Kasavubu later in January.

9.      The United States worried about Soviet inroads to Africa,

10.  The United Nations supported military action between the province of Katanga with the rest of the Congo, which commenced on September 16, 1961.

11.  Finally, in January of 1963, all the provinces were reunited, and for a short (very, very short) period of time, the Democratic Republic of Congo was at peace.

The extreme violence evident in the Congo would start again five days after their independence and would continue until May 20, 1997 when Laurent Kabila would maintain control of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The next thirty to thirty five years would go something like this for the DRC: coup’s, conflict, and challenge.