The country that began as a king’s private domain (the Congo Free State),
evolved into a colony (the Belgian Congo), became independent in 1960
(as the Republic of the Congo), and later underwent several name changes
(to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then to Zaire, and back again
to the Democratic Republic of the Congo) is the product of a complex
pattern of historical forces. Some are traceable to the precolonial
past, others to the era of colonial rule, and others still to the
political convulsions that followed in the wake of independence. All, in
one way or another, have left their imprint on Congolese societies.
Before
experiencing radical transformations in the colonial era, Congolese
societies had already experienced major disruptions. From the 15th to
the 17th century several important state systems evolved in the southern
savanna region. The most important were the Kongo kingdom in the west and the Luba-Lunda states
in the east. They developed elaborate political institutions,
buttressed by symbolic kingship and military force. Power emanated from
the capital to outlying areas through appointed chiefs or local clan
heads. Competition for the kingship often led to civil strife, however,
and, with the rise of the slave trade, new sources of instability
influenced regional politics. The history of the Kongo peoples in the
16th century, for example, is largely the story of how the Atlantic
slave trade created powerful vested interests among provincial chiefs,
which over time undermined the kingdom’s capacity to resist
encroachments by its neighbours. By the late 16th century, the kingdom
had all but succumbed to the attacks of the Imbangala (referred to as Jaga in contemporary sources), bands of fighters fleeing famine and drought in the east. Two centuries later fragmentation also undermined political institutions among the Lunda and the Luba, followed by attacks from interlopers eager to control trade in slaves and ivory.
In the tropical rainforest the radically different ecological conditions raised formidable obstacles to state formation. Small-scale societies, organized into village communities,
were the rule. Corporate groups combining social and economic functions
among small numbers of related and unrelated people formed the dominant
mode of organization. Exchange took place through trade and
gift-giving. Over time these social interactions fostered cultural homogeneity among otherwise distinctive communities, such as Bantu and Pygmy
groups. Bantu communities absorbed and intermarried with their Pygmy
clients, who brought their skills and crafts into the culture. This
predominance of house and village organization stands in sharp contrast
to the more centralized state structures characteristic of the savanna
kingdoms, which were far more adept at acting in a concerted manner than
the segmented societies in the tropical rainforest. The segmented
nature of the tropical rainforest societies hindered their ability to
resist a full-scale invasion by colonial forces.
In the savanna region,
resistance to colonial forces was undermined by internecine raids and
wars that followed the slave trade, by the increased devastation wrought
on African kingdoms when those forces adopted the use of increasingly
sophisticated firearms, and by the divisions between those who collaborated
with outsiders and those who resisted. The relative ease with which
these Congolese societies yielded to European conquest bears testimony
to the magnitude of earlier upheavals.
King Leopold II of the Belgians
set in motion the conquest of the huge domain that was to become his
personal fiefdom. The king’s attention was drawn to the region during
British explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley’s exploration of the Congo River
in 1874–77. In November 1878 Leopold formed the Committee for Studies
of the Upper Congo (Comité d’Études du Haut Congo, later renamed Association Internationale du Congo) to open up the African interior to European trade along the Congo River. Between 1879 and 1882, under the committee’s auspices,
Stanley established stations on the upper Congo and opened negotiations
with local rulers. By 1884 the Association Internationale du Congo had
signed treaties with 450 independent African entities and, on that
basis, asserted its right to govern all the territory concerned as an
independent state.
Map of Central Africa, from the 10th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, …Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Leopold’s thinly veiled colonial ambitions paved the way for the Berlin West Africa Conference
(1884–85), which set the rules for colonial conquest and sanctioned his
control of the Congo River basin area to be known as the Congo Free State (1885–1908). Armed with a private mandate from the international community of the time, and under the guise of his African International Association’s
humanitarian mission of ending slavery and bringing religion and the
benefits of modern life to the Congolese, Leopold created a coercive
instrument of colonial hegemony.
The name Congo Free
State is closely identified with the extraordinary hardships and
atrocities visited upon the Congolese masses in the name of Leopold’s
“civilizing mission.” “Without the railroad,” said Stanley, “the Congo
is not worth a penny.” Without recourse to forced labour, however, the
railroad could not be built, and the huge concessions that had been made
to private European companies would not become profitable, nor could
African resistance in the east be overcome without a massive recruitment
of indigenous troops. The cruel logic of the revenue imperative led Leopold to transform his nascent
administrative system into a machine designed to extract not only the
maximum amount of natural resources from the land but also the maximum
output of labour from the people. In order to secure the labour
necessary to accomplish Leopold’s goals, his agents employed such
methods as kidnapping the families of Congolese men, who were forced to
meet often unrealistic work quotas to secure their families’ release.
Those who tried to rebel were dealt with by Leopold’s private army, the
Force Publique—a band of African soldiers led by European officers—who
burned the villages and slaughtered the families of rebels. The Force
Publique troops were also known for cutting off the hands of the
Congolese, including children; the mutilations served to further
terrorize the Congolese into submission.
In the wake of intense international criticism prompted by exposés by the American writer Mark Twain,
the English journalist E.D. Morel, and various missionaries, in 1908
the Belgian Parliament voted to annex the Congo Free State—essentially
purchasing the area from King Leopold and thus placing what was once the
king’s personal holding under Belgian rule. Nevertheless, the
destructive impact of the Congo Free State lasted well beyond its brief
history. The widespread social disruption not only complicated the
establishment of a viable system of administration; it also left a legacy of anti-Western sentiment on which subsequent generations of nationalists were able to capitalize.
Ten interesting facts about the Democratic Republic of Congo
1. Taking pictures is ill advised. Locals get very upset, for they believe that “capturing a person’s image” removes his spirit.
2.
The Belgians brew one of the best beers in the world. But the Congolese
won’t let their beer-guzzling ex-masters take all the credit. The Simba
beer is not only big in taste, its bottle – which is often rundown and
bears a crude lion logo – is nearly twice the size of most beer bottles
around the world. Those who have tasted the beverage claim it has a
bready flavor. And there are even those who say that it has a better
taste than the more popular Budweiser.
3. Despite being a poor and
conflict-ridden country, the DRC boasts a space program. Privately
financed by the Développement Tous Azimuts (DTA), with significant
government support, the Troposphere rockets are expected to send cargo
to outer space in the near future
4. Belief in witchcraft is so common
that children are sometimes accused of being witches. Some of these kids
get beaten, and others are even killed. But most become homeless after
families abandon them in the streets.
5. At 2,344,858 square kilometers, the
DRC covers a land area larger than the combined territories of Spain,
France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. Congo is the second largest country
in the African continent.
6. Kinshasa and Brazzaville in the
next-door Republic of Congo are the closest capital cities in the world
(with the exception of Vatican City and Rome). A bridge across the Congo
River still needs to be constructed to connect the two political
centers.
7. The great apes, such as the bonobos
and the eastern lowland gorillas, can be found only in Congo. Both
species are endangered due to pollution, deforestation, and bush-meat
trade. It’s possible that these creatures – the closest primate links to
humans – may become extinct in a decade.
8. Mobutu Sese Seko, the DRC’s second and longest-reigning leader,
was so corrupt that he chartered a Concorde airplane to take his family
from his hometown in Gbadolite to Paris for shopping trips. He had even
decreed the construction of a large runway to accommodate such plane at
the expense of his starving people.
9. Because of two devastating civil wars and decades of economic stagnation, ATMs began appearing in the DRC only in 2010.
10. The DRC used to have a very strange
form of currency. It’s called the Katanga cross. The metal is made of
copper and is shaped in the form of an X. A single Katanga cross, which
was used for trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries, could buy 10
kilograms of flour and six chickens. Double the cross and it could buy a
gun.
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