Debacle In the Congo:
TAS, SAL
Belgian paternalism, tribal warfare and lack of political leadership have led to the Debacle in the Congo By Sal Tas LEOPOLDVILLE LEOPOLDVILLE IS a strange town now; it may even be a nightmare...
...Indeed, during that year it had become unmistakably clear that the country was totally unprepared to handle its own affairs, that no real political authority existed, and that there would shortly be no authority to protect the European technicians who kept the Congo running...
...This paternalistic arrogance suddenly collapsed in what might be called the most reckless abdication of power in Africa...
...A year after the first really violent anti–Belgian riots broke out, Brussels handed power to the Congolese nationalists without even having the slightest guarantees that chaos would not follow...
...But Lumumba has no party in the real sense of the term, though he is the only politician who appeals to the youth of all the Congolese tribes...
...It will not be sufficient to organize technical aid...
...The whole governmental apparatus has come to a halt...
...He was not at all afraid to "sell out" to American financial interests when he thought that necessary and possible...
...Overstrained by years of unrest, underpaid and neglected by everyone, most of all by the political leaders who thought only of fat jobs for themselves and their friends, they gradually became a smoldering gang...
...In the Kasai, the rich diamond–mining province, the two dominant tribes are now at war, and it looks like the war will continue for a long time...
...The United Nations rules...
...If this guarantee can be realized, then even the Katanga problem can be solved...
...Otherwise, the situation will deteriorate or perpetuate itself endlessly as a political problem and a financial drain...
...He made a statement to the press that he considered the resolution a legislative intrusion into the executive field...
...Virtually no one has any political experience...
...But apparently the Belgian people, once awakened to the problems of colonialism, had only a single wish: to get rid of the problems as speedily as possible and at any cost...
...At one point even the Congolese Government was threatened by this looting mob, but Lumumba slyly turned the mutineers' fury against the whites, and after that events took an increasingly racial turn...
...The move also demonstrated that Lumumba is as untrustworthy for the Russians as he is for the Americans...
...To reorganize the country, to re–establish law and order, the Congo needs the continuous aid of Western technicians, but their life and property must be guaranteed...
...a few Congolese were given some middle school training, but almost none were advanced to the university...
...What can the UN do in such a madhouse...
...I just finished a trip through the countryside...
...Everywhere, this conflict is dragging the youth down to the barbarism of their fathers...
...The exodus of the Belgians was a sight to behold...
...His ideal remains Sekou Toure, whose main difference with Communism is that he has his own party which cannot be completely controlled from Moscow...
...he is in no way the dupe of parliamentary formalities which baffle his colleagues and opponents...
...and if nothing else does, this fact should stimulate the free world to an opposite policy...
...He is one of the most unscrupulous, irresponsible, vulgar and ignorant politicians ever to stride the steps of the UN building...
...But the real Belgian guilt was in neglecting to educate a political elite...
...This has been demonstrated by his incredible deal with the Congo International Management Corporation (CIMCO), whose president is U.S...
...In Leopoldville, 80 per cent of the workers are unemployed...
...But unhappily Lumumba is not without qualities: He has a real sense of power...
...There is no national consciousness, but the hatred of the white man can, for a time, replace this...
...Lumumba did not even deign to come...
...and he combines the versatility of Hitler with the hysterics of Goebbels...
...Railways, shops, offices and plants are not operating...
...in the countryside the figure is even higher...
...It is an unforgettable spectacle: a people of cannibals ruled by vegetarians...
...Tribal warfare has gone on for years and it increased in intensity when the first political parties made their appearance...
...The riots took the Belgians—and the Congolese politicians—by surprise...
...In this atmosphere of unreality Lumumba is the absolute master...
...The Belgian social services did a wonderful job...
...The Lulua, however, has the better warriors and hence the horrible struggle in the villages...
...The so–called Congolese Force Publique, the former colonial army that had to perform as the national Congolese army and police, was heavily infiltrated by Patrice Lumumba's followers...
...The curfew has just been renewed in anticipation of the riots of the unemployed...
...Many of the Belgian officials who were at loggerheads with the better educated, more politically minded Baluba tacitly favored the Lulua...
...The UN system will work only if the UN (or better still, the powerful Western nations who are behind this operation) uses its power to control the Congo Government...
...Behind the scenes, moreover, the influence of Communism is growing in Leopoldville: first, through Russian emissaries...
...I will not soon forget the scenes of villages burned to the ground, of women raped and then cut into pieces, of heaps of hands and feet gathered together as trophies of victory...
...he is a gangster among boy scouts...
...It is pathetic to see the local governors and provincial parliamentarians (or, for that matter, those in the national Parliament) struggling with problems they do not understand...
...A UN–guaranteed federation would give it that...
...And I did not see the worst: the scenes of cannibalism...
...Even Joseph Kasavubu, the quite moderate President of the Republic, who hates Lumumba and who controls the province of Leopoldville (which means that the Parliament and Government are permanently surrounded by a solid block of Kasavubu adherents), has up to now endorsed every Lumumba measure no matter how much he may have loathed some of them...
...The Belgians have fled...
...That the Russian bloc seeks this is obvious...
...This explains Lumumba's position...
...Instead of endless negotiations, the UN must lay down the law and teach Congolese politicians the facts of life...
...No one, least of all Lumumba, understood quite what that phrase meant, but stating it was enough to make the Senate call off its session...
...I attended a session of the Congolese Senate called to discuss a resolution of censure against Lumumba, whose reckless and pro–Communist policies filled the members of Parliament with awe...
...Tribal solidarity has all the strength of barbarian bias...
...and lastly, through the influence of leftist African delegations...
...Some of the real acts of courage underline the cowardice of others...
...The Congo parties are basically tribal groups organized along modern lines...
...Of the 10,000 state officials, only a few hundred remain...
...For while the deal showed his ignorance of economic and financial matters it nevertheless took courage, since it involved considerable responsibility...
...If there is order in UN–patrolled Leopoldville, there is terrible tribal war in the countryside...
...it may even be a nightmare for many...
...But in at least one respect it is a bureaucrat's dream, for this is the capital of a country governed by an international organization...
...The special agencies are already at work and the UN Army patrols the streets and the countryside, but everything can be upset daily by Lumumba's demogoguery...
...In such a milieu, a reckless man who has the will to back his lust for power has a tremendous advantage...
...What Katanga really wants is order, normalcy and freedom from the catastrophic influence of Lumumba...
...second, through the delegations from the satellite countries, of which the Czechoslovak one is conspicuous...
...Responsibility doesn't trouble him—he just isn't worried about it...
...A bit of tribal warfare, they thought, might teach those Baluba a lesson...
...Superficially educated by extreme leftist pamphlets, he became an admirer of Sekou Toure, the harsh ruler of Guinea, whom he is trying to imitate...
...Is this the price of colonialism...
...He is the only man in the Congo for whom politics is something concrete...
...The lobby of the Stanley Hotel is full of well–dressed, well-spoken people slowly pacing the hall, all looking ponderous and important, and all breathing that slightly sentimental and idealistic self–consciousness that is so characteristic of international organizations and foundations...
...Lumumba is not a Communist...
...Everything here is automatically pressed into the tribal mold...
...many cool–headed men saved the day by boldly facing the monster, but those who fled from the mutinying beast in panic were lost...
...The fight for power has always resulted in tribal warfare...
...He is constantly challenged, for everyone feels that the Congo is now ruled by a gambler, but he has no opponent who can really threaten him...
...The Belgian administration looked upon them as children to be governed by Brussels and by the Belgian Catholic Church...
...True, there has been violence and murder and rape, but considering the relatively small number of victims, the flight of the Belgians took on unjustifiable dimensions...
...He is a Lumumba–ist...
...To some extent, yes...
...industrialist L. Edgar Detweiler...
...There is now a vacuum in the Congo that even the UN cannot fill in the near future...
...It is clear, however, that his sympathies are with the extreme left...
...But education was stopped on the primary–school level...
...The Lulua, the most numerous tribe of the Kasai, is afraid of being dominated by the better educated, more energetic Baluba...
...Nowhere in Africa is literacy so high as in the Congo...
Vol. 43 • August 1960 • No. 32
