Patrice Lumumba

INDEPENDENCE OF CONGO

In 1959, Belgium promises the independence in Congo. In the colony, some social and political movements ask for a fast emancipation. At the time of a solemn ceremony, June 30, 1960, Belgium and his/her/its colony separate definitely.

Done independence prepare badly?

Mobolisation to the basis

Out of World War II, the emancipation of the colonies is ineluctable: the two big world powers, the USSR and U.S.A. are there favorable; India has just gotten his/her/its independence; nationalisms reinforce themselves in Africa and in the Arabian countries. Finally, in a speech pronounced to Brazzaville in April 1958, the General de Gaulle promises the independence to that asks for it; he/it gives the kickoff thus to the decolonization of the possessions French.

Belgium wants to believe that this current won't touch Congo, colony that it considers like a model of the kind and that it framed strongly by the colonial administration, the Catholic missions and the enterprises. The metropolis only worried late to form local elites; it is only in 1956 that the first academic Congolese gets a diploma in psychology, to the Catholic university of Louvain. The church is not faster since the first black bishop is named the same year.

The frond doesn't come however of the local superior class but of the basis, agitated by current secessionists. The most radical among them, the Abako, ask for the immediate independence of the Low Congo, where the population doesn't obey more already that in Joseph Kasavubu, directing this party. This last reinforces itself then while uniting itself/themselves with federalist movements of the Kivu and the Katanga.

The new government Congolese of Patrice Lumumba July 1960

Billowy climate

January 4 and 5, 1959, a meeting annulled of the Abako degenerates in violent riots that shake Léopoldville, the capital.

The colonial administration, that didn't expect such overflows, is disabled completely.

In a speech radio distributed January 13, king Baudouin proposes to drive Congo to the independence. The clarity of the royal declaration doesn't pacify for as much the minds; the insecurity wins all big cities of the colony, while some wild strikes paralyze the enterprises.