When I lived there in 1990 I could still see the traces of the order, and even beauty, the Belgians had imposed on that vast territory drained by the mighty river which runs in a great arc from East to West. The outline of the flower beds that once studded Elizabethville (Lubumbashi) hint at what must have been a beautiful city.
But beautiful for whom? And ordered for whose benefit? When commentators search for examples of the worst kind of exploitation and savagery practiced by colonial powers in the latter part of the nineteenth century their gaze often lights on the Belgian Congo
Erskine Childers, who was later hanged for his part in freeing Ireland from British rule, exposed Belgian practices and for a moment succeeded in shocking the world. By 1960 the Belgians, bowing to local and international pressure, ceded sovereignty in a hurry and without ensuring a system was in place that would survive the heady days of independence.
The inevitable happened. Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the new republic, spoke bitterly about the Belgian legacy and some of the Belgian authorities who were still in place refused to accept the authority of the new government.
Instability ensued and rapidly spun out of control. Lumumba was seized and, in confused circumstances, was quickly murdered. Civil war followed. In Katanga the leader of the rebels, Mose Tsombe, openly used Belgian power to entrench himself setting up a breakaway state. Eventually the rebellion ended but the nation, so soon after its birth the victim of force and bloodshed, continued to be ruled by power, not consent, for thirty years.
The Kabilas, father and son, brought moments of hope but reports continue to document violence in the East. Millions have been subjected to pillage and rape and those who have died are also calculated in the millions. So, naturally, on this 30 June, some people of the Congo are asking what there is to celebrate. But others are trying to engage with all the problems and slowly build a new country. At least they have a government, something Somalia lacks. And they have untold mineral wealth which was once described to me as a geological scandal!
Engagement with the challenges has to be the way forward but it is also necessary to understand the past. The Lumumba family were interviewed as to why they still persist in trying to uncover the circumstances of the death of the countrys first leader. They replied simply, we need to know the truth and then we can move on.
Once again, as happened in South Africa and as one day will happen in Zimbabwe, the truth gives people freedom from that ache that persists. If we do not understand the past there is little chance of us building the future.
Post published in: Opinions