Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
given the Belgian Congo its reputation as a “model colony,” their roads, schools, and hospitals paid
for by the state's share of the mining industry.
In the Belgian Congo, Albert explained to me, everything had been done to justify something
else. To extract the country's wealth, the Belgians had claimed to be civilizing the Congolese. By
providing basic services to the people, they could claim that the mining benefited the Congolese,
even though it was enriching Belgium.
Within weeks of independence, the Belgian military had re-entered the Congo from Europe
without permission, allegedly to protect Belgian citizens from rioting soldiers. The Congolese saw
this as an act of aggression and possible reoccupation. Lumumba was infuriated by the colonial
gesture, but only with the assistance of the UN was he able to make them leave. However, when
Lumumba demanded that the UN use military force to help the Congo reclaim Katanga and South
Kasai, the UN refused. He then requested the support of the USSR, and a thousand Soviet advisors
soon arrived in Kinshasa. President Eisenhower had adopted a hard line against communism, and
the United States viewed the Congo as a strategic reserve of cobalt, copper, uranium, and industrial
diamonds. By threatening US interests, Lumumba set in motion the events that would lead to his
death.
When the army began rioting, Lumumba turned to his personal aide, a twenty-nine-year-old
journalist and former soldier named Joseph-Desiré Mobutu, and appointed him chief of staff of the
army, commanding him to restore order. Those with memories of Mobutu from this time were im-
pressed not only by his intelligence and physical presence—he stood over six feet tall—but by his
courage. Larry Devlin, a CIA officer then stationed in the Congo, described Mobutu facing soldiers:
“They were hollering and screaming and pointing guns at him and telling him not to come any
closer or they'd shoot. He just started talking quietly and calmly until they quietened down, then he
walked along taking their guns from them, one by one. Believe me, it was hellish impressive.”
Though Devlin knew Mobutu well, and even saved him from an assassination attempt, he didn't
foresee the dictator he would become. It was only later that the chaos made Mobutu decide he was
more suited to leading the country.
The first coup d'état that Mobutu orchestrated was shortly after the arrival of the Soviet advi-
sors. President Kasavubu denounced Prime Minister Lumumba's affiliation with the USSR and dis-
missed him from his position, and Lumumba responded by doing the same, ordering the president
deposed. Both then commanded Mobutu to arrest the other, but Mobutu, after securing the support
of the CIA, took control, arresting Lumumba and keeping the pro-Western Kasavubu in power. The
Soviets left, and though Lumumba tried to flee to Stanleyville (Kisangani), he was caught four days
later, on December 1, 1960. A month and a half afterward, he was murdered, his head most likely
dissolved in sulphuric acid, his body buried in an unmarked grave.
But Lumumba's incendiary independence speech remained in the minds of the Congolese, and
in Kisangani, Antoine Gizenga, the vice prime minister of the rival government formerly headed
by Lumumba, continued his mission, receiving support from the USSR and China. He managed to
hold out against the UN and Mobutu's government until January 1962. During that same year, while
Katanga continued to resist and was finally defeated, Albert Lotana Lokasola was born in Kisan-
gani.
Belgians were fleeing, threatened by the rampaging military and dissatisfied citizens, but as an
évolué
, Albert's father, André, had been close to the former colonial rulers and was also suspect to
his fellow Congolese. He'd decided to continue his studies in Belgium, but just before his depar-
