White Malice (4) Congo

The Belgium Congo had one of the worst colonial experiences in Africa. The cruelty of the Belgium rulers has been well documented. Although the Congo was rich in minerals, all mining was controlled by US and Belgium companies.

The Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga the southern province of the Congo produced uranium that was far richer than any other uranium in the world: it assayed as high as 75 per cent uranium oxide, with an average of 65 percent. South African goldmines had a uranium oxide content on the order of 0.03 per cent. (Uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine was essential for the Manhattan Project).

Shinkolobwe uranium underpinned the value of the Congo to the US through the 1950s. The American government financed two major capital investment programmes at Shinkolobwe in the 1950s, in order to expand the mine and develop the plant (White Malice p.30).

Patrice Lumumba was one of the key leaders of the Congolese people prior to independence. He had a vision of the liberation and unity of the African continent. He praised the practice of Gandhi, who had led the campaign of peaceful civil disobedience in India. He had a strong focus on non-violent struggle. His party won the first election in Congo.

Patrice Lumumba threatened to end the contracts of Union Miniere, the Belgium mining company when independence was achieved. This was perfectly reasonable given that the new government representing the Congolese people was not a party to their signing.

America wished to maintain absolute control over the uniquely rich uranium at the Shinkolobwe mine in the Congo, so the CIA planned to have him poisoned. The plan was approved by President Eisenhower but the CIA failed to get it implemented. Lumumba was eventually shot by Congolese rebels. A CIA operative said,

Lumumba was killed, not by our poisons, but beaten to death, apparently by men who were loyal to men who had received—agency salaries (White Malice p.383).

In White Malice, Susan Williams explains that this was a huge loss for the new nation.

Congo’s tragedy illustrates Africa's problem with the Western world, whereby the Congo “is still not stable and able to relieve the poverty of its people. Lumumba, writes Duodu sadly “lost power; lost his country, in the end, his very life”. The ‘amazing thing, he adds, ‘is that he had done absolutely nothing against the combination of forces that wanted him dead! They just saw him as a threat to their interests, interests narrowly defined to mean, “His country has got resources. we want them. He might not give them to us. So let us get him”. All this was done”, Duodu observes, “to achieve the selfish end of continuing to control the Congo’s rich mineral resources” (White Malice p.517).

The destruction of the Congo’s hard-won democracy was pitiless, despite powerful popular resistance. The expulsion of Lumumbists from government, despite their electoral victory, led to the ‘second independence movement—a major event in the struggle for democracy in the Congo. The uprisings were met with brutal repression, fuelled American interference. It has been estimated that the conflict in the Congo between 1961 and 1965 led to the deaths of one million people.

In November 1965, Joseph-Desire Mobutu overthrew civilian rule in a coup backed by the CIA. For the next thirty-one years, the Congo was ruled with an iron fist by Mobutu-a dictator chosen by the US government and installed by the CIA. (White Malice p.518).