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Zaire From Colonial Times to Independence
After the 1884-85 Conference of Berlin gave undisputed
sovereignty of the region of modern Zaire to Léopold II,
king of
Belgium, the first order of business was to structure the
area's
economy to suit Belgian needs. The goal was to make an
economically
viable and self-sustaining entity out of the Congo Free
State, as
Zaire was then known
(see The
Colonial State
, ch. 1). In
1908 the
Belgian parliament voted to remove the region from direct
control
of the king, make it a colony, and rename it the Belgian
Congo. The
Belgian government wanted to avoid subsidizing the
administration
of the new colony while at the same time reaping whatever
profits
might eventually be generated by the country. Therefore,
the colony
itself was to be responsible for financing its
administration and
security.
Although exploitation of the country's mineral and
agricultural
wealth was substantial during the colonial period,
economic
development bore little direct relationship to the needs
of the
indigenous population. The production of cash crops for
export was
stressed at the expense of the production of food crops.
Moreover,
monetary benefits accrued almost entirely to
non-Congolese, the
foreign shareholders of the industrial and agricultural
companies
that constituted the modern sector, and the colonial
state, which
had holdings in many of the companies.
The colonial government's major aim was to encourage
foreign
investment in the Belgian Congo to develop agricultural
commodities
for export, to exploit the country's mineral resources for
the same
purpose, and to establish a transportation infrastructure
to
facilitate the export of goods. The colonial state
concerned itself
very little with such basic social needs as health care or
education, which were provided by religious missions and
to some
extent by the large concessionaire companies. Policies
designed to
promote state economic objectives emphasized measures to
ensure
adequate supplies of labor at low wages. Among such
measures were
the use of forced recruitment and restrictions on the
establishment
of foreign commercial trading activities, which would have
encouraged the farm population to produce surpluses for
sale rather
than take low-paying work on plantations and in mines.
Colonial
authorities obtained through coercion the indigenous labor
necessary to perform public works and private investment
projects.
A decree of 1917, for example, required African peasants
to devote
sixty days a year to agricultural work, and mandated penal
sanctions for disobedience.
By offering exceedingly generous terms, the Belgian
government
induced major foreign financial groups to invest in its
colony. The
colonial state itself laid claim to a significant share in
the
ownership of corporations in the extractive and
transportation
sectors. In 1906 the General Holding Company of Belgium
(Société
Générale de Belgique--SGB), a powerful Belgian trust,
formed the
Upper Katanga Mining Union (Union Minière du
Haut-Katanga--UMHK),
the International Forest and Mining Company (Société
Internationale
Forestière et Minière--Forminière), and the Bas-Congo to
Katanga
Railroad Company (Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo
au
Katanga--BCK). A majority shareholder in the UMHK and
Forminère,
the colonial state could potentially have run both
companies. State
capitalism did not extend to active involvement in company
affairs,
however; the colonial administration merely collected its
dividends.
SGB was given mineral rights to already-prospected ore
deposits
in Katanga Province (now Shaba Region) and a ninety-nine
year
monopoly on any mineral deposits it could identify within
a sixyear period on a tract of 140 million hectares. BCK was
given
mineral rights to 21 million hectares in the area along
the two
main rail lines from Matadi to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa)
and from
Port Francqui (now Ilebo) to the mining centers in Katanga
and also
was permitted to run the railroad with indigenous labor
provided by
the colonial state. By the 1920s, the rich mineral base
was being
exploited, and SGB had consolidated its control over the
three
companies that dominated the colony's economy.
After World War II, government recognition of growing
social
discontent among the African population led to support for
wage
increases and to promoting the development of an
indigenous middle
class.
Import-substitution
(see Glossary) industries were
established to meet the growing demand for consumer goods.
The
colonial administration encouraged corporations and
missions to
expand social services and to construct hospitals and
educational
facilities for the Congolese. These reforms, however, were
largely
unsuccessful; at independence the economy was still
primarily
export-led, that is, geared toward the export of raw
materials, and
expatriates held most of the managerial and technical
positions.
Data as of December 1993
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