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Zaire The Rise of Militant Ethnicity: Abako
Because of its long exposure to the West and rich
heritage of
messianic unrest, the lower Congo region, homeland of the
Kongo
people, was the first area to emerge as a focal point of
militantly
anti-Belgian sentiment and activity. The spearhead of
ethnic
nationalism there was the cultural association headed by
Joseph
Kasavubu, known as Abako, which in 1956 issued a manifesto
calling
for immediate independence. The move came about as a
response to a
far more conciliatory statement by a group of non-Kongo
intellectuals identified with the editorial committee of a
Léopoldville newspaper, Conscience Africaine. In it
they
gave their full endorsement to the ideas set forth by
Professor
A.A.J. Van Bilsen in his newly published Thirty-Year
Plan for
the Political Emancipation of Belgian Africa. Far more
impatient in tone and radical in its objectives, the Abako
manifesto stated: "Rather than postponing emancipation for
another
thirty years, we should be granted self-government today."
The metamorphosis of Abako into a major vehicle of
anticolonial
protest unleashed considerable unrest throughout the lower
Congo.
In the capital city, the party emerged as the dominant
force: the
urban elections of December 1957 gave Abako candidates 133
communal
council seats out a total of 170, thus vesting unfettered
control
of the African communes in the hands of the partisans of
"complete
independence." While the Abako victory at the polls
greatly
strengthened its bargaining position vis-à-vis the
administration,
in the countryside its local sections quickly
proliferated,
creating a de facto power structure almost entirely beyond
the
control of the colonial civil servants. In Léopoldville,
meanwhile,
the situation was rapidly getting out of hand. The turning
point
came on January 4, 1959, when Belgian administrators took
the fatal
step of dispersing a large crowd of Abako supporters
gathered to
attend a political meeting. Widespread rioting throughout
the city
immediately followed, resulting in the wholesale plunder
of
European property. When order was finally restored, at the
price of
an exceedingly brutal repression, forty-nine Congolese
were
officially reported killed and 101 wounded. A week later,
on
January 13, the Belgian government formally recognized
independence
as the ultimate goal of its policies. "It is our firm
intention,"
King Baudouin I (1951-93) solemnly announced, "without
undue
procrastination, but without fatal haste, to lead the
Congolese
forward to independence in prosperity and peace." Although
no
precise date was set for independence, the tide of
nationalist
sentiment could not be stemmed. A year later, the Belgian
Congo
would be hurtling toward independence
(see The
Crisis of Decolonization
, this ch.).
Its anti-Belgian orientation notwithstanding, Abako was
first
and foremost a Kongo movement. Its concentration on the
past
splendors of the Kongo Kingdom and on the cultural values
inherent
in the Kikongo language was entirely consonant with its
proclaimed
objective of working toward the reconstruction of the
Kongo polity,
and, at one point, of advocating secession as the quickest
way of
achieving this all-consuming goal. Thus, while inspiring
other
groups of Africans to emulate its demands for immediate
independence, another consequence of Abako militancy was
to
structure political competition along ethnic lines. Kongo
elements
in Léopoldville came into conflict with a group of
Lingala-speaking
upriver people; in 1959 and 1960, the rivalry became a
major trial
of strength between the forces of ethno-regionalism and
the claims
of territorial nationalism.
Data as of December 1993
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