Answers: Congo and Belgium’s colonial legacy

The Belgian government returned the last known remains of iconic Congolese independence icon Patrice Lumumba to his family on June 20. The democratically elected leader was assassinated in 1961 with Belgian involvement during the civil war that accompanied independence. Lumumba had angered the Belgian establishment by describing "the humiliating slavery that was imposed on us by force" in a speech during the transfer of power, pushing back against King Baudouin’s speech praising the colonial administration and his ancestor, Leopold II. Lumumba also attracted the ire of the West and the CIA for seeking support from the Soviet Union.

‘Congo Free State’ which was privately controlled by King Leopold II was one of the most brutal colonial regimes, built on forced labour and mass killings as the Congo’s mineral riches were mercilessly exploited. A major humanitarian movement and international pressure (more in Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold's Ghost) led to the Belgian state taking over the Congo in 1908. But the exploitation continued and Anglo-Belgian mining giant Union Minière dominated the economy until independence and nationalisation in the 1960s.

The brutality under King Leopold II came into sharp focus in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, when his statues in Belgium were toppled. King Philippe of Belgium expressed his "deepest regrets" for colonial abuses on the 60th anniversary of the DRC's independence in 2020. But he stopped short of an apology then as well during his six-day visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in June.

Questions

1) Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had a different name starting from the colonial era until 1966. What was the name?

Leopoldville. More here

2) These two capital cities are separated by a river (closest capital cities outside of Rome and Vatican City). But there’s still no bridge connecting them by road. Two different colonial powers controlled the cities. They built railway lines connecting the areas they controlled to the Atlantic Coast to transport commodities. The tracks began at these two cities, because they were the last point where goods could be carried downriver by ships. Name the two cities.

Kinshasa (capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Brazzaville (capital of Republic of Congo, a former French colony). More here and here.

Courtesy Google Maps

3) He was roped in by King Leopold II to explore the Congo river after the British refused to fund his plans. This journalist and explorer’s brutal exploration paved the way for roads, trading posts and steamers. He persuaded/forced native rulers to sign away their rights to their lands, enabling the formation of King Leopold II’s ‘Congo Free State’. King Leopold II named the commercial hub that developed at the river’s farthest navigable point after him. Who?

Henry Morton Stanley. More here, here and here. Stanley’s Welsh hometown decided to keep his statue after holding a vote in 2021.

King Leopold II named the city founded at the Congo River’s furthest navigable point Stanleyville (now Kisangani). Kisangani has been a city in decline since independence and there is some nostalgia there for the colonial era. More here and here. In 1964 U.S. and Belgian forces were involved in one of the biggest hostage rescue missions ever, to free about 2,000 Americans and Europeans held by rebels.

4) As British consul he gathered evidence about abuses in the Congo under King Leopold’s rule and published an official report for the British government in 1904. He helped E.D. Morel set up the Congo Reform Association, which carried out what is regarded as the first major humanitarian campaign of the 20th Century. He was knighted in 1911 after drafting a report detailing the exploitation of indigenous rubber workers in Peru. But he was hanged for treason in 1916. Who and why?

Roger Casement. He was hanged for collaborating with Germany in a bid to secure Irish independence during World War I. More here, here, here and here. An extract from Casement’s report on abuses in the Congo here.

Peruvian author and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa wrote a novel based on Casement's life titled El sueño del celta (The Dream of the Celt).

5) He was killed along with 15 others in a mysterious plane crash in September 1961 in what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was on a peace mission as civil war raged in the DRC. The U.S. and the UK have been criticised for not fully opening their intelligence archives from the period to investigators. An inquiry is expected to conclude by September this year. Who?

Dag Hammarskjöld, then Secretary-General of the United Nations. More here, here and here.

6) UN diplomat Brian Urquhart was kidnapped and beaten by rebels in the DRC in 1961. He was influential in setting up which wing of the UN, which was used for the first time in an armed capacity in 1956 and has played an important role in the DRC.

United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. Armed UN forces were deployed for the first time during the Suez crisis in 1956. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo from 1960 to 1964 was its biggest operation during the Cold War era. The mission known as ONUC was allowed to use force if necessary and carried out air attacks against rebels, the only UN peacekeeping operation to do so till now.

The UN mission in the DRC from 1999, now known as MONUSCO is one of the largest peacekeeping operations in the world. In 2013 the UN Security Council approved the creation of the Forward Intervention Brigade, the UN’s first offensive combat force in an effort to push back dozens of militias in Congo’s chaotic east.

More on Brian Urquhart here, here and here. Urquhart wrote about Patrice Lumumba, “Although he was undoubtedly sincere in his quest for Congolese national unity, he had no practical idea how to get there, nor the patience and discipline necessary to move toward such a difficult goal. He had no interest in the laborious work of effective government and demanded instant results and solutions”. More here.

7) Brian Urquhart was kidnapped by rebels in Congo’s richest province, which announced its secession in July 1960. It contributed the bulk of Congo’s tax revenue and Belgium backed the secessionists. The top employer was the Anglo-Belgian mining giant Union Minière. It was at the time the world’s largest copper and cobalt producer, generating half of the country’s revenues and most of its exports. The separatist movement was crushed by 1963. Name the province.

Katanga. Brian Urquhart wrote about separatist leader Moise Tshombe here.

UN peacekeepers from India played a major role in crushing the separatists in Katanga. India’s Gorkha Rifles regiment ensured Brian Urquhart’s release from captivity. The force that routed the rebels with the help of air power was led by Lieutenant General Dewan Prem Chand. Among those killed was Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria, the only soldier to be awarded India’s highest wartime military honour for his service as a UN peacekeeper.

8) The Shinkolobwe mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was controlled by Union Minière, played a major role in the Second World War in 1945. How? Its role was shrouded in secrecy for decades.

The Shinkolobwe mine produced most of the uranium used by the U.S. in the Manhattan Project, including the atomic bombs dropped on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. More here and here.

9) In 1972 he changed his name. The official translation of the new name was “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake." Who?

Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, who was earlier Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. After a few years in the colonial army, Mobutu was briefly a journalist. He became Patrice Lumumba’s personal aide and was made chief of staff of the army. But Mobutu turned against Lumumba amid a leadership tussle and civil war. He was nurtured by the CIA as a U.S. ally and formally took power in a coup in 1965.

Mobutu was removed in 1997 by a rebel force led by Laurent Kabila and assisted by Rwanda and Uganda, as the fallout of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 spilled over into the DRC.

10) Before this sporting contest in 1974, A called his rival B a “Belgian” and the “oppressor of all Black nations”. B also faced anger in what was then Zaire for arriving (inadvertently) with a German shepherd, Dago, which was the breed used by Belgian security forces to police the Congolese. Identify A and B.

Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Ali beat Foreman in the boxing clash known as ‘Rumble in the Jungle’. More here and here.

11) Peoples’ Friendship University or UDN was established in 1960. Patrice Lumumba’s name was added to the title in 1961. Lumumba’s name disappeared in the 1990s and now the university is known as RUDN. Which city is the university in? Alumni include former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos and the notorious ‘Carlos the Jackal’

Moscow. Another prominent student of Patrice Lumumba University was Sri Lanka’s Rohana Wijeweera, who was not allowed to complete his medical studies because of his pro-China views. He founded the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which tried to overthrow the government in 1971 and 1987-89.

12) During his visit to D.R. Congo earlier in June Belgium’s King Philippe expressed regrets for colonial brutality but did not offer an apology. But the Catholic Church in Belgium (2017) and the Prime Minister (2019) did apologise to a community known as the ‘métis’ for actions undertaken from 1959-62. What was the apology all about?

‘Metis’ were children born to Belgian settlers and Congolese women. They were forcibly taken to Belgium and put in orphanages or foster homes. More here and here.

13) North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is now the epicentre of conflict in the country, with multiple armed groups fighting the government and each other and neighbouring countries accused of meddling. Playing a big role in the current conflagration are the changes in demographic and ethnic composition brought by Belgian colonisers. They encouraged mass immigration from another Belgian colony from the 1920s to the 1950s to provide labour for European-run farms and mines. This had huge implications later. Which country did they come from?

Rwanda. Immigration in the colonial era led to the presence of both Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in eastern Congo. In 1994 more than a million Hutu including many responsible for the genocide fled to the Congo after Tutsi guerrillas took control of Rwanda. Backed by Mobutu, the Hutu fighters now in Congo launched raids into Rwanda and attacked Tutsi people. Rwanda in turn organised a rebel force led by Laurent Kabila, which was dominated by the Tutsi. This force toppled Mobutu in 1997.

The continued presence of Hutu fighters in the Congo under Laurent Kabila and Tutsi-led Rwanda’s bid to carve out a zone of influence precipitated another conflict dubbed as Africa's 'First World War', bringing in Uganda and Rwanda on one side while Zimbabwe and Angola backed the Congolese government. More here, here, here and here. Millions have been killed in the deadliest documented conflict in African history. It’s also the worst conflict since World War II when it comes to the number of deaths.

Tensions between Rwanda and the DRC have risen this year, with the Congolese government accusing Rwanda of propping up a Tutsi-dominated rebel group known as M23. More here, here and here.

January 2025 update: M23 fighters backed by Rwanda say they have taken control of Goma, a key city in eastern DRC. More here.

Courtesy Google Maps: Goma in DRC’s North Kivu province and Bukavu in South Kivu province, both seized by M23 as of February 2025.

14) This comic book was first published in 1931. The author later regretted the work, referring to it and an earlier book as “sins of my youth”. He revised parts of the book in later editions, editing out some material hailing colonialism. The book was published in English only in 1991. In the 2000s it was in the spotlight for its crude, racially problematic content. Name the book and author.

Tintin in the Congo by Herge. More here, here, here and here.

15) This novel published in 1899 is about a steamboat captain navigating Congo and sharply condemns Belgian colonialism and its brutality. It is based on the author’s own experiences as mate and then captain of a river steamer in the Congo in 1890. Name the book and author.

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. More here and here. Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe accused Conrad of being a ‘thoroughgoing racist’ for the way he portrayed Africans in a 1977 essay.

16) This was made up of 10,000 hectares and named after Belgium’s then King Albert when it was founded in 1925. It was the first such establishment across Africa. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. What is it now known as?

Virunga National Park, the first national park to be set up in Africa. More here, here and here.

17) Which Hindi and Urdu poet wrote a poem in honour of Patrice Lumumba after his assassination, with the lines ‘khoon phir khoon hai, tapkega to jam jaega’ (blood is still blood, if spilt it will clot).

Sahir Ludhianvi. More here and the poem with translation here.