history essay congo

A short history of instability in the Congo...

The region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first settled about 80,000 years ago. Bantu migration arrived in the region from Nigeria in the 7th century AD. The Kingdom of Kongo developed between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. Belgian colonization began when King Leopold II founded the Congo Free State, a corporate state run solely by him. Reports of widespread murder and torture in the rubber plantations led the Belgian government to seize the Congo from Leopold II and establish the Belgian Congo. Under Belgian rule, the colony was run with the presence of numerous Christian organizations that wanted to Westernize the Congolese people.

After an uprising by the Congolese people, Belgium surrendered to the independence of the Congo in 1960. However, the Congo was left unstable because tribal leaders had more power than the central government. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to restore order with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the United States to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu in 1965. Mobutu quickly seized complete power of the Congo and renamed the country Zaire. He sought to Africanize the country, changing his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko, and demanded that African citizens change their Western names to traditional African names. Mobutu sought to repress any opposition to his rule, and retained his position for 32 years through several sham elections, as well as through brutal force. However, with his regime weakened in the early 1990s, Mobutu was forced to agree to a power-sharing government with the opposition party. Mobutu remained the head of state and promised elections for the next two years that never happened.

In the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire, which overthrew Mobutu during the process. Laurent-Desire Kabila later took power and renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After a disappointing rule under Kabila, the Second Congo War broke out, resulting in a regional war with many different African nations taking part. Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded him and was later elected president by the Congolese government in 2006. In October 2002, the new president was successful in negotiating the withdrawal of Rwandan forces occupying the eastern DRC; two months later, the Pretoria Accord was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and establish a government of national unity.

A transitional government was set up in July 2003; it held a successful constitutional referendum in December 2005 and elections for the presidency, National Assembly, and provincial legislatures took place in 2006. In 2009, following a resurgence of conflict in the eastern DRC, the government signed a peace agreement with the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a primarily Tutsi rebel group. An attempt to integrate CNDP members into the Congolese military failed, prompting their defection in 2012 and the formation of the M23 armed group - named after the 23 March 2009 peace agreements.

Renewed conflict led to large population displacements and significant human rights abuses before the M23 was pushed out of DRC to Uganda and Rwanda in late 2013 by a joint DRC and UN offensive. In addition, the DRC continues to experience violence committed by other armed groups including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the Allied Democratic Forces, and assorted Mai Mai militias. In the most recent national elections, held in November 2011, disputed results allowed Joseph Kabila to be reelected to the presidency. The DRC Constitution bars President Kabila from running for a third term, but the DRC Government has delayed national elections originally slated for November 2016. The failure to hold elections as scheduled has fueled sporadic street protests by Kabila’s opponents. In late December 2016, government officials and opposition leaders struck a last-minute deal that will require Kabila to step down after elections to be held by the end of 2017. Today, the Congo remains dangerously unstable.  

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HISTORY T1 W6 Gr. 12: INDEPENDENT AFRICA: THE CONGO

INDEPENDENT AFRICA: THE CONGO

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Precolonial perspectives

The congo free state.

• Belgian paternalism and the politics of decolonization
• The Congo crisis
• Mobutu’s regime
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo

• What is Mobutu Sese Seko known for?

History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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The country that began as a king’s private domain (the Congo Free State ), evolved into a colony (the Belgian Congo), became independent in 1960 (as the Republic of the Congo ), and later underwent several name changes (to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then to Zaire, and back again to the Democratic Republic of the Congo) is the product of a complex pattern of historical forces. Some are traceable to the precolonial past, others to the era of colonial rule, and others still to the political convulsions that followed in the wake of independence. All, in one way or another, have left their imprint on Congolese societies.

Before experiencing radical transformations in the colonial era, Congolese societies had already experienced major disruptions. From the 15th to the 17th century several important state systems evolved in the southern savanna region. The most important were the Kongo kingdom in the west and the Luba-Lunda states in the east. They developed elaborate political institutions, buttressed by symbolic kingship and military force. Power emanated from the capital to outlying areas through appointed chiefs or local clan heads. Competition for the kingship often led to civil strife, however, and, with the rise of the slave trade , new sources of instability influenced regional politics. The history of the Kongo peoples in the 16th century, for example, is largely the story of how the Atlantic slave trade created powerful vested interests among provincial chiefs, which over time undermined the kingdom’s capacity to resist encroachments by its neighbours. By the late 16th century the kingdom had all but succumbed to the attacks of the Imbangala (referred to as Jaga in contemporary sources), bands of fighters fleeing famine and drought in the east. Two centuries later fragmentation also undermined political institutions among the Lunda and the Luba , followed by attacks from interlopers eager to control trade in slaves and ivory.

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In the tropical rainforest the radically different ecological conditions raised formidable obstacles to state formation. Small-scale societies, organized into village communities , were the rule. Corporate groups combining social and economic functions among small numbers of related and unrelated people formed the dominant mode of organization. Exchange took place through trade and gift-giving. Over time these social interactions fostered cultural homogeneity among otherwise distinctive communities, such as Bantu and Pygmy groups. Bantu communities absorbed and intermarried with their Pygmy clients, who brought their skills and crafts into the culture . This predominance of house and village organization stands in sharp contrast to the more centralized state structures characteristic of the savanna kingdoms, which were far more adept at acting in a concerted manner than the segmented societies in the tropical rainforest. The segmented nature of the tropical rainforest societies hindered their ability to resist a full-scale invasion by colonial forces.

In the savanna region, resistance to colonial forces was undermined by internecine raids and wars that followed the slave trade, by the increased devastation wrought on African kingdoms when those forces adopted the use of increasingly sophisticated firearms, and by the divisions between those who collaborated with outsiders and those who resisted. The relative ease with which these Congolese societies yielded to European conquest bears testimony to the magnitude of earlier upheavals.

King Leopold II of the Belgians set in motion the conquest of the huge domain that was to become his personal fiefdom. The king’s attention was drawn to the region during British explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley ’s exploration of the Congo River in 1874–77. In November 1878 Leopold formed the Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo (Comité d’Études du Haut Congo, later renamed Association Internationale du Congo ) to open up the African interior to European trade along the Congo River. Between 1879 and 1882, under the committee’s auspices , Stanley established stations on the upper Congo and opened negotiations with local rulers. By 1884 the Association Internationale du Congo had signed treaties with 450 independent African entities and, on that basis, asserted its right to govern all the territory concerned as an independent state.

Leopold’s thinly veiled colonial ambitions paved the way for the Berlin West Africa Conference (1884–85), which set the rules for colonial conquest and sanctioned his control of the Congo River basin area to be known as the Congo Free State (1885–1908). Armed with a private mandate from the international community of the time, and under the guise of his African International Association ’s humanitarian mission of ending slavery and bringing religion and the benefits of modern life to the Congolese, Leopold created a coercive instrument of colonial hegemony .

The name Congo Free State is closely identified with the extraordinary hardships and atrocities visited upon the Congolese masses in the name of Leopold’s “civilizing mission.” “Without the railroad,” said Stanley, “the Congo is not worth a penny.” Without recourse to forced labour , however, the railroad could not be built, and the huge concessions that had been made to private European companies would not become profitable, nor could African resistance in the east be overcome without a massive recruitment of indigenous troops. The cruel logic of the revenue imperative led Leopold to transform his nascent administrative system into a machine designed to extract not only the maximum amount of natural resources from the land but also the maximum output of labour from the people. In order to secure the labour necessary to accomplish Leopold’s goals, his agents employed such methods as kidnapping the families of Congolese men, who were forced to meet often unrealistic work quotas to secure their families’ release. Those who tried to rebel were dealt with by Leopold’s private army, the Force Publique—a band of African soldiers led by European officers—who burned the villages and slaughtered the families of rebels. The Force Publique troops were also known for cutting off the hands of the Congolese, including children; the mutilations served to further terrorize the Congolese into submission.

In the wake of intense international criticism prompted by exposés by the American writer Mark Twain , the English journalist E.D. Morel, and various missionaries, in 1908 the Belgian Parliament voted to annex the Congo Free State—essentially purchasing the area from King Leopold and thus placing what was once the king’s personal holding under Belgian rule. Nevertheless, the destructive impact of the Congo Free State lasted well beyond its brief history. The widespread social disruption not only complicated the establishment of a viable system of administration; it also left a legacy of anti-Western sentiment on which subsequent generations of nationalists were able to capitalize.

Department of History

The history of congo.

• Didier Gondola (author)
• Greenwood , 2002
• Purchase Online

This book begins with a survey of Congo’s early history, when diverse peoples such as the Luba, the Kuba, and the Nilotic inhabited the area, and continues by tracing the country’s history through the Belgian period of colonization and the dictatorships of Mobutu and Kabila. Biographical portraits present important figures in Congo’s storied history. An annotated bibliography and chronology help make this the most current and accessible introduction to this fascinating, complex, and long-suffering nation.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, is located at the center of Africa. The country encompasses the entire Congo River Basin, the potential source of 13% of the world’s hydroelectric power. The Congo River Basin also contains one-third of Africa’s rainforests, countless species of trees, and more then 10,000 species of flowering plants. Congo contains extremely valuable deposits of diamonds and coltan, a metal used in high-tech machinery. Because of this abundance of natural resources, Congo has unfortunately been the site of colonial domination, repressive dictatorships, and internecine violence between rebel groups and neighboring countries.

World History Edu

The Congo Crisis of 1960-1965: History, Causes & Effects

by World History Edu · October 9, 2022

The 1960s was a turbulent era in Africa as many of the colonized countries began gaining their independence and adjusting to self-rule. Just a few weeks after winning its independence from Belgium, the Republic of Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, experienced a severe crisis that shook the country to its core and cost more than a hundred thousand lives, including the life of the first prime minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. It also transformed the Republic of Congo into a one-party state (under the authoritarian rule of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu) that endured until 1997.

The Congo Crisis (1960-1965), the first major crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa post-colonial era, claimed over 95,000 lives.

Below, World History Edu explores the major causes of the 1960 Congo Crisis, the key figures involved in the crisis, how it was resolved, and the effects on the country today.

The Congo Free State was established in 1885 and privately owned by King Leopold II of Belgium. However, due to the outcry by European countries and the United States on the atrocities committed against the locals during the extraction of ivory and rubber, the Belgian king reluctantly handed over Congo Free State to the Belgium government in 1908, which led to the formation of the Belgian Congo.

The Congo under the Belgium government led to the introduction of Christianity and education, which also led to the urbanization of the country and subsequently the push for self-governance by Congolese. The push for independence was not a walk in the park, it was plagued with resistance from the colonial master and tribal politics by the different ethnic groups in the country. The Congolese elites pushed for an independent Congo by organizing themselves into three main political parties;

The ABAKO (Alliance of Bakongo; French: Alliance des Bakongo) was founded in 1950 as an Association for the Bakongo people and it was led by Joseph Kasa-Vubu who would become the first elected president of the Republic of Congo.

The Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) was established in 1958 and it sought a centralized Congo and immediate withdrawal of the Belgium government. It was led by Albert Kalonji and Patrice Lumumba .

The Confederation of Tribal Association of Katanga people (CANAKAT) was formed in 1958 and sought the protection of the rich Katanga Province. It was pro-western and was led by Moïse Tshombe and Godefroid Munongo.

Congo’s struggle for independence

In January 1959, the call for independence turned aggressive as a protest from ABAKO got out of hand and turned into a bloody riot that took several days to resolve. Hundreds of lives were lost as a result of the riots.

The scream for independence rattled the Belgian government and King Baudouin promised independence would be given without delay and irresponsible rashness. The following year, the Congolese political elites were invited for a round table conference in Brussels and all the demands of Congolese leaders were granted. It was agreed that elections were to be held in May 1960 and the country became an independent nation in June 1960.

Joseph Kasa-Vubu was the first president of the DRC

The elections showed how divided the country was, as ABAKO and the MNC were tied and had to come to a compromise with Joseph Kasa-Vubu becoming the president of an independent Congo and Patrice Lumumba becoming its first head of government.

The Belgians handed over power officially to the new Congolese government on June 30, 1960.

Causes of the Congo Crisis

Just a week after independence was declared, the Congolese soldiers of Force Publique (a white militia group) rebelled against the force because the commander, Lt. General Emile Janssens, refused to allow promotions and salary increases for the Congolese members of the force.

Lumumba was a radical nationalist who opposed the post-colonial mining contract that was signed between Congo and Belgium

This mutiny soon led to widespread violence across racial lines in the country. Due to the murders of Belgian officers, the Belgium government deployed its own troops to restore peace and evacuate its citizens without the approval of the new Congolese President or Prime Minister.

The newly christened government sought the help of the United Nations to restore order to the country and the eviction of Belgian troops. The Belgian troops evacuated over 850,000 Belgians that were living in Congo; sadly, this was not the end but rather the beginning of the Congo Crisis. Colonel Mobutu took control of the army and saw to the promotion of certain officers to gain their allegiance.

The Main Cause of the Congo Crisis

Following the unrest, the resource-rich province of Katanga, led by Moïse Tshombe, seceded from the DRC. The Katangan rebels were allegedly backed by Belgian support. The South Kasai province, led by Albert Kalonji, Lumumba’s former ally, followed suit and seceded.

With support from the United States government, the United Nations sent a peacekeeping force but they refused to interfere in the Congolese government’s fight with the secessionists as they viewed this as an internal conflict.

This forced Prime Minister Lumumba’s hand to seek help from the Soviet Union, which angered the United States government. The U.S. and its western allies hoped the new Congolese government would be pro-west.

The arrival of a thousand Soviet advisors distanced Lumumba from the other members of the government, who feared the implications of involving the Soviet Union. This caused relationships between President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Patrice Lumumba to sour.

With support from the Soviets, Congolese troops launched an aggressive attack against South Kasai, resulting in the deaths of many civilians and thousands of Luba civilians fleeing their homes.

The United States feared Congo’s relationship with the Soviet Union would lead to the spreads of communism in Africa. Therefore, Patrice Lumumba became a threat that simply had to be removed from power.

Moïse Tshombe – President of secessionist Katanga

Kasa-Vubu announced the dismissal of Prime Minister Lumumba. Lumumba also tried to dismiss the President but did not get the support, resulting in a constitutional deadlock.

It is alleged the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) sought the help of an agent in the person of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to get rid of the Lumumba threat. There is no evidence to back this claim, however, Mobutu executed a bloodless coup d’état in September 1960 to avoid a civil war. Upon assuming of power in the country, the military leader ordered the Soviet advisors to leave the country immediately.

Deposed Prime Minister Lumumba was placed under house arrest with the UN peacekeepers as his guards. The arrest of Lumumba resulted in the emergence of another rebel government in Stanleyville by Antoine Gizenga in November of 1960.

Belgium deployed its troops to the DRC during the Crisis. Belgium backed secessionist leader Moise Kapenda Tshombe of the Katanga province

Lumumba’s removal allowed for the negotiation of a truce between the central Congolese government and the Katanga secessionists.

Patrice Lumumba, with the help of his loyalist, escaped house arrest and fled to the rebel-backed Stanleyville. Unfortunately, he was captured on December 1, 1960, and taken to the capital, Léopoldville.

The Soviet Union petitioned the United Nations Security Council for Lumumba’s release and immediate restoration as the Prime Minister.  The Soviets also called on Mobutu’s troops to disarm. The petition was voted 8 against and 2 in favor.

Assassination of Patrice Lumumba

Following the resolution, Lumumba was tortured and taken to Katanga, where he was handed over to Tshombe’s forces and was executed on 17 January 1961.

News of Lumumba’s execution was met with outcry and protest in major cities like New York and London, and the Belgium embassies in Yugoslavia and Belgrade were attacked.

Cease-fire negotiations and the death of Hammarskjöld

The battle to end the secession of Katanga province continued despite the execution of Lumumba because the re-appointed president Kasa-Vubu and Moïse Tshombe could not reach an agreement. In September 1961 some UN peacekeepers were kidnapped by Katangese forces and held prisoners.

The then-UN secretary Dag Hammarskjöld decided to fly to Congo to broker a cease-fire between the two factions and effect the release of the peacekeepers. Unfortunately, the plane carrying the UN secretary and his delegates crashed, killing all onboard.

Dag Hammarskjöld was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 10 April 1953 – 18 September 1961, when he died. The top UN official was en route to the DRC to broker peace in the country when his crashed, killing all of the 15 other passengers. Dag Hammarskjöld was posthumously honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, making him the only person to receive the prize after dying.

Secretary-General U Thant, Hammarskjöld’s successor, ordered the UN troops to step up its efforts. Ultimately, the captured peacekeepers were released in October. The UN troops launched an offensive with the Congolese army and took over regions of the Katanga province.

By January 1963, Moïse Tshombe had surrendered and fled the country. This resulted in the end of the war between the central government and the Katangese secessionists.

The Simba Rebellion

After the end of the conflict, President Kasa-Vubu appointed the exiled former leader of Katanga province Moïse Tshombe interim Prime Minister. However, this did little to quell the discontentment among the Congolese. There were agitations by Lumumba loyalists spearheaded by Pierre Mulele, which led to the Kwilu Rebellion of 1964. Soon the rebellion, which was termed the Simba Rebellion, spread to western Congo. The fighters called themselves “Simbas”, meaning lions.

Simba rebels, who were primarily comprised uneducated young men, sought to overthrow the central Congolese government not because they were loyal to Lumumba but because they wanted better opportunities for themselves. With the backing of the Soviet Union and China, the rebels founded a new state called the People’s Republic of the Congo, and trade unionist Christophe Gbenye was voted president.

The two years’ long rebellion led to the death of thousands of lives, including westerners. It is important to state the Simba rebellion was not totally crushed, pockets of resistance were still operated in the 1980s and into the 1990s by former president Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

The new state was also supported by Tanzania and Cuba, who supplied the rebels with 100 troops led by Che Guevara . The Simbas gained ground initially but were soon met with opposition from the Congolese Army and mercenaries who fought for Tshombe.

Desperate for global attention, the Simbas kidnapped and held over 500 Belgians hostage. This move by the rebels turned out to be a huge mistake because this prompted the Belgium government to send their troops to recover the hostages. The majority of the hostages were evacuated, about 75 of the rebels lost their lives, and a thousand civilians lost perished as well.

End of the Congo Crisis

Following the suppression of the rebellions, elections were held in March 1965, but once again due to political differences and ethnicity, there was a deadlock between Tshombe’s party and President Kasa-Vubu. Instead of compromising Kasa-Vubu sacked Tshombe as Prime Minister and appointed Évariste Kimba; once again, history was repeating itself.

Army leader Mobutu launched a second bloodless coup in November 1965, but this time, he consolidated power for himself, promising to restore power to a democratically elected government in five years but he never did.

Joseph-Désiré Mobutu (1930-1997) ended up ruling Congo following the crisis. He was the Chief of Staff of the Congolese Army who masterminded the overthrow of nationalist Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1965. Mobutu ruled the country with iron fist from 1965 to 1997

The office of the prime minister as well as parliament was abolished and the DRC was plunged into decades of kleptocracy and autocracy from 1965 to 1997, when Mobutu was finally deposed.

Effects of the Congo Crisis

The crisis, which lasted from 1960 to 1964, resulted in the deaths of more than 95,00 people, most notable among those people was Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo. The crisis also claimed the life of Dag Hammarskjöld, a senior UN official who was trying to broker peace between the warring sides. Hammarskjöld lost his life when the plane he was flying on crashed.

• The scars of the Congo Crisis run deep because it has resulted in years of ethnic unrest in the Congo, especially among the Luba people of the south-central region. There was a rise in insurrection from the 1970s to the 1990s.
• There is this palpable feeling among many Congolese that the Congo Crisis was never truly resolved and the murder of Patrice Lumumba set the nation into a period of darkness and hardship.
• The first major crisis in sub-Saharan Africa had a ripple effect on other African countries in the 1960s, including the Chadian Civil War and the Nigerian Civil War .

Did you know?

It is important to note that in 2002 the Belgium government apologized for its role in the arrest and execution of Patrice Lumumba. The golden tooth of Patrice Lumumba was returned to his family by the Belgium government in June 2022. The former leader was also given a state funeral by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

One wonders if the call for independence in the Republic of Congo was premature; did the country need more time to understudy its colonial master? Were the superpowers really to blame for this conflict, or was it caused by the sheer diverse nature of the country, a feature that should be a strength, but unfortunately worked against Congo? No matter your stance, we all agree that the Congo Civil War without a shred of doubt was one of the darkest periods of the central African country, and the ghost of the crisis continues to haunt Congolese even to this day.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Congo Crisis

The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict from 1960 to 1965 in the Republic of the Congo, following its independence from Belgium.

Here’s what you need to know:

Why did the Congo Crisis happen?

The crisis was a result of a combination of factors, including rapid decolonization, internal power struggles, regional secessionist movements, Cold War geopolitics, and interventions by foreign powers.

Who was Patrice Lumumba?

Patrice Lumumba was the first Prime Minister of independent Congo, known for his nationalist and pan-African views. He was controversially dismissed from his position, arrested, and eventually assassinated.

Why did Katanga secede?

Katanga, under the leadership of Moise Tshombe and with the backing of Belgian business interests, declared independence to maintain control over the province’s significant mineral wealth, especially its copper mines.

What was the role of the United Nations during the crisis?

The UN sent peacekeeping troops to restore order, prevent civil war, and oversee the removal of Belgian troops. However, their mandate was limited, leading to criticism from various parties.

How did the crisis end?

The crisis concluded with Mobutu Sese Seko’s military coup in 1965. He then established a one-party state and ruled for over three decades.

Did foreign powers play a role in the crisis?

Yes. Belgium, the United States, and the Soviet Union were involved either directly or indirectly, driven by economic interests and Cold War politics.

What was the impact of Lumumba’s assassination?

Lumumba’s death intensified the crisis and remains controversial. It symbolized the challenges faced by post-colonial African leaders and the extent of foreign intervention in African affairs.

Who were the Simba rebels?

The Simba rebels were leftist insurgents who supported Lumumba’s vision and started a rebellion in 1964. They posed a significant threat to the central government and captured large parts of the country.

What were the long-term effects of the Congo Crisis on the country?

The Congo Crisis set a precedent for political instability, ethnic conflicts, and a legacy of foreign intervention in the DRC. Mobutu’s long rule saw authoritarianism, economic mismanagement, and corruption.

Why is the Congo Crisis significant in world history?

The crisis exemplifies the challenges of decolonization, the role of superpowers in post-colonial states, and the complexities of African politics in the wake of independence.

Did the Congo Crisis relate to the Cold War?

Yes. The Cold War dynamics played out in the Congo, with the U.S. and the Soviet Union supporting different factions. Lumumba’s perceived leftist leanings led to Western apprehensions, while the U.S. supported anti-communist leaders like Mobutu.

Tags: Democratic Republic of the Congo Mobutu Sese Seko Patrice Lumumba The Congo Crisis

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Congo, Republic of (Congo Brazzaville) by Brett Logan Carter , John F. Clark LAST REVIEWED: 30 September 2013 LAST MODIFIED: 30 September 2013 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0114

The Republic of the Congo (hereafter Congo), long overshadowed by its eastern neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has suffered a history no less tragic. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza won the right bank of the Congo River for France in the 1880s. Though Savorgnan de Brazza is regarded as a humanist by posterity, the early years of French colonial administration were marked by a concessionary regime, in which French companies forced indigenous populations to collect rubber and other natural resources with a mix of coercion and wages; the colonial administration then expropriated these wages with a poll tax. The early years of Congolese independence were marked by a series of popular protests and coups d‘état, culminating in Marxist dictatorship in 1968 and the rapid nationalization of private enterprise. Controlled by a clique of northern military officers, the Congolese government presided over an expanding oil sector that did little to raise the living standards of most Congolese citizens. Amid the global recession of the late 1980s, the 1991 National Conference stripped President Denis Sassou Nguesso of sovereign authority and organized Congo’s first free and fair elections. The period of optimism that accompanied President Pascal Lissouba’s 1992 inauguration was short-lived, however. As global oil prices rose, the state treasury became increasingly valuable to ambitious politicians. Sassou Nguesso, with the support of the French and Angolan governments, again seized power following the 1997 civil war, ushering in a decade of violence that cost the country 1 percent of its population. Sassou Nguesso has now ruled the country for all but five years since 1979, and though Brazzaville has largely recovered from war, Congo’s economy remains dominated by oil and subject to global market volatility. The country is marked by severe income inequality, with oil revenue controlled by Sassou Nguesso and his political allies. Scholarship has largely reflected Congo’s economic and political fortunes. Until roughly 1975, most students of Congo were based in Europe. They produced magisterial studies of precolonial and colonial Congolese society and assembled detailed collections of primary source material. In the early 1970s, economic historians, mostly Marxists, sought the causes of Congo’s economic stagnation. As the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, a new generation of Congolese writers contributed vitally to our knowledge of the country’s literature, performing arts, and political history. Congolese historiography, however, also became more overtly political, a trend that intensified as the civil wars of the late 1990s produced clear “winners” and “losers.”

There are a number of general overviews that usefully situate Congo in historical and regional context. Ghazvinian 2007 and Shaxson 2008 both explore the political implications of oil production in contemporary Africa, and both feature chapters on Congo. Ross 2012 is currently the leading account of the natural resource curse; the book places Congo in the context of global oil producers. Knight 2007 describes the economic and political conditions that led to the civil wars of the late 1990s and early 2000s in particularly accessible prose. Manning 1998 provides an excellent survey of Francophone Africa since the early colonial era, while Birmingham and Martin 1983–1998 does the same for Central Africa. Ballif 1993 and Soret 1978 remain the best introductions in the French language; the latter is more appropriate for longtime Africa specialists.

Ballif, Noël. Le Congo . Paris: Karthala, 1993.

A general overview of the country’s geography, vegetation, cultural and religious traditions, economic development, and politics. Written by a noted French documentary film producer, the book is intended for a general audience.

Birmingham, David, and Phyllis M. Martin, eds. History of Central Africa . 3 vols. New York: Longman, 1983–1998.

A three-volume overview of Central African history between 1400 and the late 20th centuries. The first volume includes an essay by Jan Vansina that discusses the Tio and Loango kingdoms of the precolonial period, while the second volume features an essay by Ralph Austen and Rita Headrick on the administration of French Equatorial Africa from Brazzaville. The third volume, published in 1998, features a comparative analysis of Gabon, Congo, and the Central African Republic.

Ghazvinian, John. Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil . Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2007.

A highly readable survey of oil-producing Africa: part travelogue, part analysis of the political implications of oil wealth. Although the portions on Congo are relatively brief, Gahzvinian underscores the relevance of French oil interests in the civil wars of the late 1990s and early 2000s; he also situates Congo in the broader context of Gulf of Guinea oil producers.

Knight, Cassie. Magic and Rebellion in the Republic of the Congo . London: Frances Lincoln, 2007.

Features a series of historical and cultural reflections that contextualize the author’s experiences as an aid worker in Congo during the early 2000s. Knight focuses particular attention on the political and economic developments in the 1990s that led to the 1997 civil war.

Manning, Patrick. Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880–1995 . New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

An excellent survey of Francophone Africa from early colonialism. Most importantly for scholars of Congo, Manning situates Congo in broader regional trends: French colonial administration, nationalist and independence movements in the 1950s and 1960s, and postcolonial economic and political fortunes. He also includes chapters on culture and religion, as well as a number of useful maps.

Ross, Michael L. The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.

Currently the leading account of the political effects of oil wealth. Ross finds that oil-producing countries are nearly 50 percent more likely to suffer from civil wars than their non-oil-producing counterparts, and 50 percent more likely to be ruled by autocrats. Oil, Ross contends, enables autocrats to increase spending, reduce taxes, buy the loyalty of the armed forces, and conceal government corruption.

Shaxson, Nicholas. Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

A journalistic account of contemporary oil-producing Africa. Like Ghazvinian 2007 , Shaxson situates Congo’s experience in broader continental trends; Shaxson’s account is distinctive for its focus on a handful of Congolese citizens who have campaigned—often at great personal risk—for transparency within the oil sector.

Soret, Marcel. Histoire du Congo: Capitale Brazzaville . Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1978.

A more thorough overview of Congolese history than Ballif 1993 . Soret provides a detailed account of the economics of slavery in the precolonial period, with attention to the implications for domestic political organization. The latter half of the volume focuses on the evolution of French colonial administration and the popular protests that forced Youlou from power. Throughout, Soret includes quantitative data.

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How Did Mpox Become a Global Emergency? What’s Next?

The virus is evolving, and the newest version spreads more often through heterosexual populations. Sweden reported the first case outside Africa.

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By Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli covered the 2022 mpox outbreak and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Faced once again with a rapidly spreading epidemic of mpox, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared a global health emergency. The last time the W.H.O. made that call was in 2022, when the disease was still called monkeypox.

Ultimately the outbreak affected nearly 100,000 people worldwide, primarily gay and bisexual men, including more than 32,000 in the United States.

The W.H.O.’s decision this time was prompted by an escalating crisis of mpox concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It recently spread to a dozen other African countries. If it is not contained, the virus again may rampage all over the world, experts warned.

On Thursday, Sweden reported the first case of a deadlier form of mpox outside Africa , in a person who had traveled to the continent. “Occasional imported cases like the current one may continue to occur,” the country’s public health agency warned.

“There’s a need for concerted effort by all stakeholders, not only in Africa, but everywhere else,” Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a Nigerian scientist and chair of the W.H.O.’s mpox emergency committee, said on Wednesday.

Congo alone has reported 15,600 mpox cases and 537 deaths, most of them among children under 15, indicating that the nature of the disease and its mode of spread may have changed.

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The Antiviral Tecovirimat is Safe but Did Not Improve Clade I Mpox Resolution in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Nih-cosponsored study examined tecovirimat in mpox-endemic country.

August 15, 2024

Colorized transmission electron micrograph of mpox virus particles (red/yellow) found within infected VERO E6 cells (brown). The virus particles are in various stages of maturity, which accounts for differences in shape. Captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland.

The antiviral drug tecovirimat did not reduce the duration of mpox lesions among children and adults with clade I mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), based on an initial analysis of data from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. However, the study’s 1.7% overall mortality among enrollees, regardless of whether they received the drug or not, was much lower than the mpox mortality of 3.6% or higher reported among all cases in the DRC. This shows that better outcomes among people with mpox can be achieved when they are hospitalized and provided high-quality supportive care. The trial is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and co-led through a government-to-government partnership with the DRC’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB). Further analyses and detailed results will be released through scientific channels.

“These findings are disappointing, but they give us essential information and reinforce the need to identify other therapeutic candidates for mpox while we continue research on tecovirimat use in other populations with mpox,” said NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H. “We remain committed to developing safe and effective interventions, including treatments and vaccines, that can ease the devastating mpox burden in Central Africa and address the milder form of the virus that is circulating globally.” 

Mpox has occurred in West, Central and East Africa for decades, with the first human case identified in 1970. Two types of the virus that causes mpox have been identified. Clade I, studied in this trial, is endemic in Central Africa and can cause severe illness. Clade II, endemic in West Africa, tends to result in milder illness. A clade II subtype virus caused a global mpox outbreak in 2022. People with compromised immune systems, children, and people who are pregnant are especially vulnerable to severe mpox regardless of the virus clade.

Reports of clade I mpox are increasing in Central African countries, particularly in the DRC. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that 67% of suspected DRC mpox cases and 78% of suspected mpox deaths have occurred in people aged 15 years and younger. Tecovirimat, also known as TPOXX, was initially developed and approved by the  Food and Drug Administration  to treat  smallpox —a virus closely related to, but far more serious than, mpox—but the drug’s safety and efficacy as an mpox treatment have not been established. It is currently available for mpox treatment in the United States as part of a separate  NIAID-sponsored trial called STOMP and through a  CDC expanded access  Investigational New Drug (EA-IND) request process. Tecovirimat is authorized in Europe and the United Kingdom for the treatment of smallpox, mpox, and other indications.

In October 2022, NIAID and INRB launched the PALM007 trial to examine the safety and efficacy of tecovirimat for mpox treatment in adults and children. The study enrolled 597 people with laboratory-confirmed mpox at two sites in the DRC. Study participants were randomly assigned to receive tecovirimat or placebo and were admitted to a hospital for at least 14 days, where they were monitored closely for safety and resolution of mpox lesions. All participants received supportive care including nutrition, hydration, and treatment for secondary infections.

Tecovirimat was well-tolerated with no drug-related serious adverse events. Overall, mortality was lower, and lesions resolved faster than anticipated regardless of whether participants received tecovirimat or placebo. Study participants are being notified of the initial results and offered the opportunity to participate in an ongoing extension study providing further supportive medical care. Additional analyses are planned to better understand outcomes observed in the study, including whether there were any significant differences in clinical outcomes by days of symptoms prior to enrollment, severity of clinical disease, participant characteristics, or the genetic variant of mpox being treated. 

“This study delivered urgently needed evidence to guide the mpox response in Central Africa” said co-principal investigator Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, M.D., Ph.D., director-general of INRB and professor of microbiology at Kinshasa University Medical School in Kinshasa, DRC. “Although not what we had hoped for, the results show that study clinicians provided exceptional supportive care to all participants, which is a testament to the knowledge and skill that Congolese clinicians have acquired on managing mpox-related disease.” 

“The PALM007 study demonstrated the importance and value of testing investigational mpox treatments through robust clinical trials in the DRC’s endemic setting,” said Lori Dodd, Ph.D., NIAID’s PALM project lead for the DRC. “We’ll continue to evaluate the trial data to determine whether additional studies of tecovirimat in patient subgroups are warranted.”  

The PALM007 trial is led by co-principal investigators Professor Muyembe-Tamfum and Placide Mbala, M.D., Ph.D., operations manager of the PALM clinical research partnership, and head of the Epidemiology and Global Health Department and the Pathogen Genomic Laboratory at INRB. NIAID’s Veronique Nussenblatt, M.D. and Olivier Tshiani, M.D. of Leidos Biomedical Research were protocol co-chairs. The trial was implemented in Tunda (Maniema province) and Kole (Sankuru province) with support from Congolese staff, the Mitchell Group and the NIH’s Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. Collaborating institutions include the U.S. CDC, the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM), the aid organization Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The U.S. Embassy in the DRC and DRC-based U.S. CDC staff supported logistics and operations for shipments, travel and regional security. SIGA Technologies, Inc., based in New York, provided tecovirimat for the study.

The “Pamoja Tulinde Maisha” or “PALM” clinical research partnership was established in response to the 2018 Ebola outbreak in DRC. The collaboration has continued as a multilateral clinical research program composed of NIAID, the DRC Ministry of Health, INRB and INRB’s partners.

NIAID and the INRB thank the extraordinary team of individuals who carried out this study in remote regions of the DRC, the members of the independent study Data and Safety Monitoring Board, and most importantly, the study participants and their families. For more information about PALM007, please visit ClinicalTrials.gov using the study identifier NCT05559099 . 

“Given the differences in populations affected by the two mpox clades, the types of clinical disease that are appearing and the ongoing spread of both clades, it’s very important that we continue with the STOMP trial and other related studies, so that we can develop treatments that benefit all people with mpox,” said Dr. Marrazzo.

The international STOMP trial is examining the safety and efficacy of tecovirimat against clade II mpox. For more information about the STOMP trial, please visit ClinicalTrials.gov using the study identifier  NCT05534984 . An additional study, UNITY, sponsored by ANRS Emerging Infectious Disease, is evaluating tecovirimat with a similar study design to STOMP in Argentina, Brazil and Switzerland. More information about the UNITY study can also be found on ClinicalTrials.gov using the identifier  NCT05597735 . Both studies will continue to enroll participants and work in close collaboration. 

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