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HISTORY T1 W6 Gr. 12: INDEPENDENT AFRICA: THE CONGO
INDEPENDENT AFRICA: THE CONGO
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Body of Essay: Independent Africa: Case Study - Congo
This is a summary of the content you have learnt. This summary does not respond to a particular question, therefore, the line of argument is not present. When you write your history essay in your final examination, your line of argument needs to be stated in your introduction and supported throughout the body of your essay.
A line of argument is your perspective on what has happened in the past. However, your perspective needs to be supported by the evidence you have learnt.
To avoid missing key dates and events in your essay, it is recommended that you draw a timeline like the one above on your exam paper or answer sheet. While this will not be awarded any marks, it can help ensure you cover all the important aspects.
Since Congo’s chaotic debut of independence in 1960, the USA was determined above all to ensure the country remained a pro-Western bulwark against Soviet ambitions in Africa. Armed conflict and civil war continued, with Joseph Mobutu seizing power of the country in 1965 through a coup de’tat.
The first few paragraphs of the body of the essay make brief reference to the chaotic independence of Congo in 1960 which was exacerbated (made worse) by both the legacy of colonialism and the meddling of the superpowers in the Cold War ( what ) and Joseph Mobutu who seized power in 1965 ( who ) of the topic.
Determined to restore the power and control of the central government in Leopoldville (as the capital was then known), he set out to create a ’new Congo’, acting ruthlessly to suppress disorder and dissent . Within five years (by 1970), Mobutu had managed to impose law and order of some kind on most parts of the country. His economic strategy was initially effective; inflation was halted, the currency was stabilised, output increased and the governments' debts were kept low. The giant copper industry was successfully nationalised. In August 1970, US President Nixon described Mobutu as a leader of stability and vision. The country became a magnet which attracted an increasing number of Western foreign investors .
Your essay should now refer to the period of 1965 to 1970, referring to both Mobutu’s initial political and economic policies in the historical context of the Congo.
It is at this stage, that Mobutu launched a series of grandiose development projects; a steel mill near Leopoldville, a giant dam on the lower reaches of the Congo River at Inga, a long-distance power line from Inga to Katanga, an ambitious new copper mining project, new manufacturing plants, and an array of infrastructure projects.
Continue to unfold the story chronologically, with Western foreign investors attracted to a ‘politically stable’ Congo which is both West-aligned and supported by the US President, the emphasis on inappropriate expenditure under Mobutu is now referred to. In addition, begin to show his increased political ambition.
Mobutu’s political ambitions grew at the same time and, stage by stage, he accumulated vast personal power , ruling by decree, controlling all appointments and promotions and deciding on the allocation of government revenues. He created a single national party , the MPR, setting himself up as its sole guide and mentor and laid down an ideology to which everyone was instructed to adhere to. The ideology was known at first as authenticité, but its official name was subsequently changed simply to ‘ Mobutuism ’.
To create an ‘authentic’ national spirit (to Africanise the country ), he ordered a wide variety of names to be changed. The Congo was called Zaire, Leopoldville was changed to Kinshasa, Zairians with Christian names were ordered to drop them for African ones, and Joseph Mobutu himself took the name Mobutu Sese Seko. Furthermore, Mobutu banned Congolese men from wearing European suits.
How he implemented authenticité or Mobutuism, is now explained, providing examples. This is Mobutu’s cultural policy.
The personality cult surrounding Mobutu became all-pervasive. He assumed grand titles, his deeds were endlessly praised in songs and dances, officials took to wearing lapel badges with his miniature portrait, and the television news was preceded by the image of Mobutu, with his leopard-skin hat perched on his head, descending, as if it were, through the clouds from heaven. Places where he had worked and lived were designated as national pilgrimage points.
Next, Mobutu turned to self-enrichment on a scale unsurpassed anywhere else in Africa. He invested in luxury property in Europe and Zaire (with his palace complex at Gbadolite being the most notorious), and used the central bank as his own ‘piggy bank’.
The cult of personality, self-enrichment, and predatory capitalism is now unpacked – being both economic and political policies.
During the 1970s, in what has been described as predatory capitalism , Mobutu’s personal fortune grew in leaps and bounds, and by the end of the 1970s, Mobutu had become one of the world’s richest men.
In 1975, the government fell into arrears on repayments of its foreign debts , Western bankers came to the rescue by agreeing to stretch out their loans to reduce the immediate burden. However, the Western banks had reached the point where they could not afford to let Zaire founder .
In November 1978, a retired Bundesbank official, Erwin Blumenthal , was given effective control of the central bank. In 1979, Blumenthal left in disgust.
Your essay should now focus on the period of 1975, as the economic crisis deepened, and Blumenthal's attempted intervention failed by 1979.
However repressive and corrupt Mobutu’s regime had become, he still enjoyed the support of Western governments . During the 1980s, he was supported by both US President Ronald Reagan, and then by his successor, George Bush (Snr).
Hoping to regain some of the international standings he had lost and being accustomed to acting as a regional power-broker, Mobutu got Zaire involved in the Rwandan civil war in 1990 , by supporting the Hutu-dominated Rwandan government against the Tutus-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
Your essay should now explain that by 1990, in an attempt to reestablish his international and regional political standing, as a Francophone leader in Africa, Mobutu got involved in Rwanda, ultimately leading to his overthrow by 1997.
France stood by Zaire and Mobutu in a failed attempt to ensure francophone countries dominated central Africa , in opposition to the position of Uganda and Museveni as Anglophone power brokers.
In May 1997, Mobutu flew into exile in Morocco, while in Kigali (Rwanda), Paul Kagame, the mastermind of the campaign to oust Mobutu, finally admitted his involvement, “Everywhere it was our forces, our troops”, he said. “They’ve been walking for the last eight months.”
On 17 May 1997, Joseph Kabila was sworn in as president, renaming the country the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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