The History of the Congo Peter Teddington

Indpendence Day has arrived!  WIth the Congolese now free from colonial rule there are celebrations everywhere.  With KasaVubu as President and Lumumba as Prime Minister the new government gets to work and for the first time the peoples elected officials start to run the country.  But as the celebrations recede not everyone feels included.  The campaigns of the elections set the expectations extremely high.  Soon people start to take their frustrations out on the previous establishment as the new world isn't quite as was expected.   Whilst this is happening other parts of the Republic of the Congo start to question their loyalty to the central government.   And this is just the first 10 days ...

In this episode we look at the new Republic of the Congo 10 days after independence.  We see the Congolese reaction to the years of repression under colonial rule and Belgium's military response.  Faced with these troubles President Kasavuba and Prime Minister Lumumba turn to the UN, the US and the USSR for urgent help - unwittingly inviting the Cold War to their lands.  In the midst of this the provinces of Katanga and South Kasai start to see a future outside of the new Republic... 

In this episode we see the continuation of the independent Republic of the Congo.   The UN, the USSR, the US, Belgium and other continue their operations to push the new country in the direction most aligned to their own ambitions.  Amidst this the Congolese populations and regions estalblish themselves as rival power bases in the country.    These conflicts have casualaties amongst the political class as well as the combatants.   

In this episode we see the final throes of the Independent Katanga and Kasai regions.  But Katanga in particular does not go down without a very real fight.  It holds the line against the United Nations no less, which increasingly adopts a more aggresive position to enforce a united Repulic of the Congo.  But after years of conflict and unrest people's dissapointment independence presnts opportunities for new position.  Former enemies must become friends in the face of more threatening opponents.  After years of fighting an exhausted international community leaves the Congo to it's fate.    In the dynamic politics of the region, Communism is still looking for a foothold and in our final extended episode of the season we see which superpower and ideology puts their man at the top for the next tumultuous chapter of The History of the Congo.   This part of history is a story not often told but sets the scene as we enter the modern world ....

Here we find the people of the Congo living for the first time under one ruler in todays DRC borders. This man was King Leopold II of Belgium, and he called his territory The Congo Free State. The land people and people were ruthlessly exploited for ivory and rubber with scant regards to their own interests. Under this regime brutality and control new depths of humanity were reached ... This is often referred to as the age of Red Rubber.

In this episode we see how one individual, Edmund Morel, pieces together the true facts of Leopold's Congo State to determine it's true nature.  Enraged by the injustice, and willing take on the King himself, we see the development of a humanitarian campaign which was spread Britain and the United States.  With support from politicians, churches, celebrities and President Roosevelt himself the pressure King Leopold and the Belgian government grew. Could Leopold's propaganda survive?