Reaching Souls International Involvement:
Reaching Souls International completed their first project in the DRC in
August, 2004. On that project there were 297
pastors trained and 8,867 people came to know the Lord.
Short Term Projects:
- Lubumbashi, 2004
Population:
58,317,930
Life Expectancy: 49
Years
HIV Deaths: 120,000
per year
The Democratic Republic
of the Congo is a nation in central Africa and the third
largest country on the continent. It borders the Central
African Republic and Sudan on the north, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, and Tanzania on the east, Zambia and Angola on
the south, and the Republic of the Congo on the west.
The country enjoys access to the sea through a narrow 40
km stretch, following the Congo river into the Gulf of
Guinea. The name Congo (meaning 'hunter') is coined
after the Bakongo tribe, living near the Congo river
basin. Formerly, the Belgian colony of the Belgian
Congo, the country's post-independence name was changed
in 1971, from Congo-Kinshasa (after its capital, to
distinguish it from the Republic of Congo, or
Congo-Brazzaville) to Zaire, until 1997. Since 1998, the
country has suffered greatly from the devastating and
genocidal Second Congo War (known also as the African
World War), the deadliest conflict since World War II.
European exploration and administration took place from
the 1870s until the 1920s. The area was first mapped by
the British explorer Henry Morton Stanley. He prepared
the region for European colonization. Congo was given to
King Leopold II of Belgium in the Conference of Berlin
in 1885. He made the land his private property and named
it 'Congo Free State'. In this Free State, the local
population was brutalized in exchange for rubber, a
growing market with the development of rubber tires. The
selling of the rubber made a fortune for Leopold, who
built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honour
himself. During the period between 1885 and 1908,
between 5 and 15 (the commonly accepted figure is ~10)
million Congolese were killed by the mercenaries working
for the Belgian king. However, there were international
protests by not only famous writers such as Mark Twain,
but also British diplomat Roger Casement, whose 1904
report on the Congo condemned the practice. Joseph
Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness also takes place in
Congo Free State. In 1908, the Belgian parliament bowed
to international pressure in order to save their last
bit of prestige in Europe, forcibly adopting the Free
State as a Belgian colony from the king. From then on,
it became the Belgian Congo, but in practical terms,
things changed only slightly.
During World War II the small Congolese army achieved
several victories against the Italians in north Africa.
Congo became independent on June 30, 1960, after almost
a decade of political struggle; Belgium finally
withdrew, fearing a war for independence similar to that
in Algeria. The first Prime Minister, Patrice-Emery
Lumumba (1925–61), was a member of the politically minor
Batatele tribe; he was educated in mission schools and
later worked as a postal clerk. He became a member of
the permanent committee of the All-African Peoples
Conference (founded in Accra, 1958) and president of the
Congolese National Movement, an influential political
party. After a January 1959 uprising, he fled the
country to escape arrest but soon returned. Late in
1959, accused of instigating public violence, he was
jailed by the Belgians but was released (1960) to
participate in the Brussels Congo conference, where he
emerged as a leading negotiator. When the Republic of
the Congo came into existence (June, 1960) Lumumba was
its first premier and minister of defense.
Shortly after independence, the army, still led by
Belgian officers, mutinied after hearing the declaration
by a Belgian general that "things won't change just
because of independence". The military revolt continued
until President Kasavubu and Lumumba replaced the
Belgian officers by Africans, which resulted in most
Belgians fleeing and thus the crash of the young
nation's administration. The Belgian government flew in
troops to protect Belgian citizens, and Lumumba appealed
for aid to the United Nations. The UN sent troops to
reestablish order, which were strongly supported by the
United States, which believed Lumumba to be a communist
and wanted to avoid the Congo turning to the USSR by any
means. At the same time the rich Katanga province
declared its independence. As a military operation in
August 1960 to regain a further secessionist province,
Kasai, failed, Lumumba demanded that the UN move against
Katanga, but when the UN reiterated to Lumumba that it
was a neutral peacekeeping force and therefore could not
fight against a seccessionist province, Lumumba asked
the USSR for aid, which he received and utilised. This
made it obvious to US President Eisenhower that the USSR
was using Lumumba to establish a communist stronghold in
central Africa. Eisenhower and Belgium gave the order to
kill Lumumba, but an attempt with a poison toothbrush
was not undertaken. Immediately after this, President
Kasavubu, his rival for power, dismissed him as prime
minister and he, in turn, dismissed Kasavubu as
president. Shortly afterwards, Lumumba was put under
house arrest by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba escaped
to join his supporters in Stanleyville but was
recaptured and then flown (January, 1961), on orders
from the Belgian Minister for African affairs, to his
sworn enemies in Katanga. On the way he and two of his
assistants were harshly tortured and shot by a
Belgian-Congolese command. Their corpses were dissolved
in sulfuric acid a few days later. In February, it was
announced that he had been killed by angry villagers
(which was not believed by many). Riots of protest took
place in many parts of the world. See his Congo: My
Country (1962) and Lumumba Speaks (ed. by Jean van
Lierde, tr. 1972); study by T. R. Kanza (1972).
The CIA had aided Mobutu and was pleased with the
outcome, having viewed the Soviet-backed Lumumba as a
Communist puppet. Conversely, as Mobutu grew in power
and prominence, he was accused of being an American
puppet.
In recent years, the Belgian government has admitted
that it also played a role in Lumumba's overthrow.
Following five years of extreme instability and civil
unrest, Mobutu, now Lieutenant General, overthrew
Kasavubu in a 1965 coup d'état. A one-party system was
established, and Mobutu declared himself head of state.
He would occasionally hold elections in which he was the
only candidate. Relative peace and stability was
achieved, but Mobutu's government was accused of human
rights violations, repression, a cult of personality
(every Congolese bank note displayed his image,) and
excessive corruption — in 1984 he was said to have USD
$4 billion, an amount close to the country's national
debt, stashed away in personal Swiss bank accounts. In
an effort to spread African national awareness, Mobutu
renamed the country and river Zaïre, renamed himself
Mobutu Sese Seko, and promoted old African values and
traditions. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union,
U.S. relations with Kinshasa cooled, as Mobutu was no
longer deemed a necessary Cold War ally and his
opponents within Zaïre stepped up demands for reform.
Since 1994, the Congo has been rent by ethnic strife and
civil war, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees
from fighting in Rwanda and Burundi. The government of
Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by a rebellion led by
Laurent-Désiré Kabila in May, 1997; his regime was
subsequently challenged by a Rwandan and Ugandan-backed
rebellion in August 1998. Troops from Zimbabwe, Angola,
Namibia, Chad, and Sudan intervened to support the new
regime in Kinshasa. See Foreign relations of Congo and
First Congo War.
A cease-fire was signed on July 10, 1999; nevertheless,
fighting continues apace especially in the eastern part
of the country, financed by revenues from the illegal
extraction of minerals such as coltan. Kabila was
assassinated in January 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila
was named head of state. The new president quickly began
overtures to end the war. Fighting continued, even after
an accord signed in South Africa in 2002. But by late
2003, a fragile peace prevailed. Kabila appointed four
vice-presidents, two who had been fighting to oust him
until July, 2003. See also: Second Congo War
