Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History / The 1960 Katanga Secession: Congo's Richest Province Splits
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the run-up to Congolese independence, the round table in Brussels, the loi fondamentale, all that. But here's something we haven't touched: the country barely lasted a week before part of it tried to leave. Luna: Wait, the secession. Katanga, right? Lucas: Exactly. On July 11, 1960, just eleven days after independence, the richest province declared itself the Republic of Katanga. And the man behind it was Moise Tshombe, leader of the Conakat party. Lucas: And if today was useful to you, the way this show stays ad-free is listener support. You can buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that keeps these conversations going. Luna: Yeah, I've done that. It's simple. And we do appreciate it. Lucas: So, Katanga. Why would this province want to secede? It comes down to minerals. The Katanga province was where you found copper, cobalt, and uranium. The Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, a Belgian mining company, had its operations there. Luna: So Belgium had a direct financial stake in keeping Katanga separate. Lucas: Right, and that's the uncomfortable part of this story. Belgian officials, and certainly the mining company, were worried about the chaos in the rest of Congo. They saw Tshombe and his Conakat party as a reliable partner. So there were military advisors, Belgian officers, and even some politicians who supported the secession. Lucas: Tshombe declared independence in Élisabethville, which is today's Lubumbashi. The new state had its own flag, its own government, and even its own gendarmerie. But it didn't have full control. The Force Publique, now the Armée Nationale Congolaise, was split. Some units sided with the central government, others with the secessionists. Luna: What did the UN do about it? Lucas: The UN Security Council called for the withdrawal of Belgian troops and for the secession to end. But it was complicated. The UN wanted to keep Congo whole, but it also wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with Belgium and with Tshombe's forces. So there was a UN force, mostly from African and neutral countries, that tried to negotiate and later used force. Lucas: And here's where it gets even more tangled. Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first prime minister, was assassinated in January 1961. He had been dismissed by Joseph Kasa-Vubu and then captured. But he was sent to Katanga, where he was executed by a firing squad. Tshombe was later implicated in that. Luna: That's a terrible end for the man who led the country to independence. Lucas: It was. And the secession continued. The UN launched a series of military operations – Operation Rum Punch, Operation Morthor, Operation Grandslam – in 1961 and 1962. These were meant to end the secession by force. But Tshombe had a well-equipped force, and the UN was not always effective. Lucas: It wasn't until January 1963 that the secession finally collapsed. UN troops took the last strongholds, and Tshombe went into exile. Katanga was reintegrated into the Congo, and Tshombe later returned to become prime minister in 1964 before being forced out again. Luna: So Belgium's attempt to keep a friendly state in Katanga ultimately failed, and it really damaged Belgium's reputation in Africa and internationally. Lucas: Completely. The secession is often seen as a prime example of neocolonialism – using economic and political leverage to control a former colony from behind the scenes. Belgium's support for Tshombe was never official, but it was there. And it's one of the reasons why the Congo crisis was so violent and so prolonged. Lucas: The legacy of Katanga is still felt today. The province is now known as Haut-Katanga, and it's still the mining powerhouse of the DRC. But the memory of the secession is a painful one, a reminder of how easily a newly independent country could be torn apart by outside interests. Luna: That's a heavy chapter. Thanks for walking us through it. Lucas: It's one of those stories that shows how the end of empire wasn't neat or clean. It was messy, and the aftershocks are still with us.