Long update here, I know. After this it's the epilogue, which'll be brief, and a timeline trying to piece together this thing. Without further adieu:
The Congo Crisis
Vietnam Peace Talks Breakdown said:
Last ditch negotiations to try and secure a peaceful unification of Vietnam have failed according to representatives of the Italian government. The official announcements from either the Empire of Vietnam or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam have not been released, but it is expected to appear in the coming days.
The North Vietnamese suggestion for a referendum to be held in both states to determine whether or not the unify was rejected by South Vietnam, which held reservations about whether or not such a vote would be conducted fairly by authorities in North Vietnam. Reservations from the Syndintern over North Vietnamese proposals for an interim joint government to administrate the unified Vietnam seem to be irrelevant now that they have failed in securing support for the measure.
…
President Ho Chi Minh, leader of the resistance against the German and later Japanese occupiers, criticized the result as indicative of Japan’s desire to have uncontested control of the Indochina region. He once again reiterated that the North Vietnamese government is the rightful government of a unified Vietnam, blasting the southern government as a ‘puppet’ of Japan.
When visiting Gallo’s apartment the next day, I was informed by one of his children that he was out walking along the waterside of the city.
The Naples Waterside was decorated for the 50th anniversary festivities, most notably having a row of flags of countries and movements affiliated with the Syndicalist International. The organizers of the event billed the anniversary much the same as those who organized France’s own 50th anniversary before as not only a national event but an international one due to its importance in establishing the syndicalist revolution as a political force.
I had ended my conversation with Gallo on the note of the revolution in the Congo, so I figured that he would be near the platform set up for the Union of African Socialist Republics. Despite the internal insurrections in the country, the government had still sent a representative to the 50th Anniversary celebrations- the Foreign Minister no less.
Gallo saw me approach and waved me over, asking me to walk with him back up the waterfront.
“How much do you know about the situation in Central Africa following the war?”, he asked.
“I know that the region had long been colonized by European interests, first by the Belgians and later by Germany in the Mittelafrika project. The following 15 or so odd years after the war saw the region administrated by Egypt, aided by interests in Australasia and Russia, as the region was slowly turned over to client states aligned to Cairo. 1963 sees the beginning of the revolution in the Congo, erupting in several urban cities after a call to arms by the
Mouvement National Congolais[1] after a miner strike was repressed by the authorities. The whole crisis was marked by a simultaneous movement away from Egypt and civil war, with the socialists at the receiving end of this”, I summarized.
“That is as best a summary we can get these days. The conflict is still ongoing and hardly resolved, though its toughest period was in the period of 1964 to 1970. Even as we speak there are issues coming up in the region, and it is unlikely we will see a resolution for some time, much less a conclusive work on the subject”, said Gallo.
“So you were clearly involved in this conflict, as you hinted at earlier. Why the interest from Italy, much less the International, in Africa?”
Central Africa entering into the 1960s
“We had already begun to get problems from the regions created from the ruins of the colonial states of the French government in exile and Mittelafrika. I mentioned the problem of Equatorial Africa whose government essentially broke from the Syndintern and pursued its own “independent” path much to our dismay. The embarrassment and shame the Syndintern received when it was discovered agents from the Union of Britain and the Commune of France attempted to return the former ruling party to power ended up hurting our reputation in the region. For the same reasons, we saw the Benin-Sahel Federation attempt to distance themselves from the Syndintern”
“When Argentina had an internal insurrection that ejected the Brazilian backed socialist government in 1959, it was beginning to embolden our enemies abroad who now took to naming such events “revolutions” and lauding the return of “democracy”, or more precisely bourgeois democracy.”
“So if I am to make a guess here, the reason for these involvements in Vietnam and the Congo were as much for practical concerns of resources as they were for international prestige?”
Gallo shrugged.
“I guess you could put it that way. Cynical as it may be, there was a concern from all sectors in the Syndintern that we could no longer appear to be the liberating force we were in the past. The propaganda battle being waged by Australasia and Russia did everything to demonize our ideology and this made it substantially more difficult for countries to sympathize with us. Vietnam and the Congo both presented an opportunity for us to show a resistance struggle waged by the people themselves, rather than being liberated by the French or British as the case was in Africa after the war.”
“Vietnam was where the world was focused at- a convergence of the world powers not seen since the Second World War. Yet it overshadowed events in Africa which were just as important. Africa was underdeveloped, but it had a vast collection of resources and people struggling to be free. If Syndicalism was to remain relevant, it had to succeed where new nations were being created by popular movements, rather than from a foreign force. We had to replicate the uprisings that took place in the Middle-East, as opposed to merely creating new nations and acting as liberators.”
“But wasn’t Vietnam a popular movement?”, I interjected, “Would it not count in your interpretation?”
“I never said it was not a popular movement. It was not a
new one”, started Gallo”, “Vietnam’s struggle for independence began before the war- as far as we were concerned, it was an unfinished revolution whose right was stolen by imperialists. Africa, on the other hand, was fertile ground for a new movement. One that could symbolize the new times we were in”
“If so, why not the active concern for the Congo that Vietnam warranted? Looking at the archives from the war onwards, there were always a few stories every week about the Vietnamese conflicts with Japan.” I asked.
Gallo stooped over to pick up a discarded bag from the bench. He reached into the bag and tossed out bird feed, attracting a large group of pigeons around us as they quickly devoured the seeds.
“These pigeons expect food; they have seen plenty of people feed them for years. I do not want to say that the Syndintern were like pigeons, but the behavior of the world at large towards Africa reminded me of this. They were aware of the presence of these movements, but reacting to it only once it has occurred.”
I nodded and Gallo continued.
“In a way, this was similar with the Congo. The Syndintern knew there was something going on there, but did not act until it had already broken out. Of course, like with our pigeons here, the Syndintern would not be alone in flocking to Africa once conflict emerged”
“Did the Syndintern have any hand in the uprisings? To paraphrase Gramsci, I do not think it was simply spontaneous without some sort of planning”
“There were the usual strategies that were done in many countries. The Syndintern either provided scholarships for young men and women to educate themselves in our own universities, or the establishment of facilities there. In the latter, the Syndintern determined in their 1948 World Congress to create such a program in one of the new countries created. As the pan-African movement was strongest in the Benin-Sahel at the time, the program was established at Accra, simply named the University of Africa.“
“How many people did that university educate?” I asked.
“I never got an accurate amount. The big problem was that the Benin-Sahel Federation would end up essentially breaking with the Syndintern and causing problems with the program there. Many of the records ended up being torched in the government’s crackdown on student protests there [2]. That being said, I know of a handful in the Congo revolt that were educated at the university.”
Gallo walked over to a bench and sat down, looking back towards the street at a colorful mural depicting the raising of the revolutionary flag over the palace at Caserta.
“When the revolt began in the Congo, it took the world by surprise. There had been so much focus on the east that when the first mine strikes occurred in the southern parts of Egypt’s holdings in early 1963, few people gave it serious attention. Miner disputes were frequent considering the abusive policy Egypt had put in place in order to become competitive internationally, but had rarely gone beyond a single mine. Now it was going across the region”
Revolts reached a highpoint by February 1963
“Somehow the collective mood of the land had clicked together and civil unrest erupted across the colonies once news of the miner revolt had spread and the client states were not able to deal with the uprisings. Egypt’s lack of control became apparent for everyone to see, and this created an opportunity for radicals sympathetic to the Syndintern to raise the red flag. Simultaneously, the cities of Brazzaville and Léopoldville saw street protests and a call for independence, and in time a popular government was established by these revolutionaries. Most were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, with a handful older- very young men relative to other revolutions we had seen. And as I said before, some were educated in the university in Accra- it is still said that the Syndintern had planned it but I never saw signs of it in my work. The Syndintern felt that the prospect of revolution was unlikely, and after the events in the Benin-Sahel Federation morale was understandably low in our ranks. The tension in the world was too high to provoke conflict with other powers”.
“What did they think would happen otherwise?” I asked.
“The two prevailing theories were that these revolutions would either create independent republics once Egypt established them on their own terms, or a revolution would occur where a nascent national bourgeoisie would declare independence from Egypt. And before you ask, for my part I had completely forgotten about African affairs with the department being tied up on East Asia. ”
“So what decided the sudden change towards Africa?”
“Nothing changed- officially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promised not to intervene in the crisis. This was repeated by our neighbors. There was an acknowledgement that the events there were important and our enemies would not ignore it. There was always the more unofficial ways this could be conducted without causing an incident abroad.”
“I presume this is where you come in?”
“Yes. As you probably have seen from my records, it says I had quit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and settled into working in the national library in 1962. An early age, but I was not an important figure whose absence would raise suspicions. I was still officially working in the library when I was tasked with getting together volunteers to travel to the Congo to aid them.”
“Why you? I would have thought someone from the intelligence circles would have been more appropriate”
“None who had experience surviving without support, as the government felt I demonstrated more than enough with my time in the Second American Civil War. We had a few of with us though in supporting roles, though I cannot provide names. I must also admit that I had willingly volunteered for it- most of us had- this was not a job for glory or anything, and the government would deny any knowledge of it. We gathered a total of 150 operatives willing to volunteer in the Congo. We were on our own here. Kind of a romantic sentiment that got me volunteering for the American war in the first place. A cynic might see that as a sign that I was the only one idiotic enough to think this would work”
“Who were the major groups you were told to work with?”
“By this point there were two groups that we identified as friendly with us. The first was the Mouvement National Congolais which I mentioned earlier and the second was a grouping of local militia known as the National Council for the Revolution. The former had more influence but more moderate as well; the second had far more armed strength from the get go and presumably was seen as pro-Syndintern. This allowed them to quickly seize control of Egypt’s holdings on the other side of the Congo River, most importantly Brazzaville. Without any influence from the Syndintern, they were beginning to link up with their MNC counterparts in Léopoldville.”
The Free Congo in March of 1963
“When did you leave for the region?” I asked.
“Some point in May of 1963. We could not all go at once, but I went first with 19 others to set up for the rest of our people. We boarded an airplane to the Mali Federation which was a close ally of the Syndintern. From there we went overland to Benin-Sahel where we posed as investors from Australasia. We caught a ride on a barge to Libreville, where we exited as part of a mercenary group traveling to the war for Egypt. From there it was not a problem to go across the border to the revolutionaries establishing themselves in Brazzaville. We could not land directly on the port as our information indicated the ports were still under the control of authorities sympathetic to Cairo.”
“And the authorities in Equatorial Africa did not mind this?”
“Apparently they did not. We had prepared for trouble with them but we found that their security was very poor. As far as we could tell from our brief time in Libreville the government had too many holes in their security apparatus so long as you knew who to pay off. We were not interested in causing trouble in the country, and they did not have particularly much interest in Egypt’s continued presence in Central Africa. As such they let mercenaries move through to the region without interference.”
“By the time we finally arrived in Brazzaville, a month had already passed. Honestly was it not for the fact that we wanted to avoid attracting attention, we could have arrived much sooner. By this point the revolutionaries had gained control over both Brazzaville and Léopoldville and took the step of formally creating a provisional government. This was not without trouble though, as certain bourgeois elements of the MNC decided to split from the organization and strike out on their own. At any rate, we sent word back to our group to prepare to come to the Congo in groups.”
“And how exactly did you go about convincing them that you were there to help?”
“One part convincing and the other part pure luck. They had been expecting something from the Syndintern, but something more significant. Not our small group. It was by sheer luck that they had been aware of the Garibaldi Brigades and seemed satisfied that I could demonstrate my first-hand experience with them”
“Once you were cleared, you were presumably able to get into contact with the revolutionary government. Who did you meet first?”
The Provisional Government of revolutionary Congo
“Patrice Lumumba. Then he was the Prime Minister of the government, opposite the president, Alphonse Massamba-Debat. Arguably his position held more power but he was not in the spotlight when the media covered the uprising. Lumumba was a well-read man despite not having a formal university education, which was readily obvious when I entered into my first meeting with him. Lumumba came out as a leader of the MNC that opted for this popular government, and was left as its main leader once those who rejected the agreement, led by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, left. He gave me an update on the political situation there, notably the development of the miner revolts in the south. It had finally spread to the regional capital at Élisabethville, and meetings with the representatives from the MNC indicated they were ready to join us in the struggle against Egypt”
Revolts in Élisabethville
I noticed as Gallo reached the end he began clenching his fists.
“We saw an opportunity for our first assignment then. I volunteered to travel along with five of our operatives to enter into Élisabethville and integrate them into the provisional government. We were to advise the MNC fighters with us how to set this up and create a unified command with the new fighters.”
“And things did not go as planned?”
“We did not know that the government in Élisabethville was willing to throw the whole movement away in order to secure their own narrow interests. To make matters worse they had no intention in even following up any sort of revolutionary demands, but capitulating to the forces of reaction. They wanted to form a republic aligned with the Entente. In exchange for access to resources for the Entente, these leaders were allowed to hold privileged positions in the new country. And to seal the deal, evidence of Syndintern interference would be sweet, wouldn’t it? The Entente sorely wanted to make these events appear a result of Syndintern interference in other countries’ internal affairs. They did not even bother trying to deceive us with false promises. As soon as our convoy rolled into Élisabethville, the commanding officer Joseph-Desiré Mobutu turned us over to the government, claiming we were preparing to overthrow the Élisabethville government. Not a good welcome after crisscrossing through a patchwork of pro-revolutionary and pro-Egypt territory to get there”
“Who was leading the Katanga government then?”, I asked.
“A local administrator named Moïse Tshombe. As we were held in the prison, we heard over the radio his declaration of the Republic of Katanga and raising arms against the “socialist demagogues” of the People’s Republic of the Congo. He added that they had reached an understanding with Egypt and “other interested parties” [3] in creating a Congo based on “federal and democratic” principles. It seems that the split from the MNC led by Kasa-Vubu also allied themselves with this government. Apparently some military officers also sympathized with Kasa-Vubu’s position, as we saw with Mobutu, and were declaring the formation of a rival Congolese government that Tshombe alluded to.”
“So right out of the gate you already encounter divisions in the Congo. Were you aware of what they were planning to do with you all at the time?”
“They did not tell us, but we knew that they would try to use us to expose the Syndintern. But for the time being, they did not mention our existence, even when they announced their independence and declared war the People’s Republic of the Congo.”
Katanga declares war on the Congo
“As far as I know from the region there are many different ethnic groups and tribes”, I added, “I can’t imagine that Katanga’s declaration of independence went unnoticed by these other tribes”.
“Timing and some dumb luck. The forces of Katanga signed some sort of agreement with Egypt which essentially allowed the two to focus on the Congo and other problems. However some other local movements also got ideas from Katanga’s declaration and tried to bargain with Egypt to make their own countries. This created some deal of chaos and disputes between individual groups with conflicting claims of course, so almost immediately Katanga found itself with problems in the Kasai region to the west and the Kivu region towards the Great Rift Valley while simultaneously fighting forces aligned with the Congo.”
“During that time we planned our escape. We were subjected to… well, you can imagine. One of our number did not come back. Far more of our Congolese comrades we never saw again. But we managed to make an amazingly intricate plan that I never could see in action, because a few weeks later some street fighting between rival militias spilled over into the prison. A stray explosive blew a wall in the prison which provoked a breakout. Rioting prisoners opened the gates, including ours, and we slipped out in the chaos.”
“That sounds too convenient to be a coincidence. Are you sure that they did not plan that?” I asked.
“As far as I know, it was not. As I said, luck and timing came together in a spectacular way. Katanga was being hit by the same problems that the Congo itself was consumed by- the difficulties in asserting authority over such a large region with different peoples. Plus, we did not have anyone to pick us up.”
“That must have been problematic. No knowledge of where you were and of course sticking out being a foreigner.”
“We had managed to find some of the Congo soldiers who were captured with us that were still loyal. They acted as our confederates while we figured out what to do next. We established that three weeks had passed since we were captured, with it being mid-June then. We got updates on global events which were disquieting, notably the intervention by the Entente into the war.”
“Yes, the so-called African Peace Mission led by Australasia, as requested by Egypt and ‘concerned African notables’. They cited the instability in the center of Africa as well as the emergence of a ‘dictatorial’ state. The Syndintern chose not to take direct action beyond condemning the move”. Gallo nodded at my explanation.
“That is correct. In late June the Australasian government announced they were leading a ‘multinational’ coalition to restore order to the region. We had to act quickly and linked up with pro-Congo rebels, through whom we eventually came into contact with Pierre Mulele, leading operations for the People’s Republic of the Congo in the region. On August 6th, the expeditionary force landed in Dar es Salaam, which had been taken over by a different group of revolutionaries. The invasion force quickly reestablished order in the city and followed up with operations along the coast towards Mombasa in the north. They obviously intended to work inwards to the Congo and aiding the faltering Egyptian forces.”
“How was the equipment of the revolutionary forces?”
“It was outdated; most of it was from before the Second World War. By and large, they were confiscated from old Mittelafrikan armories that were not found by the Egyptians. The only thing that helped out the revolutionaries here was that outside of a few elite divisions, the Egyptian military was equipped with surplus weaponry given to them by Russia and Australasia, made back in the Second World War. It was only with the arrival of the Australasian-led mission that modern weaponry entered into the region”
“This of course necessitated the guerilla warfare that was seen in the war”
“Pierre Mulele, to his credit, was very skilled in organizing guerillas. We were deep within enemy territory away from the regular forces of the Congo. We had to carry out quick attacks and disrupt enemy supplies. Admittedly the group that I led was not familiar with this kind of tactics, but it did remind me in a sense of what we did in the Second American Civil War.”
An example of rebel groups formed by Mulele
“Where did you get supplies during all this time?”, I asked, “The Syndintern was only sending basic trade while avoiding large arms shipments because of the lack of a reliable route”
“With Mulele and his guerrillas, we essentially lived off the land and had to scrounge up supplies where we could. The regular army was receiving shipments from Italy but these were infrequent. As Equatorial Africa would not cooperate with the Syndintern here, the idea was to use South Africa as a direct land route to revolutionaries. South Africa we learned later still had not total control of its northern regions, and the case of Angola would throw a wrench into our plans.”
“You are referring to the declaration of independence by Angola in October of 1963, correct?”
“That is the event. We had not expected the revolutionaries there to side against the Congo, as there were those who would side with us within the MPLA. Our allies were outmaneuvered by bourgeois machinations by local administrators, some of whom were still the same that came out of Portugal’s colony 30 years before, as well as the bourgeois natives in the form of the FNLA [4]. To add to the complications, it seems that the Russians had wanted to carve out influence in the region as Australasia was going to have its own stake in East Africa and was running independently of Entente interests. “
Angola’s independence in October of 1963
“And with Angola’s appearance combined with Egypt slowly reasserting control over the south, this meant that a direct land route to the Congo through South Africa was no longer possible”, I concluded.
“For our comrades it was further unnecessary handicaps on top of the divisions emerging among the people. Mulele now found himself cut off from supply routes with Angola falling out of their control. I had tried to implore the government back home to increase aid to the Congo when I got an opportunity to write a letter, but we did not get it immediately. Comrade Mulele now focused on trying to rejoin with the regular army further northwest in Luluaburg before we were overwhelmed. Still, we achieved many victories there I did not imagine due to their bravery. Even in spite of my age I still managed to make useful contributions, and the atmosphere reminded me of the optimism I saw in the Americans and later the Kurds – pure energy from the populace and optimism for their new future. They were making their own future, not having it imposed on them”
“How long did it take for you to return back to the provisional government?”
“We did not return back to Léopoldville until February of 1964. I could have returned earlier, but we needed to help Mulele where we could until we broke out of hostile territory with all of the forces. When we returned I found that the government had already sent some new armaments but fell short of matching the involvement of the Entente. Lumumba’s second hand man in the MNC, Antonie Gizenga, was on an international trip trying to secure more aid from friendly nations. The other operatives were busy helping out in Léopoldville, mostly in training and advising of the officers and running the civic government”
“I cannot imagine the government was feeling all that happy with the Syndintern”
“They were not. President Massamba-Débat and Prime Minister Lumumba called a meeting of the government to discuss their path forward. They also invited me as the ‘representative’ of the Syndintern”.
“And they naturally asked you what was with the Syndintern’s position on the crisis”, I said.
“Yeah”, sighed Gallo, “They did not doubt my commitment to the people. Mulele vouched for me and they were confident I was going to help them anyway I could. It was hard being put on the spot so suddenly, but I could understand their anger. Egypt and their colonial puppets were receiving generous help from Australasia, where they were getting none. The brutality we were seeing in the war was enough to get up there with the Second World War- many casualties and refugees [5]. I did not know the Syndintern’s reasons at the time, so I had to explain as best I could. I pointed out the Syndintern was likely concerned that their revolt would collapse and Egypt would resume control of the region and carry out de-colonialization on its own terms. They were already pouring resources into the Vietnam conflict as well as substantial support for the Bharatiya Commune and Brazil for regional interests. I explained to them that we needed to get some victories in order to convince the Syndintern that we were not fighting a losing war”
“Were they pleased with your response?”
“Well, I suppose so. I was just lucky that the Syndintern’s position was close to what I explained so I kept my reliability. I suggested to Mulele later that he cooperate with the young Ngouabi to train the military. The rest of our mission was already busy training recruits and officers.”
“The following months were a period of small skirmishes, if I recall correctly”
“While the Angolan and Katangan secessionists gave us extra fronts to fight along with the Egyptians, they had their own difficulties. The MNLA in Angola took up arms and linked up with pro-Congo rebels, giving them more distractions. Katanga had the rebels in the Kivu and Kasai regions. To their credit, the provisional government had ensured no divisions in their ranks, though one could argue that was aided by the fact their enemies had exited from the government and thrown in with Kasa-Vubu. Stanleyville was under control by Egyptian forces who declared a new Congo from there- simply the Republic of the Congo. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll refer to the revolutionary Congo as Congo-Léopoldville and the bourgeois one as Congo-Stanleyville. Kasa-Vubu established himself in Congo-Stanleyville and declared it to be the legitimate government. Recognition of Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Stanleyville was unsurprisingly done along ideological lines internationally”
“At the end of 1964, as news reports put it, the Egyptian forces were preparing for a big push on Léopoldville. This is generally seen as a turning point in the conflict,” I said, “It’s safe to say that the government was nervous at the time”
“Indeed. Egypt wanted to destroy the revolution when it was the weakest and prepared for a large attack on the Provisional Government’s most vulnerable front. This was encouraged with the defeat of revolutionary forces in Kikwit in November of 1964, which severed the supply routes for guerillas operating behind enemy lines in Kasai.”
“We received reports that the Egyptian-led Congo-Stanleyville force was going to march along the Congo River towards Kinshasa, bolstered by a small detachment of Australasian soldiers. The revolutionary forces met them at Coquilhatville in March of 1965, which was the last major city before reaching the Kinshasa area. Our volunteer force was with them and helped to put into practice urban combat.”
“Despite the odds stacked against us, especially due to the reactionaries with their armored vehicles and aircraft, the people came away with a victory. Some might say that it was because of our presence, but we only helped. The Congolese fighters had the people behind them; they had the morale and spirit that the Egyptian-led force lacked. Where the Egyptian force was slow moving if not defensive, ours was mobile and hard-hitting. We were able to turn the terrain to our advantage and turned it into a lesson for the imperialists”
Battle of Coquilhatville
“And so the Battle of Coquilhatville goes down in history as the turning point of the Congo Crisis. As we know, shortly afterwards Gizenga suddenly found success within the Syndintern for support. By the summer of that year experts and advisors from the different nations of the Syndintern appeared along with more sophisticated equipment, including aircraft and armored vehicles. 1965 and onwards was more manageable for the Congo, but we should not mistake it for it being easy. If anything the conflict became more brutal as the stakes were raised.”
“In the summer of that year, the officer you had experience with before, Mobutu, staged a coup in Stanleyville where Kasa-Vubu was removed. It is believed the intervention force had a hand in the coup as they had concerns whether or not Kasa-Vubu was a competent leader.”
“It should also be mentioned”, Gallo added, “That Tshombe held a lot of power considering the size of Katanga in this skeleton of a bourgeois Congo. It is possible he was hoping to strike out away from this Congo and the allies wanted to placate him with a stronger leader. Mobutu was a military man, but he was also much more aggressive and as a result the fighting was more chaotic. He was willing to do a scorched earth tactic where they had to fall back. Cities like Luluaburg ended up changing hands so many times that the city was reduced to husks of gutted structures and broken infrastructure. The intervention force in the east began to have problems with the local population and was not able to commit further men as they were tied up trying to secure those eastern coastal regions.”
“And so you had to watch for the next two years chaotic battles and more brutality”. I sighed and shook my head. “My ignorance of all this is indicative of the lack of resources on the conflict”
“It is something I hope to rectify one day”, started Gallo, “And you are right. Even though we won at Coquilhatville, other battles followed where we saw weeks of fighting. I had saw battles at times that could rival those in the Second World War with how pitched they were; and then there were the separate battles against Angola and Katanga. Intelligence run by Diawara helped to get us linked up to sympathetic groups, and at the very least stir up tribal and local groups against Katanga and Angola where it benefitted us”
“In Angola we were aided by the presence of the MPLA and they allowed us to capture the regional capital in Luanda in September of 1966 after several weeks of fighting in our advance through there. It was a risky gamble, but it allowed us to remove a vulnerable spot and more importantly secure supply routes through South Africa.”
“And now the Congo had momentum on its side.”, I said.
Gallo nodded in agreement and continued.
“We began to converge on Katanga, seeing it as the most vital part of the Egyptian strategy in the region. I joined with Mulele once again, advancing out of Lulaburg towards Élisabethville. There was a difficult battle at Kolwezi in March of 1967 where we met the full force of the Katangese military. There they were crushed after a two week battle. They did not even bother putting up a resistance in Élisabethville, as the government had evacuated eastward to the Australasian controlled zones, unfortunately with Tshombe in tow.”
“With the Katanga government broken down and their forces reduced to straggling warbands, Congo-Stanleyville was now essentially a warlord’s turf in the form of General Mobutu. Our forces now swung northwards to Stanleyville while another Congolese force came from the capital led by Ngouabi. In both forces a lot of fighting took place, notably at Goma in the summer of 1967 where Mulele had to fight an incursion from an Australasian led force trying to reinforce Mobutu’s troubled position. The rest of the year was spent with small battles on the road to Stanleyville”
“And this culminates in the Battle of Stanleyville in February of 1968”
“Stanleyville was the last real battle of the Congo Crisis, and it was by far the worse. Where there was some real energy at Coquilhatville, there was only despair and brutality in Stanleyville. The enemy made us bleed for every street we took. Allied aircraft began to unload in the city, continuing scorched earth even up to the last minute. I had even been cut off in combat with a small group of our allies. Where I had been fortunate in previous battles to only receive small injuries, it was here that I got a rather nasty injury from shrapnel”, said Gallo lifting up his shirt to show scars, “Never thought I would have new ones to add to those I got in America and the Middle-East.”
“And when you finally took the administrative center, did the government flee?”
“By the time I linked back up with command, I was informed that Mobutu had died under unknown circumstances. I did not want to question any further or make any theories. I could tell though that many of my Congolese counterparts did not seem to mind- he had betrayed them and they lost several of their comrades in the process. The man was a traitor as far, and as they were concerned he got what he deserved.”
“We enter into the summer of 1968. The Provisional Government has nominal control over much of Central Africa, though ironically still unable to get the area in the south where the revolt started in the first place. But it eliminated the major sources of threats, and now focused on consolidating its power. What did you do then?”, I asked.
“We returned back to an advising capacity. The south fell into government control by the end of the year, and running simultaneous to that was the creation of councils to form the beginning of a new order. There were still small sources of opposition, like the pro-Entente grouping of Fulbert Youlou that remained underground. There was still the substantial problem of tribal and ethnic differences too, something that would not be overcome even in the span of decades. But the fighting was stopped, except for the border formed against Egypt and the Australasian occupation force, and now they could focus on peace time. The skills of men like Lumumba would become useful in this respect.”
“The Treaty of Stanleyville was signed in May of 1968 between representatives of Egypt and the People’s Republic of the Congo, overseen by Australasia. In exchange for completely abandoning the claims to Central Africa, the Congo agreed to a peace with Egypt and not to support rebel groups in the Sudan. A border was set along the Great Lakes region, where Egypt still retained control”
Treaty of Stanleyville with borders
The victory of the PR Congo paved the way for the creation of the Union of African Socialist Republics. A bold undertaking, but all the more important that it was done by the people themselves. I was there at the Congo but I did not fight in all the battles. I witnessed some, but from my own recollections one should be able to tell that we did not play a pivotal role. The people of the Congo liberated themselves, and rejected the attempts by Australasia or Russia to co-opt them. It was a boon for the pan-African movement allied with us and put a wrench into those like Benin-Sahel or Equatorial Africa that were trying to present their own factions.”
“If I recall correctly, Egypt lost even more just a month later in June. The Entente made them create a new state in the east which they would have influence over, the East African Union”
“That would be a thorn for the young UASR. We saw the failure of the movement there, leading some of those leaders like Julius Nyere to take refuge in the Congo. Likewise Kasa-Vubu and other anti-UASR elements took refuge in the EAU. The direct war may have been over, but a more hushed one of ideology and competition for success would take place”.
“When did you finally leave from the Congo?”
“In August of that year, I stayed for the opening of a new pan-African Project led by Lumumba. It was a good experience to finally see the long demotivated cadres on the continent has something to rally around. This is what I really wanted to see- not the wars, not the fighting, but the promise of a future by the youth. Some were older men in their 40s, but many in were in their 20s, filled with the optimism that I remember leaving to the American war with. The future was theirs to grasp, and they were willing to overcome the obstacles to do so. The UASR had become a beacon for the future of the oppressed. A Torch of Africa, one that was lit in part by the Torch of the Mediterranean”
Lumumba at the Pan-African Conference
Central Africa at the time of the 50th Anniversary of the Republic
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Author’s note: After the revolution, many cities had their names changed from colonial ones to more indigenous ones. Examples of this include:
Léopoldville -> Kinshasa
Stanleyville -> Kisangani
Coquilhatville -> Mbandaka
Élisabethville -> Lubumbashi
[1] Mouvement National Congolais was founded by several intellectuals and nationalists with the aim of freeing the region from Egypt. The goals were disparate though, some acting out of progressive notions and others glorifying the past such as the Kingdom of Kongo. While the party’s foundation saw several first members, the most well-known is Patrice Lumumba.
[2] With Benin-Sahel’s disengagement from the Syndintern and enactment of capitalist reforms, students staged a protest at the University of Accra. The police came down hard on them and later accused the Syndintern of staging the protests. This meant the end of the pan-African program there. Kwame Nkrumah, a rival of the Benin-Sahel president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was also present in the protests which sealed his exile from the nation.
[3] “Other Interested Parties” of course including Australasia and Russia. Despite Egypt’s nominal control on the region, it has been argued that in effect these nations controlled Egypt’s policies.
[4] The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) were founded in the 1950s with the aim of making an independent Congo. They differed in ideology and international position, with the latter more accommodating towards Egypt and its allies.
[5] By some estimates, the total death toll reached 200,000 in the war, with many millions displaced. The UASR to this day still bears the legacy of the conflict.