Emery Wafuana (born 1918) was a Congolese politician. He served as Minister of Interior of Luluabourg Province and was a member of the Chamber of Deputies.
Emery Wafwana was born in 1918 in the Luluabourg territory, Belgian Congo to a Lulua family. [1] He was a brother of Mwanangana Kalamba, the paramount chief of the Lulua. [2] He worked as a merchant and served as president of the Union des Paysans et Ruraux Progressistes—an organisation affiliated with the Parti National du Progrès [1] —and was a leading member of the Union National Congolaise (UNC). [3] In the municipal elections of December 1959 he was elected to the council of the Ndesha commune of Luluabourg. [4] He acted as a delegate at the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference of January–February 1960. [1] He has been among the Lulua leaders who signed an agreement with the Belgian government in an attempt to settle the Lulua-Luba tribal conflict. [2] In the national elections during May Wafuana was elected to the Chamber of Deputies on a UNC ticket with 22,285 preferential votes. [4] Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba considered appointing him Minister of Middle Classes in the Congo's first independent government, but he was ultimately not chosen. [1] But during his mandatory as senator, he chose to resign because of personal reasons.
After Kasai Province was subdivided, Wafuana became Minister of Interior of the new Luluabourg Province. [5] Late in 1990, he was invited at conference nationale souveraine as a Pioneer of independence, consecutively to his participation at the Round Table which settled the independence of Congo in Brussels, Belgium. After the conference, he became member of transitional parliament. Emery Wafuana also was a major figure of Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social UDPS (now ruling the country) which has been created by Etienne Tshisekedi and twelve others members of deputies chamber during the reign of Mobutu.