Joseph Ngalula | |
|---|---|
 Joseph Ngalula in the 1980s | |
| Minister of Education of the Republic of the Congo | |
| In office August 1961 –April 1963 | |
| Prime Minister | Cyrille Adoula |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 December 1928 Lusambo,Belgian Congo |
Joseph Ngalula Mpandajila (born 12 December 1928) is a Congolese writer and politician.
Joseph Ngalula was born on 12 December 1928 in Lusambo,Belgian Congo to a Baluba family. He undertook six years of primary education and five years of professional courses. [1] He was fluent in English and French. [2] In June 1960 Barthélemy Mukenge was elected President of Kasai Province by the provincial assembly. Unhappy with the results,on 14 June the assembly opposition declared their own provincial government under Ngalula. On 16 June 1960 Ngalula was appointed Kasai Minister of Economic Affairs by Mukenge without consultation. [3] On 9 August Albert Kalonji declared that the south-eastern region of the province was seceding to form the Autonomous State of South Kasai and appointed Ngalula its Prime Minister. [4] In July 1961 the relationship between the two deteriorated,and Ngalula was driven into exile. [5] Since he had been the person chiefly responsible for the organisation of the state,South Kasai's administration broke down following his departure. [6] He subsequently established his own political party,the Democratic Union,to oppose the Kalonjists. [7] In August 1961 he was appointed Minister of Education under Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula. He held the post until April 1963. [8]
Ngalula was one of the Members of Parliament who signed an open letter to Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1980. [9] Later,he co-founded the opposition party UDPS,together with Étienne Tshisekedi,Marcel Lihau,and others. Because of his engagement in the political opposition to Mobutu,he was imprisoned,banished,and pardoned several times. [10]
Discovered in the 1990s, human remains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated to approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, by area, the second-largest country in Africa, and the 11th-largest country in the world. With a population of over 23 million inhabitants, Zaire was the most populous officially Francophone country in Africa, as well as one of the most populous in Africa.
Patrice Émery Lumumba, born Isaïe Tasumbu Tawosa, was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until September 1960, following the May 1960 election. He was the leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC) from 1958 until his execution in January 1961. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.
Joseph Kasa-Vubu, alternatively Joseph Kasavubu, was a Congolese politician who served as the first President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1960 until 1965.
Moïse Kapenda Tshombe was a Congolese businessman and politician. He served as the president of the secessionist State of Katanga from 1960 to 1963 and as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1964 to 1965.
The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo. The crisis began almost immediately after the Congo became independent from Belgium and ended, unofficially, with the entire country under the rule of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. Constituting a series of civil wars, the Congo Crisis was also a proxy conflict in the Cold War, in which the Soviet Union and the United States supported opposing factions. Around 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the crisis.
South Kasai was an unrecognised secessionist state within the Republic of the Congo which was semi-independent between 1960 and 1962. Initially proposed as only a province, South Kasai sought full autonomy in similar circumstances to the much larger neighbouring state of Katanga, to its south, during the political turmoil arising from the independence of the Belgian Congo known as the Congo Crisis. Unlike Katanga, however, South Kasai did not explicitly declare full independence from the Republic of the Congo or reject Congolese sovereignty.
General elections were held in the Belgian Congo on 22 May 1960, in order to create a government to rule the country following independence as the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Léopoldville), scheduled for 30 June. The 137-seat Chamber of Deputies was elected by men over the age of 21. The seats were filled by district-based lists, although only two parties, the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L) and the Parti National du Progrès, submitted lists in more than one district.
The Confederation of Tribal Associations of Katanga was one of the main political parties in the Belgian Congo and was led by the pro-Western regionalist Moïse Tshombe and his interior minister, Godefroid Munongo. It became the ruling party of the State of Katanga whose declaration of independence sparked the Congo Crisis.
Bobi Ladawa Mobutu is the second wife and widow of Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled Zaire as president between 1965 and 1997.
Jean Bolikango, later Bolikango Akpolokaka Gbukulu Nzete Nzube, was a Congolese educator, writer, and conservative politician. He served twice as Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, in September 1960 and from February to August 1962. Enjoying substantial popularity among the Bangala people, he headed the Parti de l'Unité Nationale and worked as a key opposition member in Parliament in the early 1960s.
The Free Republic of the Congo, often referred to as Congo-Stanleyville, was a short-lived rival government to the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Léopoldville) based in the eastern Congo and led by Antoine Gizenga.
Alphonse Songolo was a Congolese politician who served as the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)'s first Minister of Communications. He was a prominent member of the Mouvement National Congolais in Stanleyville and a close partner of Patrice Lumumba. However, in October 1960 he denounced Lumumba and was shortly thereafter imprisoned by pro-Lumumba authorities. He was executed in February 1961 in retaliation for the deaths of several pro-Lumumba politicians.
Isaac Kalonji Mutambayi was a Congolese Protestant minister and statesman who served as the President of the Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1962 until 1965. He was one of the few politicians to serve the country continuously from its independence in 1960 until its democratisation in the 1990s.
André Guillaume Lubaya was a Congolese politician who served twice as the President of Kasai Province and later as the Minister of Economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was the founder of the Union Démocratique Africaine.
Barthélemy Mukenge Nsumpi Shabantu was a Congolese politician who served as President of Kasaï Province from 11 June 1960 to January 1962 and July to September 1962. He was a president of the Association des Lulua-Frères, a Lulua ethnic syndicate, and a leading member of the Union National Congolaise. Though initially allied with nationalist Patrice Lumumba, he later denounced him and aligned himself with more moderate politicians. Following the division of Kasai Province in late 1962, Mukenge became Minister of Health and Minister of Social Affairs of the new Luluabourg Province. He later served as Governor of Kivu Province and on the Political Bureau of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution. He withdrew from politics in 1974 and died in 2018.
In August 1960 troops of the Republic of the Congo attempted to crush the secession of South Kasai by invading the declared state's territory. Though initially militarily successful, the attack faltered under intense international and domestic political scrutiny and the Congolese troops were withdrawn.
During the presidency of President Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, later Republic of Zaire (1965-1997), social and political rights were strongly curtailed. As a consequence, several Congolese/Zairean citizens went into exile for political reasons.
The Binza group was a ginger group active within the government of the Republic of the Congo in the early 1960s. Led by General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, the clique played a major role in directing state policy, especially during the tenure of Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula, and enjoyed the covert backing of the United States government.