 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2022) |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 115,157 in 1959[ citation needed ] | |
| Languages | |
| Predominantly French and some Dutch, Belgian languages | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Roman Catholics and a few Protestants, Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Belgians |
White Congolese are the people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are of European descent and are not part of another racial group.[ citation needed ]
| | This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2023) |
Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão was the first European to discover the Kingdom of Kongo region. [1]
The white population in the Congo is tied to the creation of the Belgian colonial empire and fluctuated during and after Belgian rule. During the existence of the Congo Free State, the European population was estimated at 1500 people. Following annexation and the formation of the Belgian Congo, that number grew to 17,000 in 1930 but plummeted to 11,000 in 1934. In 1947, the white population was 24,000 and 115,157 in 1959. [2] The post-World War II white population increased steadily until 1960, when Belgium granted the Republic of the Congo its independence.
White settlers were primarily government officials and missionaries, and disproportionately young men. Belgians made up between 40 and 65 percent of the white population until after World War II. During the existence of the Congo Free State and the early years of the Belgian Congo, the majority of White Congolese were Scandinavian. [3] Demographics shifted throughout the 1950s. By 1959, 0.9 percent of the total Belgian population lived in the Congo.
Because of the Congo's large land area and population, White Congolese made up only about 0.8 percent of the total population in 1959. Belgian officials discouraged large scale immigration of white settlers to set up small businesses until the final 15 years of the colony's existence.[ citation needed ]
The White Congolese population contracted after the end of colonization and the Congo Crisis but smaller numbers remained in Zaire and later the Democratic Republic of Congo. White Congolese settlers participated in and supported the secession of the State of Katanga.[ citation needed ]
White Congolese Belgian nuns were at the center of the 1976 Ebola outbreak at a clinic in Yambuku, with several white health workers becoming fatally ill with the virus.[ citation needed ]
In 2006, 5,000 people from Belgium and 5,000 people from Greece lived in DR Congo. [4]
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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.
Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
The Belgian Congo was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as Congo-Kinshasa and formerly known as Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa, after Algeria, and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 112 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous officially Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola and the South Atlantic Ocean.
The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo, was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by and in a personal union with King Leopold II; it was not a part of, nor did it belong to, the Kingdom of Belgium, of which he was the constitutional monarch. Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade. Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1885. The Congo Free State operated as a separate nation from Belgium, in a personal union with its King. It was privately controlled by Leopold II, although he never personally visited the state.
Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo from 1908 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi from 1922 to 1962. It also had small concessions in Guatemala (1843–1854) and in China (1902–1931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a multilingual country where an estimated total of 242 languages are spoken. Ethnologue lists 215 living languages. The official language, inherited from the colonial period, is French. Four other languages, three of them Bantu based, have the status of national language: Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is situated on the Congo river near Pool Malebo and forms a single urban area with Brazzaville which is the capital of the neighbouring Republic of the Congo. Considered a megacity, it is among the largest urban communities in Africa.
Christianity is the predominant religion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with Catholicism and Protestantism being its main denominations. As of 2018, the US State Department reported that roughly 96% of the population are members of Christian denominations, with the remaining less than 5% following other non-Christian religions.
White Africans of European ancestry refers to people in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent.
The term Banyarwanda refers to Rwandan colonials or nationals who, between the end of World War I and 1960 emigrated to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The term is used to distinguish them from Banyamulenge, Rwandans who emigrated in a wave in the 19th century.
The first communities of the Greeks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were established prior to Belgian colonization. The Greek presence reached a peak in the 1950s when many Greeks fled Egypt following the revolution of 1952. The Greek communities organized their own schools and churches and Greeks were active in trade, fishing, transport, coffee growing and the music industry. Also, a small group of Greek Jews emigrated to the Congo in the early 20th Century.
The Belgian Minister of the Colonies was a Belgian parliamentarian who was responsible for the territories of the colonial empire in Central Africa from 1908 to 1962, comprising the colony of the Belgian Congo (1908–60) and the international mandate of Ruanda-Urundi (1916–62). The exact title was changed on several occasions.
Belgium–Congo relations refers to relations between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The relationship started with the exploration of the Congo river by Henry Morton Stanley.
The history of the Jews in the Democratic Republic of the Congo can be traced back to 1907, when the first Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the country. The current Jewish Congolese population is mostly of Sephardi background.
The involvement of the Belgian Congo in World War II began with the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940. Despite Belgium's surrender, the Congo remained in the conflict on the Allied side, administered by the Belgian government in exile.
The Léopoldville riots were an outbreak of civil disorder in Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo which took place in January 1959 and which were an important moment for the Congolese independence movement. The rioting occurred when members of the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO) political party were not allowed to assemble for a protest and colonial authorities reacted harshly. The exact death toll is not known, but at least 49 people were killed and total casualties may have been as high as 500. Following these riots, a round table conference was organized in Brussels to negotiate the terms of Congo's independence, The Congo received its independence on 30 June 1960, becoming the Republic of the Congo.
Paul Panda Farnana M'Fumu was a Congolese agronomist and expatriate who lived in Europe in the first decades of the 1900s. He has been considered to be the first Congolese intellectual.
In the period from 1885 to 1908, many atrocities were perpetrated in the Congo Free State which, at the time, was a state under the absolute rule of King Leopold II of the Belgians. These atrocities were particularly associated with the labour policies used to collect natural rubber for export. Together with epidemic disease, famine, and a falling birth rate caused by these disruptions, the atrocities contributed to a sharp decline in the Congolese population. The magnitude of the population fall over the period is disputed, with modern estimates ranging from 1.5 million to 13 million.
The Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State was approved by the Belgian Parliament on 18 October 1908. On 15 November 1908, Belgium assumed sovereignty over the territories comprising the Congo Free State, officially making the Belgian Congo a colony of Belgium.
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