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DRC AND THE FUTURE OF AFRICA
Remarks at the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA)
by
Dr. Alafuele M. Kalala, President, RNS
I. Preamble
For nearly four hundreds years Africa has been confined to the tail-end
of the world history. Hegel who had a war-centred conception of
history went as far as to label Africa as an anhistorical continent.
Of course, in his opinion, no great wars, at least of the extent
of those that had happened or were happening in Europe or elsewhere
in the world, had ever taken place or were taking place in Africa.
No great empires or kingdoms, at least of the size of European empires
and kingdoms, were being formed or dismantled in Africa.
It will indeed take again nearly one hundred fifty years for Africa
to start reclaiming its rightful place in a non-euro-centered, multipolar,
world. To a great extent, this is the essence of the process, shall
I say of the struggle, in which Africa and its people have been
involved for the last four hundreds years or so: a march from the
tail-end, the fringes, the periphery, of the world history to a
rightful, natural, normal, and respectable place.
It indeed is in regard to this struggle that we would like here
to briefly address the essence of the Congolese crisis and its relation
to the destiny of Africa.
II. The DRC and its History
It is quite amazing, quite intriguing, that the King of a small
kingdom managed to acquire, nearly as a private domain, a country
80 times the size of his kingdom and one of the world mineral wonders.
Anyway this is how the story of modern DRC starts.
Since the Bismarkian Germany was more interested in Europe than
in Africa, giving Congo to King Leopold II and making it an open
international territory were perhaps the best compromise between
the then great colonial powers, France and England in particular.
Thus, to date the affairs of the Congo have not been the affair
of the people of the Congo.
In 1960, the Belgians who did not want to decolonize Congo and the
West that had taken the exact measure of the strategic and geopolitical
importance of the Congo went to all lengths to maintain their grips
on the affairs of the Congo. To the extent that they were a threat
to their grand plan, Lumumba and the Congolese nationalists had
to be eliminated, not politically, but radically, i.e., physically.
Kwame Nkrumah, who foresaw what was at stake, warned in a quasi-prophetic
way, in "The Challenge of the Congo", that "of all
the independent African countries, no country faced the challenge
that was the challenge of the Congo". Forty years later, one
can but be impressed by the prophetic accuracy of his prediction:
Of all African countries, no country has been besieged, over the
last forty years, as much as Congo has been. Of course, the stakes were not only
the minerals of the Congo and the outcome of the Cold War. The development
of the continent and its possibility to move away from the fringes
of the world history to its rightful, normal, place have been all
along at stake.
To stop the development of the Congo was indeed to block the development
of the continent and thereby safeguard various interests including
the then survival of the Apartheid regime. Thus, the least that
can be said is that the Congolese issue is not the sole responsibility
of the people of the Congo. It is, in several regards, an African
issue as much as it is the responsibility of the international community.
A responsibility that the international community ought not to avoid,
insofar as, for all of the century that just ended, the international
community, itself, has, in several ways, participated in the making
of the double bankruptcy -bankruptcy of the state and bankruptcy
of the society- that we are witnessing now in the Congo.
III. The DRC and the Future of Africa
Even if it can be said that colonies are not supposed to have their
own history independent from the history of the mother countries,
King Leopold II first and the Kingdom of Belgium thereafter, when
it inherited Congo as a formal colony in 1908, pushed this fact
to its most extreme boundaries.
Indeed, for all of the Belgian colonisation of the Congo, that lasted
for seventy-five years including the period of the Independent State
of the Congo (1885-1908), no political activities were allowed even
for Belgian expatriates living in the Congo. Hence, in 1960, when
it acquired its formal independence from Belgium, Congo disposed
of no elements (cultural, political, or historical) from which to
develop a coherent political and civic infrastructure. It is, to
a great extent, this lack of suitable political infrastructure that
facilitated the advent of Mobutu's neo-colonial state that finally
led to the overall destruction of the country and the never-ending
Congolese crisis.
As much as we said in 1987 that the end of the Apartheid regime
in South Africa was going to be an event of historical significance
that was going to ring the death knell of the era of White hegemony
in the world, we strongly feel that the renaissance of Africa will
in earnest start with the advent of a new and democratic republic
in the Congo. Indeed, only the advent of such a republic that requires
the formation of a genuine political and civic infrastructure will
allow for Africa to move away, once and for all, from the tail-end,
the periphery, of the world history to its rightful and respectable
place.
Undoubtedly the advent of a new and democratic republic in the Congo
will, in all regards, change completely the landscape of the African
continent:
• Politically, a new and democratic DRC that will be endowed
with a normal political life centered on the well-being of its people
and their common destiny with all the people of Africa will surely
promote stability and development in Central Africa, the Great Lakes
region, and beyond.
• Economically, the reconstruction of a country that is bigger
than Western Europe and that is endowed with incredible natural
and mineral wealth will serve as the indispensable engine that is
necessary to make this century the African century. With a creative
and committed visionary leadership in the Congo and with the commitment
of the African leadership and of all the people of Africa, the reconstruction
of the DRC will be the century golden opportunity for the people
of Africa. Undoubtedly, to achieve its reconstruction, Congo will
need qualified and unqualified labor from outside its borders; and
there will lie a great opportunity for the sons and daughters of
this continent.
• Culturally, a dynamic and vibrant DRC, in the center of
the continent, joining the south to the north, the east to the west,
could become the focus from which the African culture, from art
to science and technology, and in all its diversity and vivacity,
will radiate on the continent and the world. Then and only then,
this century will indeed be an African century. Then and only then
Africa will have the opportunity to move decisively away from the
tail-end, the fringes, the periphery of the history of the world
to its rightful, normal, and respectable place. This is not utopia;
this is an achievable vision, and one that can be achieved in our
lifetime. It only requires our utmost commitment. Commitment to
making this continent of ours the most livable, humane, and convivial
place on Earth. Commitment to insuring that our children, great-children,
and great-great-great-children will become respected and respectable
citizens of the world.
IV. In Sum
• Let us not make the Congolese crisis the sole responsibility
of the people of the Congo. Even though this is finally an issue
that the international community has to deal with, it primarily
is a Congolese responsibility and the collective responsibility
of the people of Africa. Thus, it befalls upon each and everyone
of us, people of Africa, to take to task anyone, Congolese, any
other African or citizen of the world community, who, by thwarting
the resolution of the Congolese crisis, stands in the way of this
great African future.
• Let us not make Congo a problem for Africa. Let us start
making Congo an opportunity and the starting point, both geographically
and historically, of the irreversible African renaissance. To this
end, let us summon up our collective African will and commitment.
Let us oppose vigorously anyone and everyone who, by thwarting the
resolution of the Congolese crisis, robs all of us of the boundless
opportunities that lie in the unleashing of the African renaissance.
Ours is a vibrant appeal to each and everyone of us, here and there,
to do his or her utmost so that the vision of a strong, vibrant,
liveable, joyous, and convivial Africa becomes an unescapable reality.
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