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We write this as the sorry episode of the Katanga provincial rebellion seems almost over. Columns of men and motors continue to traverse the Southern Katangan landscape . It is not likely that Tshombe’s First Regime will re-establish itself. The facts of the rebellion have from the start been plain. Hardly two weeks after Congo independence a small coterie of Belgians and Afri cans (Moise Tshombe, Godefroid Munungo, Roger Mertens, André Van Roey, Jean Baptiste Kibwe, etc.) seized the police powers of Ka tanga Province with the encourage ment and direct support of Union Miniere (Note: one of the largest mining companies in the world largely Belgian owned) manage ment and local white settlers. The rebellion, self-righteously disguised as a “secession,” almost immediate ly recruited Britain, France, Bel gium, Portugal, South Africa, and the Central African Federation as bodyguard. The UN’s Security Coun cil, prodded by the General Assem bly and the U.S. State Department, handed UN military forces a timid mandate to “remove mercenaries” from Katanga, but strictly forbade them any hand in enforcing “a po litical solution.” No political solution was possible, anyway, ... as shown by confer ences to discuss confederation and unity. As long as the Tshombe re gime could guarantee that the mines would continue to operate, reunification was a pipe-dream. The rebel leader was finally undone by three bad mistakes: His gendarmerie, by now an independent force, provoked UN forces without being prepared for their strong counter-attack; he lost control of his central exchequer (the so-called Katanga Bank where the regime’s credit slips were honored by the Bel gian comptroller) and thus was forced to skip payday for mercenar ies and local chiefs, and he threat ened a “scorched earth” policy, to the horror of all with Katanga in vestors. The unpaid mercenaries evaporated into cases, the chiefs hurried to pledge allegiance to the next likely source of income (the Adoula Government), and the Union Miniere management took the first plane to Leopoldville to arrange for their own settlement. It is almost too soon to evaluate the full Tshombe legacy. But we can, nevertheless, already point to at least two depressing inheritances. The first is the example that the Tshombe rebellion has set to white supremacists of Katanga. We can expect to see Tshombeism, re fined and under tighter control, du plicated in Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, and the Portuguese territories. “Chief Matanzima, “Prime Minister designate,” of the Transkei Bantustan, for example, is partly modeled on Tshombe. A second effect is the impact Tshombe made on the American scene. Projected as a mixture of dis senter, underdog, and anti-Commun ist, Tshombe has had vast success as an anti-UN symbol. A strange coalition of crackpot right-wingers, 18th-century liberals, and pious authorities have waged a hysterical campaign on his behalf. His Con gressional supporters, always sev eral decades behind, anyway, will seek to keep his name alive with investigations. “Remember Tshom be” will be the watchword to oppose the United Nations and movements of liberation in Southern Africa. —Africa Today Magazine
Newspaper Details
Scottsdale Progress
Scottsdale, Arizona, US
Thu, Feb 14, 1963
Page 6
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