KASA-VUBU, JOSEPH

Joseph Kasa-Vubu (circa 1913-March 24, 1969), was the first president of the Republic of Zaire, now known as Congo. Kasa-Vubu is remembered for his advocacy of Congolese nationalism during the colonial period and for his attempts to preserve Congolese unity during the turbulent first years of independence.

PHOTO CAPTION: Joseph Kasa-Vubu. SOURCE: EA Library

Kasa-Vubu was born at Kinkuma-Dizi, near Tshela, 100 km (60 mi) north of Boma in the Mayombe district of the Lower Congo, now Lower Zaire region. For his primary education, Kasa-Vubu attended the Kizu Mission School, a few kilometers northeast of Tshela, run by the Scheut Fathers. He obtained his secondary education at Mbata Kiela Minor Seminary, 75 km (45 mi) north of Boma, where he graduated in 1936.
Intending to become a priest, he entered the Scheut seminary at Kabwe just outside Luluabourg, (now Kananga), where he studied philosophy and theology for three years. For reasons which are unclear, Kasa-Vubu was unsuccessful as a candidate for the priesthood. Disappointed, he returned to Mayombe to enroll at the Kangu teacher training school, 60 km (35 mi) east of Boma, where he obtained his elementary teaching diploma in 1940.

After his studies, Kasa-Vubu settled in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to teach at the Lemba elementary school. Also in 1941, he married Hortense Ngoma Masunda, who bore him seven children during their many years of marriage. Kasa-Vubu remained a teacher only one year, for, in 1941, he took a job as a clerk in AGRIFOR, a private Belgian company. Then, in 1942, he joined the civil service as a functionary in the Service des Finances (Treasury department).

In Léopoldville, Kasa-Vubu developed an interest in the rights of Africans living under colonial government. Although political parties were unknown in the Belgian Congo, the number of cultural, trade union, religious, and ethnic organisations multiplied greatly after World War II. In these groups, Congolese came together for social activities and discussion. One such association, the Union des Intérêts Sociaux Congolais (UNISCO) was composed of évolués (educated and westernised Africans) who were concerned about racial discrimination, improved social conditions, and rights of évolués. Feeling the need for a spokesman with more than secondary education, one of UNISCO’s founders, Jean Bolikango, approached, Joseph Kasa-Vubu.

To become a member of UNISCO, Kasa-Vubu needed to be the director of a student association. With the sponsorship of Bolikango, an important leader of Léopoldville’s Lingala speaking population, Kasa-Vubu was elected secretary general of the Association des Anciens Elèves des Pères de Scheut (Association of former Students of the Scheut Fathers, ADAPES), an organisation of which Bolikango was president. Increasingly, Kasa-Vubu the government clerk became involved in political issues.

Kasa-Vubu’s first speech to UNISCO in 1946 was a stirring challenge to the private companies and mission societies which controlled much land in the Congo. His address, entitled “The Right of the First Occupant,” argued that since the Congolese, and notably the Bakongo people, had been the first owners of the land, it should be returned to their control. Rather than being understood as a call for political independence, Kasa-Vubu’s talk should be interpreted as a plea for the rights of his Bakongo people, an ethnic group proud of their centuries-old contact with western civilisation and a group conscious of the inequalities perpetrated by such a relationship. Kasa-Vubu’s talk, however, had general significance throughout the Congo, for he was the first Congolese publicly to assert the rights of Africans over their own land.

During the 1950s, Kasa-Vubu devoted his energies to the Alliance des Bakongo (Abako). Formed in the early 1950s as a Bakongo ethnic association to counterbalance the growing influence of Lingala speakers in Léopoldville, Abako aimed at promoting Bakongo culture and the Kikongo language. On March 21, 1954, after Nzeza-Landu, an Abako founder, took charge of Kongo dia Ngunga, one of the three Abako-related newspapers, Joseph Kasa-Vubu was elected president of Abako. As leader of Abako, he gained the people’s almost reverent respect for being the most forthright and courageous spokesman of Congolese rights.

In December 1955, A. A. J. van Bilsen, a professor at the Antwerp Institut Universitaire des Territories d’Outre Mer (Antwerp University Institute of Overseas Territories), published a paper calling on the Belgian government to make plans to grant Congolese independence within 30 years. Although Belgian officials dismissed van Bilsen’s proposal as idealistic dreaming, the Congolese were deeply moved by a statement concerning their independence within a specific number of years. Responding to van Bilsen, the Léopoldville periodical Conscience Africaine, which reflected the thinking of the Bangala elite, printed a Manifesto in its July-August, 1956 issue.

Generally supportive of van Bilsen’s ideas, the Manifesto called for sincerity on the part of the Belgians in enacting the economic and political reforms which eventually would lead to an emancipated Congolese society embodying the best of African and Western civilisation. Expressing a desire for unity and cooperation, the Manifesto rejected the introduction of party politics into Congo. At the same time, the Manifesto called for African participation in making plans for the Congo’s future.

On August 23, 1956, Joseph Kasa-Vubu responded to van Bilsen and to the Manifesto. Rejecting the concept of Congolese society slowly evolving within the strictures of a plan designed in Belgium, Kasa-Vubu argued that the Congolese should be given immediate independence, that they should have full freedom of speech, press, and association, that they should form political parties, and that they alone should decide the future nature of their society and state. Kasa-Vubu’s August 23 Counter Manifesto was a clear statement of his conviction that real independence would come only when Africans themselves determined their own destiny. Merely assuming places of responsibility within a system bequeathed by the colonial power would only perpetuate the old inequalities and injustices.

In this speech, Kasa-Vubu also spoke of a federal structure for the future Congo state. Recognising the profound ethnic differences within the country, he proposed a federation whereby each region would elect representatives who would “be able to bring about union and trace the programme of true democratisation of the country.” In response to growing pressures for African participation in the political process, on March 26, 1957, the Belgian government decreed the reorganisation of major Congolese urban centers. The governor general was given the authority to designate certain agglomerations as cities which were then subdivided into a number of African and European communes.

The adult males of each commune were then to elect a council and a burgomaster. In the first elections, held in December 1957, Abako won 60 percent to 70 percent of the vote, 8 out of 10 burgomaster positions, and more than 120 of the 170 seats on the councils of Léopoldville’s African communes. Kasa-Vubu, himself, was elected burgomaster of Dendale commune, now known as Kasa-Vubu zone. When he was inaugurated on April 20, 1958, Kasa-Vubu made a speech listing important African grievances under Belgian colonialism. Citing the inadequacy of higher education for Africans, restrictions on freedom of the press and of association, and prohibitions against Africans becoming police and military officers, the new burgomaster asserted that Congolese must have control over the affairs of their country. To climax his talk, he demanded general elections and internal autonomy for the Congo.

Despite Kasa-Vubu’s undramatic oratorical style, the people were greatly excited by his bold proclamations. The colonial government, on the other hand, chastised Kasa-Vubu for making statements that went beyond the scope of a burgomaster’s concerns. For the remainder of his term in office, Kasa-Vubu devoted his attention to administrative concerns. He was especially effective in obtaining funding for communal improvements such as low-cost loans for housing.

Although angered by Kasa-Vubu’s forthright statements, the Belgian authorities were responsive to African opinion. Thus, in July 1958, the government appointed a Working Group to assess the situation in the Congo. In its final report, issued in February 1959, the Working Group proposed the gradual incorporation of Africans into the colony’s decision-making process. Anticipating the Group’s report, King Baudouin, on January 13, 1959, spoke of actual preparations for independence. To achieve these goals, it was decided to hold general elections in December 1959 to select local and regional councils which would act as consultative bodies for the European administrators. In the meantime, however, other events had overtaken the Belgian government’s cautious moves towards giving Africans a voice in their own affairs.

In 1958 the International Exposition in Brussels, General de Gaulle’s promise of independence to the French colonies, and the All-African People’s Conference in Accra gave the Congolese a new sense of unity, purpose, and dignity. Because of improper health certificates, Kasa-Vubu was unable to obtain a visa to attend the All-African People’s Conference in December. The Abako burgomaster of Ngiri-Ngiri commune in Léopoldville, however, accompanied Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Ngalula to Accra.

Triggered by general unemployment and by police cancellation of an Abako rally on January 4, 1959, widespread rioting broke out in Léopoldville. Perhaps 50 to 100 people, mostly Africans, were killed in the rioting, while several hundred were injured. Blaming Abako for the disorders, the government arrested its leaders including Joseph Kasa-Vubu, Daniel Kanza, and Simon Nzeza-Landu. When the three were released after the Colonial Minister van Hemelrijck personally intervened, they were flown to Belgium in order to prevent further agitation in the Congo. Although allowed to travel freely in Belgium, the Abako leaders were watched by security police and were not allowed to return home until May 13.

While other leaders, including Patrice Lumumba, were forming political parties in preparation for the December 1959 elections. Kasa-Vubu and his reorganised Abako party rejected Belgian efforts to grant gradual independence of the colony. In addition to advocating a boycott of the December balloting. Abako declared independence for the Lower Congo, effective January 1960. This was consistent with Abako’s earlier position that new government structures in the Congo must evolve from African political discussions rather than from a blueprint prepared in Brussels.
Kasa-Vubu argued that an African provisional government should precede the formulation of fixed institutions and policies which, he believed, would only mirror European patterns and desires.

When elections were held in December, the Abako boycott succeeded, and only about 30 percent of the eligible voters cast ballots in Léopoldville, whereas up to 90 percent voted in other areas. Once the Belgian authorities realised the impossibility of imposing an independence plan on the Congo, the government arranged a Round Table discussion where Belgians and Congolese together could determine the country’s future. When the Round Table convened in Brussels on January 20, 1960, Kasa-Vubu was one of the Congolese leaders demanding that the decisions of the conference be binding on the Belgian government rather than merely consultative. His view prevailed and the participants began laying the groundwork for Congolese independence. Then, demanding that the Round Table be turned into a constituent assembly, Kasa-Vubu withdrew from the proceedings, from January 25 until February 10.

This absence caused a split between Kasa-Vubu and Daniel Kanza, who was angered by the Abako leader’s actions. During this time, Kasa-Vubu made two trips to Paris, perhaps to consult with French government officials and lawyers, and one trip each to Liège, Belgium, and Aachen, West Germany. In spite of his absences, when the Round Table adjourned on February 20, Kasa-Vubu, was one of the six Africans appointed to the governor general’s staff. More importantly, the Congo had been promised independence by the end of June 1960. From April 26 to May 16, Kasa-Vubu returned to Brussels for an Economic Round Table preparing for the financial transitions of independence.

In the crucial May elections for the new Congolese Parliament, Lumumba’s Movement National Congolais (M.N.C.) ran a country-wide campaign, and won more seats than any other party. Since, however, he was unable to control a working majority, Lumumba had to reach a compromise with Kasa-Vubu. Thus, when the Congo received its independence on June 30, 1960, Lumumba was the prime minister while Kasa-Vubu was the president.

Until the eve of Congo independence, Kasa-Vubu had subscribed to the thesis of a federated Congo. As late as December 1959, he had assembled a conference at Kisantu, 100 km (60 mi) south of Léopoldville, where Abako and several other political parties had passed a resolution calling for a loose federal government. As head of state pledged to protect the integrity of the new Congo constitution, however, Kasa-Vubu became a defender of national unity and a symbol of moderation and compromise.

Almost immediately after independence, the Force Publique (national army) mutinied, Katanga province seceded, and the skilled expatriate population fled. Traveling around the country with Lumumba, his political rival, Kasa-Vubu tried to restore order in the turbulent nation. As the situation deteriorated, Kasa-Vubu lost faith in Lumumba’s ability to control the fragmented Congo. A member of the Tetela ethnic group from Stanleyville (now Kisangani), Lumumba’s desire for a strong central government, his radical attitude towards Belgium and the Western powers, and his more flamboyant style brought him into conflict with Kasa-Vubu.

Finally, on September 4, 1960, invoking the president’s constitutional power to name and dismiss the prime minister, Kasa-Vubu announced over Léopoldville radio that he was dismissing Lumumba. A deep constitutional crisis developed as Lumumba attempted to revoke Kasa-Vubu’s mandate and as parliament annulled the actions of both men. Nevertheless, Kasa-Vubu prevailed by gaining the crucial support of the United Nations, which earlier had sent troops to quiet the Congo. Lumumba was then confined to his residence.

On September 14, General Mobutu announced his appointment of a Collège des Commissaires (College of Commissioners), composed of university students, to act as a caretaker government in Lumumba’s absence. Although Kasa-Vubu stood above the day-to-day vicissitudes of Congolese politics, he tried to promote national reconciliation, to restore order, and to encourage the writing of a new constitution. In March 1961, he attended a conference at Tananarive, Madagascar, and in April and May 1961 he went to Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka) in an effort to reach an accord among the competing political parties and secessionist movements.

With Kasa-Vubu as chief of state, and Cyrille Adoula as prime minister after August 2, 1961, order gradually returned to the Congo. In January 1964, Kasa-Vubu appointed a special commission which met at Luluabourg (now Kananga) to draw up a new constitution. When, in that same year, new rebellions against the central government broke out in Kwilu and in the eastern part of the country, Kasa-Vubu turned to Moise Tshombe, entrusted him with the office of prime minister, and charged him with quelling the uprisings.

The president’s relationship with Tshombe, however, was tense. Finally, on October 13, 1965, he dismissed Tshombe and the country was again drawn into a political crisis. Although Kasa-Vubu asked Evariste Kimba to form a new government, the effort failed. In order to prevent further discord and governmental paralysis, General Mobutu deposed Kasa-Vubu and suspended parliament on November 24, 1965. Withdrawing to his native region, Kasa-Vubu lived quietly on his farm in Lower Congo. On March 24, 1969, he died in the Boma hospital from a brain hemorrhage.

Together with Patrice Lumumba, Joseph Kasa-Vubu played a determining role in the struggle for Congolese independence. A mild-mannered, patient man, he had to face almost insurmountable difficulties once he became president of the Congo. By his tenacity and magnanimity during the secession, rebellions, internal dissensions, and international tensions, he served as a symbol of unity for the new nation and its fragile central government.

SABAKINU KIVILU