KIMBA, EVARISTE

Evariste Kimba (July 16, 1926-June 2, 1966) was a political leader during the first years of Congo independence. An early supporter of Katangese rights, he later attempted to form a national government as prime minister under Kasa-Vubu, and finally was executed for his opposition to the regime of President Mobutu.

PHOTO CAPTION: Evariste Kimba. SOURCE: EA Library.

Kimba was born at Nsaka village in the Bukama area, about 350 km (200 mi) northwest of Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi). His parents, Monga and Makonga, however, soon moved to Elisabethville where Kimba received his primary and secondary education at the Institut Saint Boniface.

For five more years, Kimba continued his education by attending evening classes in sociology, law, politics, and economics. Like his father Monga, Kimba took employment at the Compagnie de Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga (Lower Congo to Katanga Rail-road, B.C.K.). At that time, Kimba became an active supporter of the Catholic trade union movement.

In 1954, Kimba joined the Elisabethville newspaper Essor du Congo (“Rise of the Congo”) as a journalist. An outstanding writer, he was sent to the 1958 International Exposition in Brussels as a correspondent. There, at the Exposition, Congolese intellectuals from all over the country met for the first time, developed mutual ties, and came into contact with the political, social, and cultural realities of the larger world. Like other Congolese, Kimba was greatly affected by his experience at the Exposition.

Kimba’s political awareness, however, had developed long before the Brussels Exposition. Living in Elisabethville, he was exposed to the competition and resulting political activities of the various ethnic groups who lived and worked in the Katangan mining center.

One of the most numerous and prominent African groups was the concentration of Luba people from Kasai. Relatives of the Luba from Katanga, they had been menaced by African slave raiders in the late 19th century. Seeking protection, these Luba living in Kasai took refuge near Belgian colonial authorities who then recruited them for jobs all over the Congo. Thus, many Kasai Luba came to Katanga where they worked in government and industry and where their presence was resented by Africans native to Katanga.

As early as 1952, Evariste Kimba had tried to encourage ethnic pride among his own Katanga Luba people by forming an ethnic organisation. When the Association des Baluba du Katanga (” Association of the Baluba of Katanga,” known as Balubakat) was founded in January, 1957, however, another man, Jason Sendwe, was elected president.

In December 1957, the Luba of Kasai scored a great political victory over native Katangan peoples. In an attempt to give Africans a greater voice in their own affairs, Belgian colonial authorities held elections in several major Congolese cities. To the great displeasure of local Katangan ethnic groups, the Luba of Kasai won three of the four burgomaster offices in Elisabethville. Even the fourth position went not to a local man, but to an active trade unionist from Kivu province.

As demands for independence grew more persistent, the Belgian government appointed a Working Group to visit the Congo and draw up plans for the Colony’s political future. In October 1958, anticipating the Working Group’s visit to Katanga, a large number of “native Katangans” formed a political party called the Confédération des Associations Tribales du Katanga (“Confederation of Tribal Associations of Katanga, known as Conakat”) which, they hoped, would promote the interests of local people and counteract the influence of outsiders from Kasai.

Unhappy because he had not been chosen president of Balubakat, Evariste Kimba soon joined Conakat and became one of its leading spokesmen. Not long after, on February 5, 1959, Jason Sendwe’s Balubakat joined Conakat to form a short-lived alliance of all major Katangan ethnic groups who, feared the influence of outsiders. Thus, even members of the Balubakat regarded their Kasai cousins as a threat.

As independence approached, Conakat, led by Moise Tshombe, allied with white settlers in Katanga to demand a very loose and decentralised government for the new Congo state. This, they felt, was the only way to avoid being dominated by out-siders, especially the Luba from Kasai.

After the Round Table talks in January and February 1960, Kimba was appointed to the political cabinet of the Belgian minister resident in the Congo, Ganshof van der Meersch. As deputy chief of the cabinet, Kimba was able to press for the acceptance of the Conakat view. In May 1960, Kimba was elected as a senator from Katanga to sit in the national parliament in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). Like other elected Conakat officials, however, he refused to participate in this body once independence came in June.

After Congo independence on June 30, 1960, Kimba, together with Moise Tshombe, Godefroid Munongo, and Jean-Baptiste Kibwe engineered a secession movement for the Katanga province. From July 11, when Tshombe announced that Katanga was separating from the rest of the chaotic Congo, until January 1963, when Joseph Ileo of the central government in Léopoldville arrived in Elisabethville to take over control of Katanga, these men attempted to protect their province and gain international recognition for their government.

On September 16, 1960, Evariste Kimba was appointed foreign minister of Katanga. As foreign minister, he frequently negotiated with Léopoldville and with foreign powers in an effort to buy time for Katanga. In October 1960, he met with Justin Bomboko, Congo Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a futile attempt to resolve their differences.

During a series of Round Table discussions held in Léopoldville, Tananarive, and Coquilhatville (now Mbandaka), Kimba and Tshombe consistently refused to rejoin the national government. Because of their intransigence at Coquilhatville, both men were arrested by the Armée National Congolais (A.N.C.) on April 26, 1961. From there they were taken to Léopoldville and held until June 22.

During 1961, the fragmented Congo government gradually regained strength, and on February 21, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorising the use of force to remove all foreign military personnel and advisors who were aiding secession movements in the Congo. Then in August 1961, Cyrille Adoula became prime minister of the Congo with broad support from most of the previously divided political parties. Recognising Katanga’s precarious position in the face of U.N. opposition and with a viable government in Léopoldville, Tshombe tried to attract more outside support for his cause.

Thus, Kimba was dispatched to Europe where he visited France, Germany, and Italy. About the same time, however, U.N. troops in the Congo began a serious campaign to end Katanga secession. On August 28, 1961, U.N. soldiers stationed in Elisabethville, where they had been placed to prevent disorder, rounded up foreign soldiers engaged by Katanga and tried to expell them from the country. On September 13, the U.N. tried to arrest Katanga’s top leaders. Although Tshombe, Munongo, and Kimba all managed to escape, they feared resisting the U.N. soldiers, and thus provoking a military confrontation.

As 1961 progressed, Kimba took an increasingly hard line against reaching any accommodation with Léopoldville or the U.N. In December, he warned the U.N. that Katanga would pursue a “scorched earth policy” if U.N. troops continued their drive into northern Katanga. After Tshombe concluded an agreement with Adoula at Kitona near the mouth of the Congo (now the Zaire) River on December 20, 1961, Kimba challenged the validity of the accord, claiming it had been made under duress.

During the course of 1962, Katanga weakened, U.N. and A.N.C. troops slowly reintegrated northern Katanga into the Congo, and the earlier tacit Western support for Tshombe dissipated. Nevertheless, Kimba remained firm. When his former rival, Jason Sendwe, now a member of the Leopoldville government, asked him to help reorganise a loyal north Katanga under Balubakat leadership, Kimba refused.

In December 1962, a large contingent of the U.N. army took control of Elisabethville. From there they moved northwest through the copperbelt to Jadotville (now Likasi). Still resisting, Tshombe and his ministers retreated to Kolwezi, the nerve center of the mining region. They could not hold out, however, and on January 21, 1963, the U.N. occupied Kolwezi, thus ending Katanga secession. Tshombe himself had fled to Spain, so, on January 23, it was Foreign Minister Evaristé Kimba who formally handed over power to Joseph Ileo, whom the Léopoldville government had sent as resident minister to govern Katanga.

Kimba’s career, however, was not over. When rebellions in Kwilu and Kivu threatened the fragile Congo government in 1964, President Kasa-Vubu dismissed Cyrille Adoula and called upon the exiled Moise Tshombe to form a new government as prime minister. Coming to office on July 10, 1964, Tshombe was charged with the task of reuniting the country and suppressing the rebellions. Pursuing a policy of moderation towards former opposition politicians, Tshombe allowed them to resume political activities.

Thus, in 1964, Kimba formed a political party, the Movement Populaire d’Union Africaine (“Popular Movement for African Union,” known as the M.P.A.). At the end of 1964, he was nominated president of the Balubakat tribal association, a move which reunited the formerly fragmented Luba of Katanga. This, however, was the beginning of a dispute between Kimba and Tshombe, who feared any real opposition.

The Balubakat, strong in northern Katanga, elected Kimba as deputy to the national parliament. As a Balubakat representative in Léopoldville, Kimba found himself among the adversaries of Tshombe’s new party, the Convention Nationale Congolais (the “National Congolese Convention,” known as Conaco), which was merely a new version of his former party the Conakat.

Because of personal rivalries and because of Tshombe’s internationally unpopular use of foreign mercenaries to put down the rebellions, relations between Kasa-Vubu and Tshombe deteriorated during 1965. On October 13, 1965, not long before the scheduled presidential elections in which Tshombe threatened to defeat the incumbent, President Kasa-Vubu revoked the elections, dismissed Tshombe, and called on Evaristé Kimba to form a new government. Parliament, however, dominated by Conaco, refused on two occasions in November to approve Kimba’s government. As the political crisis deepened, Lieutenant General Joseph D. Mobutu took power by ousting both Kimba and Kasa-Vubu.

Kimba remained hostile to Mobutu and on May 31, 1966, he was implicated in the Complot de la Pentecôte (“The Pentecost Conspiracy”). Together with Alexander Mahamba, Jerome Anany, and Emmanuel Bamba, he was accused of having attempted to overthrow Mobutu’s government.

On June 1, 1966, all four were sentenced at an open-air trial in Kinshasa (as Leopoldville, the capital, had been renamed on May 5) and hung publicly on June 2. Kimba left a widow and four children. His thoughts, set down in a manuscript entitled “Mes opinions sur les problèmes congolaises” (“My Opinions on Congolese Problems”) were circulated posthumously.

TSHIBANGU KABET MUSAS