MARCEL, IYONKUM

Iyonkum Marcel, or Nesfar, (circa 1924-February, 1964), the deputy mayor of Mangai on the Kasai River, single-handedly fought the rebel forces of Pierre Mulele who attacked his town.

Iyonkum was born in the small village of Olomo-Pese, located in the strip of forest bordering the Kasai River, about 140 km (85 mi) northeast of Kikwit. Because he was a triplet, his family, which belonged to the Nguii ethnic group, held a feast in celebration when he was born. At that time the baby boy received the name Iyonkum, meaning “second in command.” Later, at the nearby Catholic mission Mateko, 50 km (30 mi) west of Mangai, where he studied and was baptized, he took the name Marcel. During his stay at Mateko, he also acquired the nickname Nesfar, which he kept all his life.

After his schooling, Iyonkum went north to Mokala, a Catholic mission on the Kasai River, where he taught in the primary school. Ambitious to advance beyond the ranks of poorly paid elementary school teachers, he left his job to work as a clerk, responsible for the purchase of palm fruit for the Compagnie Africaine Cooreman (Cooreman African Company”). He was later employed as foreman of a road crew in charge of maintaining the road between Mangai and Oveke. He then returned to commerce, this time as a clerk at Port Francqui (now Ilebo).

Iyonkum began his political career in the late 1950s, when the Belgian Congo was moving rapidly towards independence. In the ethnically fragmented Kwilu district of Léopoldville province where Iyonkum lived, the Parti Solidaire Africain (P.S.A., the Party of African Solidarity), organized by Cleophas Kamitatu, Antoine Gizenga, and Pierre Mulele, won the overwhelming support of the people. This support was demonstrated in the December 1959 local elections, which the P.S.A. boycotted, and in the May 1960 national elections, which the P.S.A. carried in the Kwilu. By working diligently for the P.S.A. in his local Mangai area, Iyonkum won the attention of the party officials and eventually was given a position of responsibility in the Mangai bureaucracy as deputy mayor.

In the meantime, as troubles spread throughout the newly independent Congo, the P.S.A. split between the more moderate wing loyal to Kamitatu and the radical branch supporting Gizenga and Mulele. While the moderates concerned themselves with provincial and local politics, the radicals gave more attention to national affairs.

Complicated by ethnic divisions, this party split left local Kwilu partisans of Gizenga and Mulele with a deep sense of disenchantment. Then, in 1963, after a visit to China the previous year, Mulele returned to his native Kwilu to organize a popular uprising against the government now controlled by factions unsympathetic to the P.S.A. Conscious that his military initiative could not succeed unless he controlled the Kasai River, which potentially linked the Kwilu area with the Congo (Brazzaville), which was friendly to the government, Mulele sought to capture the river ports of Mangai and Dibaya-Lubwe (a short distance upstream from Mangai).

Successful in taking over several towns near Mangai, the militants’ victories were made easier by an almost total lack of resistance. The local people had become convinced the Mulele partisans were invulnerable to bullets and that their leader had the magical ability to be in several places at the same time. Thus, when Mangai was invaded in February 1964, the attack provoked a general rout as the urban population sought refuge in the woods. Some even crossed the Kasai River to find security in the Region of Lake Leopold II (now Lake Mai Ndombe).

Although the mayor of Mangai judged it expedient to leave town, the deputy mayor, Iyonkum Marcel, determined to stay. Wielding a rifle, he dared to fire on the Mulelist partisans. It is not clear if he actually expected to frighten the rebels, or if he hoped, by his example, to instill courage in those who were fleeing the invulnerable attackers. In any case, Iyonkum probably succeeded in wounding, or even killing, a Mulele partisan. As a result, the population realized the attackers were not superhuman, and the people began to organize resistance on a regional level.

Iyonkum’s solitary resistance cost him dearly. Taken within the hour by the rebels, he was buried alive next to the Mangai post office. In memory of Iyokum’s courage, the street beside the place where he died is named after him. Although second in command,” Iyonkum was first in bravery.

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