RYCKMANS, PIERRE MARIE JOSEPH

Pierre Marie Joseph Ryckmans (November 26, 1891-February 18, 1959), governor-general of the Belgian Zaire (now Congo), and of Ruanda-Urundi (now the separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi), from 1934-46, was the most outstanding colonial administrator in the history of the territory.

PHOTO CAPTION: Pierre Marie Joseph Ryckmans. SOURCE: EA Library

Ryckmans was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He was educated at the seminary of Hoogstraeten, and then at the Collège St. Jean Beerkmans. He entered Louvain University where he graduated in law and Thomist philosophy. Although Ryckmans began a legal career in 1913, World War I prevented him from practising law.

Volunteering for the army, he was assigned to the Ninth Line Regiment and distinguished himself in the battle of the Yser. In 1915 he joined the Force Publique (colonial army) of the Belgian Congo and left for Africa. Ryckmans took part in the Cameroun campaign against the Germans as a second lieutenant in the Force Publique. He also fought in the East African campaign in Tanganyika, and was mentioned in despatches after the victory of Mahenge. He was promoted lieutenant in the Belgian Army in 1918.

At the end of the war, Ryckmans decided to enter the Belgian colonial administrative service. He was posted to Ruanda-Urundi, former German territories which had been made League of Nations mandates under Belgian administration. He learned the local language and grew to appreciate the problems faced by the Africans. He therefore became very popular in these territories.

In 1928, Ryckmans decided to leave Africa. Since his marriage in 1921, he had fathered five children and wanted to have them educated in Europe. Therefore, he returned to Belgium and practised as a lawyer. But his interest still centered on Africa, and during his stay in Belgium from 1928-34, he wrote a series of articles on Belgian colonial policy and practise, attended conferences on Africa, and gave radio talks and lectures on the way of life of the African populations under Belgian tutelage.

He was a professor of colonial administration at Louvain University. And because he had practical experience of the Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, his lectures were better appreciated by his audience. He was secretary-general of the Union Royale Coloniale Belge; a member of the Institut Royal Colonial; of the Institut Colonial International; of the Standing Committee of the Colonial Congress; of the Association of Colonial Writers and Artists; and of the Catholic Writers Association.

In 1930, he was appointed a member of a commission of enquiry into the labour problems of the Congo peoples. He specialised in the problems of the province of Kasai. In 1934 Ryckmans succeeded the Duke of Brabant, who had become King Léopold III of Belgium (ruled 1934-50), as president of the National Institute for the Study of Agriculture in the Congo (I.N.B.A.C.). He also wrote his principal work, Dominer pour servir or (”To rule through Service”) in 1931. It was an insightful study based on his stay in Burundi. In 1934, he wrote Allo, Congo (“Hello, Congo”), and La Politique Coloniale (“Colonial Policy”).

On September 14, 1934, he was appointed governor-general of the Congo in succession to Lt. General A.C. Tilkens (term of office 1927-34). During the 12 years he served as governor-general, Ryckmans was able to put into practise some of the views he had expressed in La Politique Coloniale. He dealt first with the deteriorating economic situation, taking steps which offended certain interest groups in the colony. He also dealt with African social problems and made plans for education and health needs.

When the Nazis overran Belgium on May 10, 1940, Ryckmans was faced with a war situation in the Congo. A government of Belgium in exile had been formed in London, and the Belgian Congo had to contribute to the war effort in order to help free Belgium from Nazi occupation. He had to encourage people to increase the production of raw materials to help sustain the armed forces.

Ryckmans faced a shortage of personnel since many Belgians had joined the armed forces. A general despondency also prevailed among the Europeans. Ryckmans did his best to live with these problems and solved those he could deal with effectively. His Messages de Guerre (“Wartime Messages”) which he compiled into a book in 1945, are an eloquent testimony to his faith in the future and his dogged determination to succeed where there seemed to be no hope of success. He also prepared a volume entitled Etapes et Jalons (“Steps and Landmarks”‘), consisting of his reports to the Belgian government.

Ryckmans retired as governor-general of the Congo in July 1946 and returned to Belgium. Before leaving the Congo, he organised, under the auspices of the Association of Universities, a conference entitled Vers l’Avenir (“Towards the Future”), in which he voiced his concern for the future progress of the Congo. He stated clearly and forcefully that Belgium should aid the Congo financially since its development would benefit the Belgians as well. This conference was the origin of the ten-year development plan for the Belgian Congo.

On his return to Belgium, Ryckmans continued his interest in African affairs. He was appointed as the Belgian delegate on the United Nations Trusteeship Council, a post he held until 1957. He defended forcefully Belgium’s colonial policy, attacked the anti-colonial parties and factions in the United Nations, and in Belgium, and tried in vain to prevent the U.N. from interfering in the internal affairs of the Belgian Congo.

He was swimming against the tide, since this was the period of decolonisation in Asia and Africa. By the end of his term of office, the British West African colony of the Gold Coast had become independent Ghana (1957), and before he died a nationalist movement had started in the Congo, with Patrice Lumumba as one of its leaders.

He had also held the post of Belgian representative on the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission from 1951 onwards. Here too he showed intense curiosity, and a desire to get Belgium involved in new scientific and technological advances. He gave several lectures in these fields at home and abroad, having been an honorary member in the Moral and Political Sciences section of the Royal Academy of Sciences Overseas since 1955, and having become its president in 1949.

In 1947, his desire for higher education in the colonies led him, together with Monsignor Van Wayemberg, to sign an appeal for the establishment of a university in the Belgian territories in Africa. In 1948, he was appointed to the administrative council of the Congolese University Center at Louvanium, later named Lovanium University. The university was inaugurated in 1953, and Ryckmans was vice-president of its administrative council. He continued to take an active interest in the university’s work until his death and was disturbed by the way Congolese politics were affecting the university.

Two important books that he wrote during this period were a l’autre bout de monde (“At the Other End of the World”), which dealt with his visit to Samoa on behalf of the United Nations Trusteeship Council, and Barabara (“The Road”), which dealt, in broad terms, with his African experience as a soldier and administrator.

In June 1958, he was offered a post in the 1958-61 government of Belgian premier Gaston Eyskens, but declined it. Yet, despite failing health, he decided to serve the Congo to the end and accepted the presidency of the Working Group for the Study of the Political Problems of the Congo, a body set up in 1958 to deal with political change in the colony. He could not take part in its work, however, because he was at the point of death. He died on February 18, 1959, and was posthumously made a count by King Baudoin. His son André, who died during the disturbances that followed in the Congo in 1960, received the same honour.

L. H. OFOSU-APPIAH