By Henry A. Onwubiko
“Great historic, facts and personages occur twice: Once as tragedy again as farce”-Karl Marx. Once again the Congo is pregnant. This time the buried sovereignty to her mineral wealth has been exhumed by the same greedy and opulent Western undertakers with renewed appetite and profitable interest in the emerging new and green digital technologies under the United States and European Union funded Green Corridor Initiative. President Felix Tshisekedi of the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (EDRC) has joined the promotion of this promising eco-friendly project at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, but not without a price. Also, in the latest Washington DC peace accord with Rwanda, brokered by President Donald Trump of U.S,, Felix surrendered to the U.S. the sovereignty of some minerals in return for U.S security against primitive accumulation in Congo and most significantly the growing national rebellion which if unabated will surely topple his government.
The past aborted pregnancy of the Congo was caused by the assassination of the impetuous midwife — honorable Patrice Emery Lumumba — killed by Belgian colonialists, and Western Imperialist agents of Union Miniere. As monopolies, they felt threatened in loosing sovereignty of the minerals of Congo from his bold and uncompromising proclamation of the independence and sovereignty of Congo. That pregnancy was conceived from the dark memories of the first Belgian genocide with the killing of over 15 million black men, women and children as directed by the notorious King Leopold II. Many Congolese had their hands cut off or their genitals mutilated for failing to supply to the Belgium Empire their assigned quota of rubber sap from the ubiquitous rubber tree plantations of Congo.
Today, the Congo is again heavy, not from the sap of her verdent rubber trees but the burden of repeated greed over the sovereignty of her abundant minerals in which honorable Patrice Lumumba preferred martyrdom than surrender to the Western Vandals. The Congo is rich in Cotton, Cobalt, Lithium, Uranium, Manganese, Lead, Coal, Gold among other enviable gems. Some of these minerals are key to manufacturing in the frontiers of the industrially important field of Artificial Intelligence, which globally has created demands for smart phones, computers, electrical powered vehicles, space technology and other profitable ventures. It should not be forgotten that 60 percent of the Uranium used by the United States and its Western allies for the manufacture of the first atomic bomb that was used to annihilate the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was purloined from Congo against her sovereignty.
But the shift and adaptation to the new clean digital green technologies have led to increased global demands of minerals from Congo and an intensified disorderly rush driven by the expansion of finance capital of multinational corporations from the United States, Israel, the European Union and the NATO nations. Their activities are carried out through their client, African states contingent to the Congo, more prominent, Rwanda and Uganda. Both Rwanda and Uganda respectively exploit from the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over $1 billion and $500 million worth of gold per annum which are transported to Western Multinational firms based in the U.S, Israel, NATO and European nations.
The present historic repeat of the farcical pregnancy of Congo as a victim to its rich minerals is the result of past activities of some important personages in the tragedy of its miscarriage and murder of Lumumba, the poet, journalist and revolutionary strategist who led the quest for the pursuit of Congolese freedom, independence and sovereignty. Karl Marx has noted that the annals of world history are replete with great historic facts and personages which reoccur twice; once as tragedy, again as farce. In present-day Congo, Presidents Paul Kagame, Yuweri Musoveni and son; Lawrent Kabilla, and son, Joseph Kabilla; Joseph Mobutu and of present, Felix Tshisekedi all share the past personage of Moise Tshombe and Kasavubu who played important roles as agents of Western Imperialism in the assassination of Hon. Patrice Lumumba. This particular historic personage has been characterized as puppets of Western Imperialism by the Congolese. They are also known as Baboons, or Domestic Servants. But, their crime against their Congolese brethrens for which they are despised are their selfish support to Western corporate interests and schizophrenic desire to negotiate the sovereignty of the Congo for petty gains from Western Imperialism.
For Paul Kagame, his means to primitive accumulation and robbing the people of Congo (EDRC) of their minerals are the Rwanda Defence Force, and their allies, the M-23 militia. The M-23 militia is an alloy of comprador recruited youths from a pool of refugees and spillovers from the Western Imperialism and Belgian colonialists ignited ethnic discrimination in 1994, which destabilized the entire region with Rwanda as the epicenter. It was aimed at retaining access to the minerals of Congo if not by assassinations and colonial order then by neocolonial chaos induced genocide. The United Nations and the African Union being the soft powers of Western Imperialism were aware of the genocide where 800,000 Tutsis were killed and could have prevented it but did not intervene. As with Kagame, Musoveni also had his band of armed men assembled in the payroll of the regional comprador and multinational corporate interests supplemented by mercenaries.
President Tshisekedi as head of the government of Congo not only had his own loyal armed officers but has inherited soldiers from past presidents such as Laurent Kabila and Joseph Kabilla. Felix also has some advantages over other thieving competitors to primitive accumulation. He is the recognized dealer and umpire to Western Multinational corporations and their governments. The present unfavorable clashes of his armed men against the better armed Rwandan forces and its M-23 allies had forced him to invite President Donald Trump of the United States and his Western corporate associates to join the primitive accumulation of minerals of Congo at the cost of securing his government against Rwandan and Ugandan armed raiders hired mercenaries and militia. Perhaps his greatest trouble which is also of utmost concern to Trump is the growing uprising, demonstrations and dissatisfaction of Congolese men, women and youths from Goma to Kinshasa. The disenchanted Congolese these days say that every-day is for the thief but one day is for the owner of the house.
The actions of these leaders of primitive accumulation in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo reflect them as the historic personage of Kasavubu Tshombe and Mobutu of the past abortive Congo who conspired and served as imperialist agents of Union Miniere to murder Lumumba. They did the biddings of Western Imperialism against the interests of the people of Congo. While Patrice Lumumba proclaimed the independence and sovereignty of Congo, Kasavubu begged the Belgian colonialists to remain in Congo as their guardians while Moise Tshombe threatened the secession of his ethnic Katanga against the elected national government of Hon. Patrice Lumumba. Colonel Joseph Mobutu, as a puppet had already in subterfuge been a Central Intelligence Agent of Western Imperialism serving under Prime minster Lumumba as his Chief of Army Staff. Mobutu played the notorious role noted in the United Nations Financial Records of Saturday September 10th 1960, of collecting 5 million Francs from the United Nations. With this money, he bribed unpaid soldiers to win their loyalty in the staged coup by western imperialism in which honorable Lumumba was arrested, tortured, murdered and dissolved in a concentrated acid solution. Consequently, Congo was deprived of its legitimate Prime minister, who led the quest for the independence and sovereignty of Congo.
Of all the great historic personages in the history of Congo only the tragic personage of Patrice Lumumba stands unique from other characters whose personage sadly have reoccurred in abundance but keep Congo in its present labyrinth of underdevelopment and poverty. From the personage of Tshombe Kasavubu and Mobutu, recurs the present farcical characters of Kagami, Musoveni, Tshisekedi and other puppets who were selected by imperialism to manage the minerals of the Congolese people in the interest of Western Imperialism. Only the recurrence of the historic personage of Lumumba is anticipated by the Congolese youths and their African propinquities, with great expectations for his second coming.
The distinct character of Lumumba was modeled from his early conviction of the minor importance of tribalism in building a nationalist and United Congo. He noted the importance of the Labour Unions in the egalitarian development of a stable and United Congo that can withstand the divisive manipulations of the tribes by Western Imperialism. Also, coming from the minority Batelela tribe further encouraged Lumumba’s strategic vision to build a National Congolese Movement based on the role of labour in the development of society, through the Unions and the working class. His national vision stood in contrast to the narrow tribalistic strategy of the Belgium selected, Indigenous puppets from the personage of Kasavubu and Tshombe, from the bigger tribes. In the final act, the National Congolese Movement won the election with Lumumba emerging triumphantly as the first Prime Minister of Congo.
Another desirable character of Lumumba was his commitment to Pan Africanism in his election campaigns. Together with his fraternal friend, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, they formulated the principle of the Unity of the African Continent, the global unification of all black people into a single nation, security and economy. The second coming of the personage of Lumumba will resolve for the people of Congo the just claim of sovereignty to their mineral wealth meant for their national development. The means of production, processing, adding value to the minerals and distribution which include the tools, rich soil and its minerals will be the nationalized properties of the working people and all Congolese and not the private properties of multinational corporations, their clients states and puppets to make Donald Trump and Western Imperialism – our former slave masters, “Great Again”. The personage of Lumumba that frightened Western imperialism was his ideology of socialism collective bargaining, Communism, and Pan Africanism.
Not only personages, but the historic recurrence of significant facts and organizations are paramount to the movement of world history and particularly the history of Congo. Past United Nations is still the repeat of present day United Nations. In 1960 the United Nations, with its peace keeping force and its Secretary General, Dag Hammerskold, came to Congo under the invitation of the newly elected Congolese government of Lumumba to assist in maintaining peace and stability, but betrayed Lumumba by clandestinely supporting the interest of Belgian colonialist and Western Imperialism. It encouraged the Neocolonialist coup against a legitimate Congolese government which the UN came to assist but in subterfuge claimed the life of Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister.
In present day Congo, the United Nation’s historic personage in farcical repeat with its Secretary General, Antonio Guiterres operates the refugee camps and its peace keeping forces again under the invitation of the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, the recent mass protests in the Embassies of the U.S, Belgium, France, Kenya, Rwanda and Ugandan and national demonstrations across the Democratic Republic of Congo, demand the withdrawal of the United Nations from Congo. These altercations are not only uprisings that reflect a growing national consciousness that the natural resources of the Congo must be under democratic control of the Congolese. They also reflect slogans and popular demands that United Nations should leave Congo. The present dubious role of the United Nations is a historic repeat of its betrayal of Patrice Lumumba in 1960. The fact that no African nation has been a member of its decision making Security Council since its inception makes the United Nations in the Congo truly the representative soft power of Western Imperialism. The United Nations will also be remembered in being present in the 1994 ethnic genocide in Rwanda and Congo regions but did nothing to prevent it.
The UN has also been accused with its peace keeping force as serving as intermediate agents and messengers of Western Imperialism in the process of primitive accumulation and the fratricidal killings by the factional armies, M-23 militias and other armed groups. This has resulted in the cumulative deaths of over 10 million people in the last two decades, the displacement of millions of Congolese citizens deaths due to the spread of diseases, toxic minerals in polluted rivers, gullies, farms and in overfilled refugee camps.
Another historic recurring character of organizations in the history of Congo is the present farcical African Union (AU) once known as the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Despite the pioneering role of Lumumba at the frontiers of Pan Africanism together with Osagiefo Kwame Nkrumah, the OAU had remained an organization against African Unity, with only a semantic change to the present African Union (AU). The AU is truly the historic repeating caricature of the old tragic OAU where the Western Imperialist nations such as the United States the European Union, NATO, Israel, the Asian and Arab States all have seats as “observers”, who fund the requests of “African leaders” not only the programs, but also maintaining the infrastructure of its headquarters in Addis Ababa. Several African states in the diaspora are yet to be registered members and given seats. In the times of Lumumba, in the initiation of the fight for Congolese sovereignty and independence, the OAU was infused with the puppet personage, and unable to answer the patriotic call of the heroic Lumumba.
The forces of Western Imperialism, with their native puppets and domestic servants were aggrieved over their defeat and inevitable loss of sovereignty of the minerals to the rightful Congolese owners, and went ahead to attempt the impossible killing of the great historic personage of Lumumba, rendering him bodiless to prevent his second coming. In the resulting chaos from primitive accumulation, the accumulated millions of displaced men, women and children from remote villages and towns, the millions of refugees who will never go back home to Goma, Kivu, Burundi, Kinshasa, Rwanda and other surrounding regions, the gathering millions of unemployed Congolese and youth dropouts, that are unable to find jobs in the overfilled mines, the deserting men from the looting armies, soldiers of fortune and militias, the aimless market women of Congo without capital, the increasing victims of genetic ailments with strange symptoms from contaminated rain water and gullies from the mines, are all congealing into a rebellious multitude to answer the calling of Lumumba. The amalgamating unions of hungry workers without salaries are leading the many protests demanding that the minerals of Congo belong to the people of Congo and not to Donald Trump and his corporate descendant of Union Miniere. The echoes from his last but commanding live-speeches to the people of Congo before his arrest, was to rise up against Western Imperialism and defend the freedom, independence and sovereignty of Congo over its minerals; the trial of agents of Union Miniere, their corporate descendants, and local puppets, still to be indicted for murder; the restructuring of the United Nations and the African Union who daily conspire with the enemy where they serve as the soft power of Western Imperialism; the Pan African unification of the African Continent into one nation with one security and one economy to globally protect black people from perpetual slavery, famine, kwashiorkor, mass poverty, genocide and eventual elimination.
The coming historic recurrence of the great personage of Patrice Lumumba will dwarf all the superfluous personages in the history of Congo that have held down Congo in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment. For the people of Congo, Africa, and the present etherized humanity, it is an imminent repeat of great expectations and nothing, not B-type bombers dressed with atomic bombs and hypersonic missiles; genocides with their myriad, prematurely dewombed human embryos or the most concentrated acid solutions can stop the moving train of history.
• Onwubiko, PhD, is Professor of Biochemistry University of Nigeria, Nsukka
