State of Katanga

And two of his eventual rivals had really big ethnic bases behind them.

And if you remember our friends from the last episode, Moishe Showambe, he was from Katanga.

And Joseph Kasavugu, he was from Bakongo.

And those are two really big places with, you know, big backings behind them.

The very next day on July 11th, the Belgian Navy storms Matadi after evacuating their own people and killing 19 Congolese civilians.

And at this time, again, so much crazy shit is happening.

Katanga declares independence under Moise Chawambe.

Earlier and in the last episode when I was talking about the ethnic groups, that is why it is a threat to Congolese independence, because this is what happens when you colonize a country and you create these arbitrary lines.

This is, uh, January 17th, 1961.

The first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo was executed by firing squad in the province of Katanga on January 17th, 1961.

So the Katanga area is the ind- or they were trying to become an independent state, and that's what led to all the shit with Jadotville.

Which, again, cannot recommend enough that y'all go check that movie out.

Anyway, uh, with local and Belgian officials looking on.

They didn't even know that they didn't have a president for a month.

Wow.

Then when it was announced, the official story was that he had escaped from custody in Katanga, only to be killed by angry locals, because the official narrative had to be that the locals did not want this guy.

Within days, the Force Publique, the Congolese Army, would go in mutiny against its white officer corps, and anti-European violence would erupt across the state.

And the mineral-rich southern province of Katanga would go and declare its own independence on July 11th of 1960 under Moïse Tshombe.

This was not a good situation, but France wasn't done with the vast array of natural resources that were found in Katanga.

It was home to vast deposits of copper, of cobalt, and uranium, which especially going into the nuclear age, extremely valuable.

At this point in time, a Belgian multinational conglomerate called UMHK held control of the mines, but they were concerned about the central government of Patrice Lumumba trying to be so bold as to say that the mines that were in their borders and on their land deserve to be managed by the government in which they existed.

And I know I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation of it.

We're gonna put it right up here.

The Gendarmerie Katangaise, which was a group of mercenaries composed entirely of white foreign mercenaries.