REPUBLIC OF CONGO

A Country Besieged by Conflicts and Witchcraft

By Liz Goldner

The Republic of Congo has been volatile for so many years that reading about the country’s political rivalries, and continual change of governments is like playing a violent video game.

Congo, first inhabited by Pygmies, was later settled by Bantu groups that also occupied parts of present-day Angola, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). Several Bantu kingdoms, including those of the Kongo, the Loango, and the Teke, built trade links leading into the Congo River basin.

The first Europeans came to the country in the late 15th century, establishing commercial relationships; these included trading goods for slaves who were captured in the interior, but slave trade ended in the early 19th century, helping to erode the Bantu kingdoms.

The area came under French sovereignty in the 1880s, as a result of Pierre Savorgnon de Brazza’s competition with agents of Belgian King Leopold's International Congo Association (later Zaire) for control of the Congo River basin. Between 1882 and 1891, treaties were secured with local rulers, placing their lands under French protection. In 1908, France organized French Equatorial Africa (AEF), comprised of Middle Congo (modern Congo), Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari (modern Central African Republic). Brazzaville was selected as the federal capital.

Economic development during the following 50 years was based on natural resource extraction by private companies. In 1924-34, the Congo-Ocean Railway (CFCO) was built at considerable human and financial cost, opening the way for growth of the ocean port of Pointe-Noire and towns along its route.

During World War II, Brazzaville, the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo, located on the Congo River, became the symbolic capital of Free France. The Brazzaville Conference of 1944 heralded the abolition of forced labor, granting of French citizenship to colonial subjects, and election of local advisory assemblies.

After the September 1958 referendum approving the new French Constitution, AEF was dissolved, its four territories became autonomous members of the French Community, and Middle Congo was renamed the Congo Republic. In 1959, ethnic rivalries produced sharp struggles among the emerging Congolese political parties and sparked severe riots in Brazzaville. Formal independence was granted in August 1960.

Congo's first President was Fulbert Youlou, a former Catholic priest from the Pool region in the southeast. His three ears in power were marked by ethnic tensions and political rivalry. In August 1963, he was overthrown in a three-day popular uprising, led by labor elements and joined by rival political parties.

The Congolese military took charge of the country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government headed by Alphonse Massamba-Debat. Under the 1963 constitution, Massamba-Debat was elected President for a five-year term and named Pascal Lissouba as Prime Minister. President Massamba-Debat's term ended abruptly in August 1968, when Capt. Marien Ngouabi and other army officers toppled the government in a coup. Major Ngouabi assumed the presidency on December 31, 1968. One year later, President Ngouabi proclaimed Congo to be Africa's first "people's republic" and changed the name of the National Revolutionary Movement to the Congolese Labor Party (PCT).

On March 18, 1977, President Ngouabi was assassinated. An 11-member Military Committee of the Party (CMP) was named to head an interim government with Colonel (later General) Joachim Yhomby-Opango as President of the Republic. Accused of corruption and deviation, Yhomby-Opango was removed from office on February 5, 1979 by the Central Committee of the PCT, which simultaneously designated Vice President and Defense Minister Col. Denis Sassou-Nguesso as interim President.

After two decades of turbulent politics bolstered by Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, the Congolese gradually moderated their economic and political views. In 1992, Congo completed a transition to multi-party democracy. In August 1992, the country had multi-party presidential elections. Sassou-Nguesso conceded defeat and Congo's new President, Prof. Pascal Lissouba, was inaugurated on August 31, 1992.

President Lissouba dissolved the National Assembly in November 1992, calling for new elections in May 1993. The results of those elections were disputed, touching off violent civil unrest. In February 1994, all parties accepted the decisions of an international board of arbiters, and the risk of large-scale insurrection subsided.

As presidential elections scheduled for July 1997 approached, tensions between the Lissouba and Sassou-Nguesso camps mounted, and a four-month conflict destroyed or damaged much of Brazzaville. In mid-October, the Lissouba government fell. Soon thereafter, Sassou-Nguesso declared himself President and named a 33-member government.

In January 1998, the Sassou-Nguesso regime held a National Forum for Reconciliation. The forum, tightly controlled by the government, deciding that elections should be held in about three years, elected a transition advisory legislature, and announced that a constitutional convention would finalize a draft constitution.

However, in late 1998, eruption of fighting between Sassou-Nguesso's government forces and a pro-Lissouba and pro-Kolelas armed opposition disrupted the transition to democracy. This new violence also closed the economically vital Brazzaville-Pointe Noire railroad, caused great destruction and loss of life in southern Brazzaville and in the Pool, Bouenza, and Niari regions, and displaced hundreds of thousands of persons. In November and December 1999, the government signed agreements with representatives of many of the rebel groups.

The December Accord, mediated by President Omar Bongo of Gabon, called for inclusive political negotiations between the government and the opposition. During 2000-01, Sassou-Nguesso's government conducted a national dialogue in which the opposition parties and the government agreed to continue to pursue peace. Ex-President Lissouba and ex-Prime Minister Kolelas refused to agree and were exiled. They were tried in absentia and convicted of charges ranging from treason to misappropriation of government funds. Ex-militiamen were granted amnesty, and many were provided micro-loans to aid their reintegration into civil society. One group, referred to as "Ninjas," actively opposed the government in a low-level guerrilla war in the Pool region of the country. Other members of opposition parties have returned and have opted to participate to some degree in political life.

A new constitution was drafted in 2001 and was approved by the provisional legislature (National Transition Council), and by the people of Congo in a national referendum in January 2002. Presidential elections were held in March 2002, and Sassou-Nguesso was declared the winner. Legislative elections were held in May and June 2002.

In March 2003, the government signed a peace accord with the Ninja. Internally displaced persons are returning to the Pool region. President Sassou-Nguesso allowed Kolelas to return to Congo for his wife's funeral in October 2005 and subsequently asked that Parliament grant Kolelas amnesty. Parliament complied with Sassou-Nguesso's request in December 2005. The country is said to have remained stable and calm since 2003.

However, the Canadian website, www.voyage.gc.ca, says, OFFICIAL WARNING: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel. You are advised against non-essential travel to the Republic of Congo, except for the cities of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire (see below). Due to insecurity in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), you should use extreme caution if traveling to the border areas in northern Congo along the Ubangui River. The presence of DRC refugees in Impfondo and in other towns and villages along the banks of the river may cause serious tensions. Sporadic fighting occurs in the Pool region, which includes the capital, Brazzaville, and east of Bouenza.

In spite of the dire situation in the Republic of Congo, representatives of the American Embassy there, collected soil for Common Ground’s 191 project, which is gathering soil from the 192 countries in the United Nations. Cynthia Gregg, a representative working at the U.S. Department of State in the Congo, wrote in an email, “Please advise that the soil was taken from a site near the new deBrazza mausoleum and adjacent to the former U.S. Embassy Chancery on the banks of the Congo River. According to the docent of the deBrazza Museum, this area marks the site of deBrazza's flotilla to the shores of Congo.”

Foreign Relations

During the seventies and eighties, the Republic of Congo was allied principally with the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc nations. Educational, economic, and foreign aid links between Congo and its Eastern bloc allies were extensive, with Congolese military and security forces receiving significant Soviet, East German, and Cuban assistance.

France maintained a continuing but subdued relationship with Congo, offering cultural, educational, and economic assistance. After the worldwide collapse of communism, the country bilateral relations with its former socialist allies became relatively less important. France is now Congo's principal external partner, contributing significant economic assistance.

Congo is a member of the United Nations, African Union, African Development Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO), Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), Central African Customs and Economic Union (UDEAC), International Coffee Organization, Economic Community of Central African States ECCAS/CEEAC), INTERPOL, the Nonaligned Movement, and the Group of 77. Congo holds a seat on the United Nations Security Council during 2006-2007.

Economy

The economy of Congo is a mixture of village agriculture and handicrafts, an industrial sector based largely on petroleum support services, and an overstaffed government. Petroleum provides a major share of government revenues and exports, facilitating an average 5 percent GDP growth in the early 1980s.

More recently, economic reform efforts are supported by international organizations, including the World Bank and the IMF. The reform program came to a halt in June 1997 when civil war erupted.

The current administration presides over an uneasy internal peace and difficult economic problems of stimulating recovery and reducing poverty, despite record-high oil prices since 2003. Natural gas and diamonds are also major Congolese exports.

Agriculture

Less than two percent of Congo land is cultivated, and most of this is used for subsistence farming. Natives gather wild fruit, mushrooms and honey and often sell these crops at markets or by the roadside, while cattle breeding and the development of large-scale agricultural businesses have been hindered by the recent war and the poor quality of the road system.

The Congo's farmland is also the source of a wide variety of crops, including maize, rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, yam, taro, plantain, tomatoes, pumpkin, peas and nuts. The most important crops for export are coffee and palm oil.

Fish, which are plentiful along the River Congo, its tributaries, and various lakes, are baked, boiled or fried for immediate consumption; or smoked or salted when preserved. Goat is the most widely consumed meat. Edible insects such as grasshoppers and caterpillars are also eaten.

Culture, Language and Religion

The culture of the Republic of Congo reflects the diversity of its hundreds of ethnic groups and their differing lifestyles, but broadly speaking, there are four main population groups: Pygmies, Bantus, East Africans and Hamites.
There are also around 250 languages spoken in the country, and many Congolese are multilingual, using French, English, Lingala and Setswana, one of the many Bantu languages, among others. The Setswana word for peace is "kagiso" while the French word for peace is “paix.’ French is the official language in the Congo.

While a small number of Congolese follow indigenous beliefs, these traditional belief systems are often intermingled with various forms of Christianity, and are familiar to the majority of the people. These beliefs have a number of things in common: 1) contact with the creator god is made via ancestor spirits; 2) a belief in an essential life-force which animates the body; nature spirits is worshipped mainly in forested regions; 3) fetishes or supernaturally empowered objects can help or hinder; 4) diviners, witches, dream interpreters and healers act as conduits for supernatural forces; 5) ceremonies and collective prayers are offered to ancestors, nature spirits and the creator god.

Belief in witchcraft is also common, and sometimes intersects with Christianity. In fact, the country’s increasing beliefs in witches and sorcery have tended to mirror the social decay caused by war and poverty. Many of the street children that roam the Congo's cities have been cast out of their families after being denounced as witches. These homeless 'witch children' often live in cemeteries, only come out at night, and follow occult practices.

Demographics

The Republic of the Congo's sparse population is concentrated in the southwestern portion of the country. Its vast areas of tropical jungle in the north are virtually uninhabited. The country is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa, with 85 percent of its total population living in a few urban areas, in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, and smaller cities and villages lining the 332-mile (534 km) railway, connecting the two cities.

Weather and Climate

The Republic of Congo is located on the Equator with consistent year- round climate. The average daytime temperature is a humid 24 °C (75 °F) while nights are generally between 16-21 °C (60-70 °F).

Peace

The Setswana word for peace is "kagiso" while the French word for peace is “paix." French is the official language in the Congo.

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