Joseph Kasavubu Biography

Joseph Kasavubu

(Tshela, 1910-Boma, 1969) Politician of Zaire.Defender of the interests of the Congolese vis-à-vis Belgium and of their independence, he actively participated in organizations aimed at achieving these ends, mainly in ABAKO (the nationalist movement "Alianza de Bakongo").He was the first president of the newly proclaimed Republic from 1960 to 1965, once independence from Belgium was achieved.

Joseph Kasavubu

In an early stage of his life, influenced perhaps by the education received from the Catholic missionaries, he served as a lay teacher.Subsequently, in 1942, he became a senior officer in the civil service, the most important position that a native of the Congo could access within the Belgian colonial administration.At the end of that decade he turned all his efforts into different Congolese independence movements that fought against the Belgian authorities, at the head of cultural organizations and student groups that were really masked political formations.

During the 1950s, within the Bakongo Alliance (one of the most powerful tribal independence movements in the Congo), Joseph Kasavubu fought for the formation of an independent Congo with a federal structure.His leadership skills led him to be appointed, in 1955, president of the Bakongo Alliance (ABAKO), a political-cultural association within Bakongo.In 1957, in the first municipal elections allowed by the Belgian authorities, Kasabuvu was elected mayor of the Dendale district, following the landslide victory of ABAKO.

In 1960, the Congo achieved its independence from Belgium, and the first national elections were held.The ABAKO, led by Kasabuvu, had as its main opposition the party led by Patrice Lumumba.The equality between the two leaders was confirmed by the fact that neither of the two political formations managed to achieve the absolute majority necessary to form a government.This circumstance forced the two politicians to form a coalition government, in which Kasavubu was appointed president and Lumumba prime minister.

In the moments after the country's independence, political instability was a constant.Along with the rebellion on the part of the army, a Belgian military intervention was suffered, with the excuse of protecting the residents of this nationality.At the same time there was the secession of the province of Katanga, under the leadership of Moïse Tshombé.All these circumstances forced the United Nations (UN) to intervene, aid that was ineffective in restoring order in the country.The main problem was the collaboration of the Soviet troops, requested by Lumumba in order to stay in power.

Despite this, Kasavubu managed to dismiss Lumumba thanks to the support of much of the army, commanded by Colonel Mobutu, later known as Mobutu Sese Seko.At first, Kasavubu supported the coup that Mobutu led in 1960, while devising a plan to appoint Tshombé as prime minister (a goal he achieved in 1964).However, his role in political life ended with Mobutu's second coup in 1965, when Kasavubu retired to his farm in Boma.