Christophe Gbenye
Christophe Gbenye | |
---|---|
Minister of the Interior of Congo-Léopoldville | |
In office 30 June 1960 – September 1960 | |
President | Joseph Kasa-Vubu |
Preceded by | position established |
Succeeded by | Cyrille Adoula |
Personal details | |
Born | 1927 Mouvement National Congolais Comité National de Libération |
Christophe Gbenye (c. 1927 – 3 February 2015) was a Congolese politician, trade unionist, and rebel who, along with Gaston Soumialot, led the Simba rebellion, an anti-government insurrection in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Congo Crisis, between 1964 and 1965.
Biography
Christophe Gbenye was born in
Gbenye joined
In September 1963 he relocated to Brazzaville in the neighbouring Republic of the Congo. On 3 October, Gbenye, Bocheley Davidson, Gaston Soumialot, and other dissidents established the revolutionary organization Comité National de Libération.[3][4] Assistance was sought from the Soviet Union in the form of equipment and training.[5] In 1964, under the leadership of Gbenye, Mulele and Soumialot, much of the eastern Congo was overrun by young rebel fighters who called themselves simba (lions). Gbenye served as President of the People's Republic of the Congo (République populaire du Congo), the state established by the rebels in Stanleyville (modern Kisangani). By late 1965 the rebellion had been suppressed by the Congo's central government, under the tacit control of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, and Gbenye and others soon fled the country.
From 1966 to 1971 Gbenye lived in exile in Uganda.[citation needed] He returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo after being granted amnesty in 1971.[6]
In 2010 the then 83-year-old Gbenye was living in retirement in Kinshasa.[7] He died on 3 February 2015.[8][9]
See also
- Gold Scandal (1965)
References
- ^ ISBN 9781412815222.
- ^ a b c LaFontaine, J.S. (1986). City Politics: A Study of Léopoldville 1962–63. American Studies. Cambridge University Press Archive. pp. 222–223.
- ^ ISBN 9780195382075.
- ISBN 9780810863255.
- ISBN 978-0-00-756291-6.
- ^ Milutin Tomanović, ed. (1972). Hronika međunarodnih događaja 1971 [The Chronicle of International Events in 1971] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade: Institute of International Politics and Economics. p. 2612.
- ^ "Congo begins its "second independence" | Radio Netherlands Worldwide". Archived from the original on 18 July 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ^ Itimbiri ya Sika, 5th of February 2015
- Roberts, Sam (11 February 2015). "Christophe Gbenye, Radical Nationalist in Congo, Dies at 88". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 18 January 2016.