Joseph Kasongo
The Honourable Joseph Kasongo | |
---|---|
President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of the Congo | |
In office 21 June 1960 – 13 September 1960 | |
Deputy | Louis Mulunda Joseph Midiburo |
Preceded by | position established |
In office 24 July 1961 – March 1962 | |
Succeeded by | Yvon Kimpiobi |
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Coordination of the Republic of the Congo | |
In office 17 April 1963 – June 1964 | |
Prime Minister | Cyrille Adoula |
Personal details | |
Born | 25 December 1919 Mouvement National Congolais (1958–1963)Mouvement National Congolais-Kasongo (1963–?) |
Joseph-Georges Kasongo (25 December 1919 – 19 October 1990) was a
Kasongo was born in 1919 in
Biography
Early life
Joseph Kasongo was born on 25 December 1919 in
Entry into politics
In 1957 the Belgian colonial administration instituted reforms that permitted municipal elections and the formation of political parties.
Government career
In the May elections Kasongo won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies on an MNC ticket as a representative from the Haut-Congo constituency with 2,429 preferential votes.[15][16] On 21 June the Chamber selected him to be its first president, beating Jean Bolikango in a vote 74 to 58.[17][b] He presided over the joint-session of Parliament that elected the Congo's first head of state[19] and the country's formal independence ceremony that took place on 30 June 1960 at the Palais de la Nation, which included Prime Minister Lumumba's controversial Congolese Independence Speech.[20] Kasongo also served as the chairman of the Chamber's constitutional commission.[5] On 9 July he went to Stanleyville to assist in overseeing the Africanisation of the local army garrison.[21] Later that month he traveled with Lumumba to the Headquarters of the United Nations in the United States.[22]
On 5 September the President of the Congo,
"The Congolese Parliament has never betrayed the ideas of Lumumba. If ensured real security in its work, the Congolese Parliament members this time will once again raise their weighty voices in defence of the republic, its unity and its indivisibility."
Joseph Kasongo's statement to a foreign correspondent, June 1961[33]
In mid-February the United Nations (UN) established a program by which potential political targets could seek military protection in designated facilities. Kasongo was the first person to accommodate himself in the service.[34] Deputy Prime Minister Bolikango personally requested that he return to his residence under government protection, but Kasongo chose to remain with his family in a UN-guarded facility.[35] In June 1961 he went to Stanleyville to meet with his political allies.[33] Parliament reconvened the following month at Lovanium University under the temporary chairmanship of Kasongo. The deputies who had supported Lumumba coalesced into the Bloc Nationaliste, and he acted as one of its leaders.[36] On 24 July the Chamber of Deputies held its first independent session and reelected Kasongo President, 61 votes to 57.[37] He served in the role until March 1962.[1] On 18 December he levied an interpellation against the Minister of Public Function concerning the politicisation of government services. Three days later he filed another against the Minister of Transport, requesting an explanation for the mismanagement of state transportation companies.[38]
On 17 April 1963 Kasongo was made Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for the Economic Coordination portfolio in Cyrille Adoula's new government.[39][40][e] That same month the MNC central committee, under the control of radical Christophe Gbenye, ejected Kasongo from the party.[42] Kasongo subsequently formed his own wing of the MNC.[43] He criticised the old party leadership for forgoing electoral organisation and strategy in favor of advocating dissent and rebellion.[44] On 24 January 1966 he was elected by the Maniema provincial assembly by a margin of 3 votes to serve as a senator. The Senate confirmed his co-optation on 11 March. At the end of July 1967 he was appointed second vice president of the Association pour la Promotion et la Défense des Intérêts des Commerçants Congolais-Ngaliema committee.[1]
Later life
Kasongo died on 19 October 1990 in Bunia while working to revitalise the MNC.[45]
Notes
- ^ A communal council was a board of government for a commune, an administrative division of a city or town.[6]
- ^ According to Kent, the result was facilitated by the bribing of 13 deputies by Jacques Lumbala, an ally of Lumumba, who would have otherwise been partial to Bolikango.[18]
- ^ According to Makombo, on 7 September Kasongo became a member of an "arbitration commission" established by Parliament to mediate the dispute.[23] However, Hoskyns and Artigue do not list him as a member of the commission.[24][25]
- ^ Though deposed, Lumumba still claimed to hold the premiership and behaved accordingly.[27]
- ^ According to Ludo Martens, by accepting the position in Adoula's government, Kasongo "confirmed [his] passage into the camp of the monopoly bourgeoisie".[41]
Citations
- ^ a b c CRISP 1970, p. 11.
- ^ a b Turner 1973, p. 190.
- ^ a b c d e f Omasombo & Verhaegen 2005, p. 386.
- ^ Kashamura 1966, p. 140.
- ^ a b c CRISP 1961, paragraph 123.
- ^ Young 1965, pp. 111–113.
- ^ Makombo 2005, p. 44.
- ^ Young 1965, p. 296.
- ^ Turner 1973, pp. 244–245.
- ^ Turner 1973, p. 245.
- ^ Omasombo & Verhaegen 2005, p. 295.
- ^ Kanza 1994, p. 86.
- ^ Kanza 1994, p. 81.
- ^ Young 1965, pp. 173, 181.
- ^ Artigue 1961, p. 142.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 73.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 76.
- ^ Kent 2010, 2 : The elimination of Lumumba and the establishment of the Adoula government, September 1960–August 1961.
- ^ Kanza 1994, p. 124.
- ^ Kanza 1994, p. 155.
- ^ Young 1965, p. 447.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 155.
- ^ Makombo 2015, p. 10.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 219.
- ^ Artigue 1961, p. 311.
- ^ Young 1965, p. 362.
- ^ O'Ballance 1999, p. 34.
- ^ Kashamura 1966, p. 159.
- ^ a b de Witte 2002, p. 76.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 275.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 314.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, pp. 307–308, 315–316.
- ^ a b The Current Digest of the Soviet Press 1961, p. 27.
- ^ UNSC 1961, p. 2.
- ^ UNSC 1961, p. 3.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, pp. 373–374.
- ^ Hoskyns 1965, p. 375.
- ^ Bonyeka 1992, p. 411.
- ^ IAAR 1963, p. ii.
- ^ O'Ballance 1999, p. 65.
- ^ Martens 1985, p. 116.
- ^ Verhaegen 1966, p. 272.
- ^ IAAR 1963.
- ^ CRISP 1964, pp. 224–225.
- ^ Longo-Mbenza et al. 1991, p. 157.
References
- Africa Special Report: Bulletin of the Institute of African American Relations. Vol. 8–9. Institute of African American Relations. 1963. OCLC 1777618.
- Artigue, Pierre (1961). Qui sont les leaders congolais?. Carrefours Africains (in French). Vol. 3. Brussels: Éditions Europe-Afrique. OCLC 469948352.
- Bonyeka, Bomandeke (1992). Le Parlement congolais sous le régime de la Loi fondamentale (in French). Kinshasa: Presses universitaire du Zaire. OCLC 716913628.
- Congo 1963 (PDF) (in French). Brussels: Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques. 1964. OCLC 879215991.
- The Current Digest of the Soviet Press. Vol. 13. Columbus: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. 1961. ISSN 0011-3425.
- Études africaines du CRISP (in French). Vol. 114–123. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques. 1970. ISSN 0008-9664.
- Hoskyns, Catherine (1965). The Congo Since Independence: January 1960 – December 1961. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 414961.
- ISBN 978-0-87073-901-9.
- OCLC 465788990.
- Kent, John (2010). America, the UN and Decolonisation: Cold War Conflict in the Congo. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781136972898.
- Longo-Mbenza; Mabiala, M.; Makombo, Mutamba; Loka ne K.; Ngoma-Binda, Phambu (1991). Kasa-Vubu, père de l'indépendance du Congo-Zaïre (in French). Kinshasa: Institut de formation et d'études politiques. OCLC 31740088.
- Makombo, Jean-Marie Mutamba (2015). Autopsie du gouvernement au Congo-Kinshasa: Le Collège des Commissaires généraux (1960-1961) contre Patrice Lumumba (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782336392158.
- Makombo, Mutamba (2005). Patrice Lumumba, correspondant de presse, 1948-1956 (2nd ed.). L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782747580137.
- OCLC 420569688.
- O'Ballance, Edgar (1999). The Congo-Zaire Experience, 1960-98 (illustrated ed.). Springer. ISBN 9780230286481.
- Omasombo, Jean Tshonda; Verhaegen, Benoît (2005). Patrice Lumumba: acteur politique: de la prison aux portes du pouvoir, juillet 1956-février 1960 (in French). Harmattan. ISBN 9782747563925.
- "Onze mois de crise politique au Congo". Courrier Hebdomadaire du CRISP (in French) (120). Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques: 1–24. 1961. .
- Report Dated 2 March 1961 to the Secretary-General From His Special Representative in the Congo on United Nations Protected Areas (PDF), United Nations Security Council, 2 March 1961, archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2017, retrieved 5 January 2017
- Turner, Thomas Edwin (1973). A Century of Conflict in Sankuru (Congo-Zaire). Madison: University of Wisconsin. OCLC 38789852.
- Verhaegen, Benoît (1966). Rébellions au Congo (in French). Vol. 2. Brussels: Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques. OCLC 958205586.
- de Witte, Ludo (2002). The Assassination of Lumumba (illustrated ed.). Verso. ISBN 9781859844106.
- Young, M. Crawford (1965). Politics in the Congo: Decolonization and Independence. Princeton: Princeton University Press. OCLC 307971.
External links
- Kasongo Joseph at assemblee-nationale.cd