#congocrisis

In an era of 24/7 news cycles and constant digital updates, staying informed about global events has never been easier—or more overwhelming. From the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza to the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, international news often brings distressing headlines that can take a toll on our mental health. The question we must ask ourselves is: At what…

http://goo.gl/ePqvzv

From 1960 to 1965, the Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) was a site of the Cold War in Africa. In an attempt to represent this theatre of confrontations, a number of seminal monographs have emerged on the roles of the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as other (major) powers, some of which include Frank Villafana’s Cold War in the Congo; Alan James’ Britain and the Congo Crisis; and to some extent, Odd Anne Westad’s The Global Cold War.  The most comprehensive of these texts is Lise Namikas’ Battleground Africa, a rich synthesis of perspectives from the former Soviet Union, the United States and the United Nations.

Blaming the USSR for the eruption of diplomatic face-offs/confrontations in the post-1945 period have become a cliché of the Cold War literature especially those written from the American/Western perspective.  In all of the aforementioned texts on the Congo, the Soviet Union’s interest in gaining a sphere of influence in the Congo in this decade of African decolonization has been regarded as the external factor that sustained/prolonged the crisis. (Identified internal causes included the hasty decolonization process of the Belgian Colonial authorities, administrative incompetence and personality deficiency of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, crises of secession in the Kantanga and Kansai provinces, et cetera). What I am presenting here is an exploratory attempt to understand the interactions the US and the USSR (with the UN in-between) in the Congo crisis. In the first part of this 2-part article, I am going to engage with the post-colonial politics of the Congo as well as historically situate American interests in the Congo.