ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

The Katanganese welcome with open arms the Kasains they drove out in the past

Under Mobutu, during a frequently ignored «ethnic cleansing», Kasains living in the Province of Katanga, were driven out. Now, they’ve started to return after an eight years’ absence. They’re generally well received by the local Katanganese and the authorities. These ensure the returnees are able to live peacefully with their Katanganese neighbours. Every month, a few more Kasains take up where they’ve left off — trading, finding their way back to their former homes, or returning to work. A number of university lecturers have started teaching again at the University of Lubumbashi. And some Kasains have even established three private radio stations.

Between 1992 and 1993, the Kasains were driven out of Katanga – a mining region in the south-east of Congo RDC (at that time the province was known as Shaba). Most of them had been born in Katanga and they felt completely disorientated in Kasai in the centre of Congo where their ancestors originated. These days, they feel reassured by the current political situation in Katanga, where Congo’s President Joseph Kabila comes from.

The Kasains were driven out by former President Mobutu who was dissatisfied when, in August 1992, Etienne Tshisekedi, a Kasain, and Mobutu’s bitter political enemy, was chosen as Prime Minister at the Sovereign National Conference (CNS). Mobutu was afraid that the game was up and in order to prove to the West that without him, Zaire (Congo RDC‘s former name) was ungovernable, he encouraged a former prime minister, Jean Nguz Karl-I-Bond and the members of his Union of Federalists and Independent Republicans (UFERI) to go to Katanga, to force the Kasains from their homes there.

Young UFERI members received all kinds of promises that they’d either get their jobs back with Gécamines, one of the ten largest copper and cobalt companies, or they’d be re-employed in the local administration. They took full advantage of the situation and were responsible for all kinds of exactions and killings. It’s not known how many people were murdered — it depends on the information source. But it is known that more than 10,000 Kasains were encaged in inhuman conditions in the railway stations and schools of Likasi and Kolwezi. In 1995, humanitarian organisations evacuated them by train to Kasai — a province most of them had never even visited.

The Kasains’ departure plunged Katanga into economic stagnation, because they were the architects of Katanga’s economic success, especially in the town of Kolwezi. All this took place under the quasi-indifference of the government in Kinshasa and the international community. Some of the younger Kasain leaders were able to find asylum in Zambia, South Africa, Belgium, Canada and the United States.

The return

Since Mobutu’s departure in May 1997, and the arrival of the Kabilas (former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila and the present President Joseph Kabila), the Kasains have been returning to Katanga, Congo’s most industrialized area. In front of a score of roofless and windowless buildings which used to belong to Kasains, Musau Tshibuyi Shambuyi, chairman of Kolwezi’s Kasain community, declared: «Of the 120,000 Kasains (out of a total population of 257,000) who used to live here before the expulsions, there are today, only 1,630. Indeed, when Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for Liberation (ADFL) arrived, we were even less than 20».

The mayor of Kolwezi, Adrien Nawez-a-Chikwand, has done everything possible to reconcile people and to facilitate the reintegration of the newcomers. As Mr. Shambuyi himself says: «Since his appointment in May 1997, Mayor Adrien has bent over backwards to improve relations between Kasains and Katanganese. Everytime a Kasain dies, he sends his condolences. He also helps us financially and materially. My fellow Kasains who return to Katanga have no difficulty in recovering their belongings, especially their property. The few Katanganese extremists who try to oppose what the mayor’s doing, are swiftly prevented, thanks to the mayor’s intervention. Moreover, everytime the mayor organises an official gathering or cultural event, our community is invited.»

A number of Katanganese complain that they’re being demonized, especially in the West. André Kapwasa is an engineer-metallurgist in Kolwezi. He puts it this way: «Abroad, especially in Canada and Belgium, Westerners take for Gospel truth everything the Kasains tell them. Kasains don’t explain that not all the Katanganese took part in the “ethnic cleansing”. Even more, they don’t say that during the fighting in Likasi and Kolwezi, a number of Katanganese were killed as well. And they say that all the Kasains left Katanga, which is not true. They certainly don’t let on that the traditional chiefs in south Katanga and the Catholic bishops opposed the hunting down of the Kasains».

Both Katanganese and Kasains are enthusiastic about football, so the local authorities make use of this sport to promote peace and reconciliation, by organizing competitions between Katanga Province’s teams and those of the two provinces of Eastern and Western Kasai.

Floribert Kaseba Makunko, a Katanganese, has been mayor of Lubumbashi since May 1997. Just like his Kolwezi colleague, he’s made a major effort to achieve peace and tolerance. In March 2002, he received the 2000-20001 UNESCO «Cities for Peace» Award. The award ceremony took place in Marrakech, Morocco, during the 107th Interparliamentary Conference of French-speaking parliamentarians. Among the five prize winners, Mr. Kaseba was the only African mayor.

In the village of Nkonko, at the foot of Mount Kundelungu, some 250 km north-east of Lubumbashi, there’s an old peasant who is happy to see the Kasains are back. With an enormous smile across his face, he says: «Now the Kasains are back in Lubumbashi and Likasi, we’re no longer without soap, salt and bicycle tires. We’ve got to admit that our Kasain friends are very dynamic when it comes to business and business acumen. We were very sorry to see them go». 

• B. Kasamwa-Tuseko, Congo RDC, December, 2002 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment