Word: congos
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Last week there was strong suspicion that the snake had turned against the Congo's new Premier, Moise Tshombe. To prove himself a true-black African leader and dispel accusations of colonialist stoogery, Katanga's onetime secessionist leader planned to attend this week's meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo. Tshombe knew he had many enemies in the 34 African states comprising the O.A.U., but felt he could win sympathy from the group's conservative members and hold his own with the rest through the sheer force of his considerable personal charm...
...protest arose from Algeria's Ahmed ben Bella, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, and even Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser. To them, Tshombe is still the renegade who played on the side of the Belgians, the man who connived at the murder of Leftist Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first Premier. Worried at the reception they might receive in Cairo, Kasavubu nervously canceled both his and Tshombe's appearances at the O.A.U. meeting...
...setback in the Premier's bold, uphill battle to weld a cohesive government for the Congo, and he was furious. Accurately enough, he accused Ben Bella and the others of running ruthless dictatorships that produced martyrs no less worthy of sympathy than Lumumba. "To Monsieur ben Bella, who shouts loudly, I answer with equal force," "Tshombe said. "Do as we do, free your political prisoners...
...hour later, Tshombe proved to be as good as his word. Into Leopoldville's Ndjili Airport flew an Air Congo Beechcraft carrying Leftist Leader Antoine Gizenga, self-proclaimed heir to Patrice Lumumba and the instigator of Stanleyville's bloody 1961 revolt. Clad in a red, white and blue ski sweater, Gizenga was unshaven but smiling as he stepped out of the plane, apparently none the worse for the 2½ years he had spent on Bulambemba, an island prison in the mouth of the Congo River. It had not been a painful confinement, for his obliging jailers...
Crossed Branches. Tshombe was determined to use Gizenga, and his considerable left-wing following, in his efforts to unify the Congo. Without giving Gizenga even enough time to shave, Tshombe put him into the back seat of a white Impala convertible. He also grabbed the onetime God-Emperor of Kasai province, Albert Kalonji, now Tshombe's Agriculture Minister, and set forth on a triumphant tour of Leopoldville's African quarter. For 21 hours, thousands of Congolese paid screaming homage to the unlikely trio, who as bitter rivals had once led the Congo's most ruinous major rebellions...