Word: kanza
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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While the Congo was a Belgian colony, 35-year-old Robert Kinda worked hard washing clothes in a Leopoldville laundry. He also did a few personal favors for one of the customers, Thomas Kanza, 27, the Belgian-educated son of a local politico...
Several weeks ago young Kanza was appointed to head the Congolese delegation to the U.N.; he asked hard-working Robert Kinda to come along as a member of the delegation. Kinda's duties: to act as Kanza's secretary and to do his laundry...
Kinda was happy enough as a drip-dry diplomat until he suddenly encountered a new group of Congolese in the U.N. corridors. He was aghast when told that "they alone" represented the government of Kinda's hero, President Kasavubu, while his master Thomas Kanza was supporting wild-eyed Premier Patrice Lumumba. Next, the dazed Kinda learned that "neither Kasavubu nor Lumumba was anything any more, and a colonel I didn't know was in command of the Congo...
Racked by uncertainty and homesickness, Kinda decided to go back to his washtub beside the beige waters of the Congo River. Kanza refused him permission and threatened all sorts of fearsome punishments unless Kinda resumed his job as the delegation's private laundryman. With the help of a kindly New York policeman, Kinda fled to Idlewild airport, got aboard a plane for Paris...
...Kanza ended by asking for the evacuation-"I do not say immediate, but as soon as possible"-of Belgian troops from Congolese territory. With gratitude and relief, the Security Council quickly approved a resolution sponsored by Tunisia and Ceylon asking Belgium to "speedily" withdraw her troops. Kanza's level-voiced moderation disconcerted even the Russians, who had been giving noisy support to Premier Patrice Lumumba's charges of "aggression," and forced them in the end meekly to make the vote unanimous...