Word: kasai
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Lonely & Scared. It started when a U.N. patrol was captured by troops of Albert Kalonji, self-styled "King" of diamond-rich South Kasai province, who had tried to pull a small-scale Tshombe and break away from the central Congolese government. Lawson set out for Kalonji's provincial capital of Bakwanga in an unarmed truck. Something about Lawson's schoolboy French and unmilitary looks charmed the provincial rabble, who released the U.N. patrol...
...found. In Gizenga's interior plantation country, the few remaining whites pay token salaries to black workers to fight back the encroaching jungle, despite the fact that markets for their goods are well-nigh gone. Down at Luluabourg, once the prosperous commercial center of Kasai province, only two shops in the European section remain open-a jeweler and a hardware dealer. Everything else is closed along the main street, where the local Africans doze in the shelter of over hanging sidewalk roofs, occasionally rising to walk out into the drizzle and urinate on the sidewalk...
Back from the successful conference of rival Congo political leaders on the island of Madagascar, Albert Kalonji, the boss of South Kasai province, waved his favorite fetish stick and cried: "The crisis is definitely over. Everybody is satisfied." Congo President Joseph Kasavubu staged a military parade and called a national holiday to celebrate. From the cheerful tone taken by the assorted Congolese leaders, peace and maybe even civilization seemed just around the corner...
Agreement was born of the fear that the U.N. would soon move in with force on the squabbling provincial bosses and take away their armies. With one voice, the leaders-Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu and Premier Joseph Ileo, Kasai Province's Albert Kalonji, Katanga Province's Moise Tshombe, and a covey of others-sent blunt warning to the U.N. to refrain from force and take no action until the Congo's black rulers could come up with a solution of their own. Then, to everyone's astonishment, the Congolese did just that...
...stop him, new U.N. Military Commander General Sean McKeown flew to Mobutu's bush headquarters, extracted a promise that there would be no invasion. This was highly convenient to the Gizenga regime, for, with Mobutu's immobilization now assured, they were ready for their dash deep into Kasai. The target was Luluabourg, just as the U.N.'s tipsters had been warning. No U.N. soldier raised a hand as Gizenga's 300 men rumbled into the town and took over without a shot from the local troops, who had been thought loyal to Mobutu...