Word: kasavubu
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...Congo was certainly a shambles. The week began with the President firing the Premier and the Premier firing the President. For days, sphinxlike President Joseph Kasavubu had watched the havoc wreaked by Patrice Lumumba's turbulent decrees, had talked privately of plans to end the chaos, and hesitated. Finally, taunted by scornful party youth leaders, who threatened to withdraw their support. Kasavubu roared: "By God, I will...
Turning the Tables. This was the time for action. But Kasavubu merely went back to his residence, now ringed with a special force of U.N. guards, to await signs that the nation had risen to his support. Instead, the man who acted was Patrice Lumumba. Less than an hour later, he appeared at the radio station, brushed aside U.N. troops and broadcast his own message to the nation: "Congolese, stand firm!" he cried in his high, thin voice. "The government cannot be dismissed until it loses the confidence of the people, and the people are fully behind it." Then, having...
Since the Congo was still operating under the unratified "loi fondamentale" be queathed by the Belgians, the constitutional legalities involved in all this were unclear, but Lumumba left no one in doubt as to who held the initiative. Next day, as Kasavubu and his new Premier-designate Ileo sat timidly in the President's home, Lumumba's police fell upon a crowd of Kasavubu followers and opened fire, killing two. wounding twelve, and hauling scores away to jail...
Cops in the Rear. But Kasavubu's scattered supporters hoped to make a comeback in the Assembly where, despite the clusters of rifle-toting cops in the rear, the opposition could speak up without being clubbed on the head. For three hours, as the angry debate roared over his head, Lumumba sat quietly scribbling notes. But the angry voices faded when Lumumba rose to take the floor...
...Katanga back into the Congo. The government pulled back a token 1,500 of the 10,000 troops in Katanga, and the Belgian National Bank quietly advanced the Congo Central Bank an undisclosed sum (reportedly $8,000,000) to meet the government's August payroll. Congo President Joseph Kasavubu declared: "I now see our affairs in the colors of the rose-though of course roses have thorns...