Word: katanga
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...Katanga's Moise Tshombe is not the only secessionist to break off a piece of the Congo and call it his own. He is merely the richest. In the backcountry, other little fiefs have declared themselves inde pendent in defiance of central government authority. Zaniest of all is ludicrous little Mining State in South Kasai...
Like "independent" Katanga, Mining State was the virtual creation of Belgium's powerful Societe Generale, which, through a company called Forminiere, for years held the concession to mine the world's biggest source of industrial diamonds. After independence came in 1960, the Belgians put their weight behind an eccentric Baluba chief named Albert Kalonji, and went right on mining diamonds while the Congolese central government floundered helplessly in Leopoldville. Wallowing in Forminiere's lavish tax and dividend payments, the bearded Kalonji donned a diamond-studded crown and leopard apron, found himself a scepter, and dubbed himself Kasai...
...third of the population and nearly all the wealth. Under Kabaka (King) Frederick Mutesa II, the 36th monarch of Africa's oldest continuously ruling dynasty, Buganda tried to secede from the Uganda Protectorate in 1961. When the British government firmly refused to permit the creation of a new Katanga in its erstwhile colony, Cambridge-educated King Freddie did an about-face and combined forces with Apollo Milton Obote, who had risen from Nilotic herd boy to the leadership of the Uganda People's Congress. The coalition of King and commoner swept the national elections, capturing 58 Assembly seats...
...while at least, Moise Tshombe seemed willing to help put the Congo together again. When the United Nations gave him ten days to accept its latest unification plan or face economic sanctions, Katanga's secessionist President waited until the last minute, then announced fulsomely that he viewed the scheme "with enthusiasm." But mercurial Moise's zeal lasted only a few days. Last week he summoned newsmen to Elisabethville's Prince Leopold Hospital, led them into the mortuary and pointed a well-manicured finger at the bodies of two Katangese gendarmes. He claimed that they had been slain...
Exports: Normally cobalt, copper, diamonds, palm oil, bananas. Per capita income: $90. U.S. aid (1961): $13.1 million. U.N. force defeated Communist efforts to infiltrate Congo, but has failed to end copper-rich Katanga's secession after two years. Even if once-prosperous country is reunited, it will take years to create a nation...