conclusion of congo essay

A short history of instability in the Congo...

The region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first settled about 80,000 years ago. Bantu migration arrived in the region from Nigeria in the 7th century AD. The Kingdom of Kongo developed between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. Belgian colonization began when King Leopold II founded the Congo Free State, a corporate state run solely by him. Reports of widespread murder and torture in the rubber plantations led the Belgian government to seize the Congo from Leopold II and establish the Belgian Congo. Under Belgian rule, the colony was run with the presence of numerous Christian organizations that wanted to Westernize the Congolese people.

After an uprising by the Congolese people, Belgium surrendered to the independence of the Congo in 1960. However, the Congo was left unstable because tribal leaders had more power than the central government. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to restore order with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the United States to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu in 1965. Mobutu quickly seized complete power of the Congo and renamed the country Zaire. He sought to Africanize the country, changing his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko, and demanded that African citizens change their Western names to traditional African names. Mobutu sought to repress any opposition to his rule, and retained his position for 32 years through several sham elections, as well as through brutal force. However, with his regime weakened in the early 1990s, Mobutu was forced to agree to a power-sharing government with the opposition party. Mobutu remained the head of state and promised elections for the next two years that never happened.

In the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire, which overthrew Mobutu during the process. Laurent-Desire Kabila later took power and renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After a disappointing rule under Kabila, the Second Congo War broke out, resulting in a regional war with many different African nations taking part. Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded him and was later elected president by the Congolese government in 2006. In October 2002, the new president was successful in negotiating the withdrawal of Rwandan forces occupying the eastern DRC; two months later, the Pretoria Accord was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and establish a government of national unity.

A transitional government was set up in July 2003; it held a successful constitutional referendum in December 2005 and elections for the presidency, National Assembly, and provincial legislatures took place in 2006. In 2009, following a resurgence of conflict in the eastern DRC, the government signed a peace agreement with the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a primarily Tutsi rebel group. An attempt to integrate CNDP members into the Congolese military failed, prompting their defection in 2012 and the formation of the M23 armed group - named after the 23 March 2009 peace agreements.

Renewed conflict led to large population displacements and significant human rights abuses before the M23 was pushed out of DRC to Uganda and Rwanda in late 2013 by a joint DRC and UN offensive. In addition, the DRC continues to experience violence committed by other armed groups including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the Allied Democratic Forces, and assorted Mai Mai militias. In the most recent national elections, held in November 2011, disputed results allowed Joseph Kabila to be reelected to the presidency. The DRC Constitution bars President Kabila from running for a third term, but the DRC Government has delayed national elections originally slated for November 2016. The failure to hold elections as scheduled has fueled sporadic street protests by Kabila’s opponents. In late December 2016, government officials and opposition leaders struck a last-minute deal that will require Kabila to step down after elections to be held by the end of 2017. Today, the Congo remains dangerously unstable.  

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Essay: The Republic of the Congo

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The Republic of the Congo is situated in Central Africa. It is also known as Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its giant eastern neighbour, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Congo-Kinshasa or the Congo-L??opoldville. Congo Republic shares it borders with Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola (the exclave of Cabinda). The Republic of Congo was a former French colony. It won independence from the French rule in 1960 and celebrates National Day on 15 August. The first president was Fulbert Youlou. But trade union leaders and political parties started a three day uprising causing him to lose power. The military took control and installed a provisional government with Alphonse Massamba-Debat as the head. He was elected president under the 1963 constitution for a five year term. Scientific socialism was the constitutional ideology. After a quarter century of Left-wing politics, Congo became a multi-party democracy in 1992. But 1990s was marked by civil war and factional politics. After a brief civil war in 1997 it ended in the restoration of former Marxist President Denis Sassou Nguesso to power. On account of political instability development suffered and poverty continues to be a key challenge in the Congo Republic. Realising this challenge well, the President Denis Sassou Nguesso embarked on two-development plans-‘New Hope’ and ‘Future Path’ to achieve more in just a few years than the country had seem since it became independent. The World Bank has pointed out that nearly half the population still lives in poverty in Congo, though high levels of extreme poverty have declined significantly over recent years. The Government is also working hard to implement a five-year plan to fight poverty and unemployment. The country counts approximately 4-5 million Congolese and stretches over a surface of 342,000 km. President Denis Sassou Nguessou is inspiring his government to undertake to development in basic infrastructure-roads, airports, electricity, water, river and sea ports and telecommunications. According to the President without these things the human development is not possible. In 2004 Congo government undertook modernising the municipalities in all the 12 provinces and the programme has acted as a source of national equity, infrastructure facilities, and a dynamic production and poverty reduction incubator. Last year in 2014 the second phase of accelerated municipalisation was kicked off Congo as a whole is sparsely populated. More than half of its population live in the cities. The most populous city is the capital, Brazzaville, which is positioned in the south-eastern corner of the country and is a major inland port on the Congo River. Endowed with natural resources such as- petroleum, Timber, Potash, Lead, Zinc, Iron, Uranium, Copper, Phosphates, Gold, Magnesium, Natural gas, Hydropower- the Republic of the Congo (RoC) continues to demonstrate sustained moderate growth, hovering near 4 per cent according various estimates. According to several multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Republic of Congo is currently one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa with an annual growth of roughly seven percent. The economy of the Republic of Congo is predominated by petrol and natural gas. As a result, Oil accounts for around 95 per cent of export earnings and 50 per cent of GDP. Large oil resources and a small population have resulted in a GDP higher than most other sub-Saharan African countries. The earnings from the non-oil sector is from logging industry. However due to progressive outlook of the President Denis Sassou Nguesso Congo is now branching out the economy and reduce its dependence on oil revenue for socio economic development. As a result growth is also occurring in the telecommunications, banking, mining (potash, iron ore), construction, and agricultural (palm oil, rubber) sectors. The RoC is a country poised for economic diversification, with some of the largest iron ore and potash deposits in the world, a heavily-forested land mass, a deep-water International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code-certified port, fertile land, and a small but heavily urbanized population. This will enable RoC to become a transportation hub for the region and promises to become an emerging economy by 2025. The Republic of Congo is a member of an integrated market of more than 148 million people which comprise the Central African Economic and Monetary Community and the Economic Community of Central African States Besides being a growing business haven in Central Africa Republic of Congo is an admirable eco-tourism destination for those who admire exotic wildlife and beautiful landscapes. Unlike many hot tourist spots for international tourists Republic of Congo-Brazzaville features a wealth of hidden natural resources and ecotourism attractions. Take for example the southwest of the country, the Cote Sauvage 170 kilometers of unspoilt Atlantic coastline with picture postcard beaches at Loango, Ndjeno and Mvassa. At the northern end of the coast is the Conkouati-Douli National Park is a UNESCO recognised coastal national park in the Republic of the Congo and is home to leatherback turtles which come to nest on beach. The park is also home to whales, elephant, buffalo, gorillas, leopards, Chimpanzees, bongos, bushpigs, sitatunga and mandrill. Close to one of the major water catchment area in the world, the Congo rain forests, Brazzaville is with no doubt a hot destination in its own right. The Basilique Sainte Anne of the Congo is one of the most exciting and beautiful churches in the modern world which tourists from far and distant places come to visit. The nicely built Palais du Peuple was built in 1901 and is currently the presidential palace. As part of the revival of tourism in the central African region, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) has implemented a program of river tourism on the Congo River. Realising the significant role of travel and tourism that could contribute to economic growth and combat poverty, the government has undertaken to equip the travel and tourism industry with appropriate regulations and to engage in a programme of capacity development. The programme includes the development of tourist sites and strengthening hotel and leisure facilities, as well as human resources and promoting tourism and recreational activities. Congo-Brazzaville cannot be missed by anyone who wants to know Africa, wants to find market, or engaged in reconstruction, wildlife or ecotourism.

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Grade 12 - Topic 2 - Independent Africa

In 1884, at the Berlin Conference, the European powers carved up Africa amongst themselves. By 1914 all of Africa, except Liberia and Ethiopia, was under colonial rule. Today, African countries are politically independent of their former European masters.

Background and focus

Recommended reading:  Martin Meredith

This topic compares two forms of states that emerged from nationalist movements in the 1960s.

The Congo was used as a tool in the Cold War. This left a legacy that continues today.

Tanzania developed as a socialist state, implementing ideas of African socialism.

The focus is on the political, economic, social and cultural successes and challenges that countries

faced in Africa after independence, illustrated by the Congo and Tanzania.

The Scramble for Africa (or the Race for Africa)  was the proliferation of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New Imperialism period, between the 1880s and the start of World War 1.

Figure 1 : Africa before Independence                                Figure 2: Africa Today ( 28/01/2015)

http://www.saflirista.com/Colonial-Africa.png (colonised Africa ) http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africapolitmap.jpg ( Independent Africa )

At the Berlin Conference (1883/4 – 1885), the major European countries carved up  Africa amongst seven major European states. (See above). Africa had been transformed from being an extension of seven European powers towards  full political independence . The first country to gain independence was Liberia  ( 26 / 07 / 1847 ) from Britain. The last country to gain independence was Eritrea  ( 24/05/1993) from Ethiopia.

Online Source:

http://africanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/blIndependenceTime.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

The following is to be covered in this topic:

What were the ideas that influenced the  independent states?

This section includes different forms of government  (political ideologies and economies), such as :

1.African socialism,

It is worth mentioning that most African liberation movements were influenced, in varying degrees, by Marxist doctrine. So the amalgamation of what it meant to be African and a newly liberated citizenry; was, again, influenced by Marxist/ Communist doctrine. Post-independent Africa followed this ‘doctrinal’ trajectory by

Friedland and Rosberg's (1992)  attempt to summarize the three (3) main characteristics of African socialism, as follows:

a)·no private ownership of land

b)·no social classes

c)·no shirking of responsibility to cooperate (work)

i)   http://www.drtomoconnor.com/3160/3160lect03.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

ii)  http://www.drtomoconnor.com/3160/3160lect03.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

iii) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXjL-HHn_a8      [Accessed 16 February 2015]

2.  capitalism, democracy and,

3.  one-party states

The galvanising of the opposition to colonisation meant that there was a large degree of unanimity within

liberation movements across Africa. ‘One-party states’ quickly emerged. These states were characterised by an

extremely strong political party, perhaps with smaller, peripheral parties; that largely controlled the domestic

conditions in the country. This emergence, in itself, would create problems for these newly-independent

countries, in the future.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/African_Socialism.aspx   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Comparative case studies (1960 to 1980) as examples to illustrate the political, economic, social and cultural successes and challenges in independent Africa (1960 to 1980).

The case studies are NOT meant to be seperately examined.

(the Congo (became a tool of the Cold War)

Source : http://s3.amazonaws.com/churchplantmedia- [Accessed 16 February 2015] cms/mavuno_grassroots_development_for_congo/democratic-republic-congo-map.jpg   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

For a brief history of the Congo region in general; and the DRC, in particular, please visit...

http://www.mavunocongo.org/history   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

It should be noted however that the CONGO REGION consists of :

1.The Republic of Congo and

2.The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The discussion that follows centres on the Democratic Republic of Congo.

King Leopold II...of Belgium

Patrice Lumumba...of the DRC

Source: http://www.standnow.org/system/files/leopold.jpg   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Source: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/10/25/1382706596437/Mobutu-Sese-Seko-pictured-010.jpg   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Laurent Kabila

Source: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJAqFDU_kkYBG8-GVzbBP9SZARifFSKYPNCCBRfhzFwGFXX7-rqw   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Joseph Kabila

Source:   https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCTvSpvDBFnZJ6-L91RUREjEl_18DF6vx2ug6N-QXnxloKIOUb   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

King Leopold II formally acquires Congo territory as his own private property, naming it Congo Free State

Leopold and his army terrorize inhabitants in pursuit of resources. An estimated 10 million Congolese, half the population, die

Major nationalist riots in the capital threaten Belgium's control over Belgian Congo territory

Mouvemont National Congolais (MNC) party wins parliamentary elections. Patrice Lumumba becomes prime minister. Joseph Kasavubu is elected President.

June 30, 1960

Belgian Congo gains independence, becoming Republic of Congo

January 17, 1961

Patrice Lumumba is executed by forces from Katanga province backed by Belgium

Kanyarwanda War: Coalitions of different ethnic groups battle for land rights in North Kivu

Joseph-Desire Mobutu overthrows Kasavubu in a Western-backed coup and establishes a one-party system

Mobutu changes the country's official name to "Democratic Republic of Congo" to distinguish it from the former French colony "Republic of Congo"

Mobutu changes the name of the capital from Leopoldville to Kinshasa, and renames several other cities as well

Mobutu renames the country "Zaire" and changes his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko

Massive inflow of Hutu refugees fleeing massacres in Burundi after a failed Hutu rebellion against the Burundian government

All Banyarwanda (ethnic Rwandan and Burundian) residing in Congo from 1959-1963 are granted citizenship

Amid growing resentment of the increase in Banyarwandan Tutsi power, local Hutu and Congolese increase political mobilization and gain additional influence in the national assembly

Citizenship for Banyarwanda groups, mostly Tutsis, is restricted to those who could trace ancestry in Congo back to 1885. This reflected a desire to counter growing Tutsi economic power in the Kivu region

Mobutu declares the Third Republic, introducing a new constitution that includes democratic reforms and lifts the ban on multiparty politics

February 1990

Fall of the Soviet Union. Relations between Mobutu and the West deteriorate, as incentives to back Mobutu in the name of anti-Communism disappear

Governor Jean-Pierre Kalumbo Mbogho orders all Tutsis removed from the region and calls for their extermination. Violence breaks out, claiming 14,000 lives over the next two months

Mobutu dismisses Governor Kalumbo and increases Tutsi representation in the provincial government of the Kivus

Rwanda's Hutu extremist government orchestrates genocide of approx. 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. After Tutsi rebels take control of Rwanda, over a million refugees flood into Congo, including Rwandan army soldiers and Hutu extremist Interhamwe militiamen complicit in the genocide

First Congo War

Rwandan forces invade Congo to protect Tutsis and destroy Hutu militia camps. Mobutu's government opposes the incursion, prompting reform elements to unite against him.

Anti-Mobutu rebels, backed by Rwanda, seize Kinshasa and install Laurent Kabila as president. The country is renamed again to "Democratic Republic of Congo"

President Kabila calls for withdrawal of all Rwandan and Ugandan forces from the country

Second Congo War

August 1998

Rebels back by Rwanda and Uganda rise up against Kabila and take control of much of eastern DRC. Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola send troops to repel the rebels.

Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, and DRC sign peace accord in Lusaka, Zambia

August 1999: MLC and RDC rebels sign Lusaka accord

November 30, 1999

UN Security Council sets up 5,500-strong force to monitor the ceasefire, known as MONUC. Fighting continues between rebel and government forces, and between Rwanda- and Uganda-backed forces

January 2001

Laurent Kabila is assassinated by a bodyguard and is succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila.

Tanzania . ..as an example of African socialism

Gained independence from Britain on 09/12/1961.

Source:   http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/images/map-tanzania.png   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

· www.sahistory.org.za ”º timelines ”º This day in History  [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Leaders of Tanzania Since Independence

A list of Tanzanian leaders since gaining independence on 9 December 1961

Zanzibar Zanzibar gained its independence as a Sultanate on 10 December 1963, and was proclaimed the People's Republic of Zanzibar on 12 January 1964 following a coup. On 26 April 1964 it merged with the Republic of Tanganyika to become the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Although Zanzibar and Tanzania are united, Zanzibar continues to have its own president.

Source: http://africanhistory.about.com/od/tanzania/l/bl-Tanzania-Leaders.htm l  [Accessed 16 February 2015]

This speech, by Julius Nyerere outlines the visions and central points of African Socialism.

http://www.juliusnyerere.info/images/uploads/ujamaa_1962.pdf   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Other Resources:

1. http:// www.fsmitha.com/p/ch34-tan.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

2. http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2005/05/exch-m19.html

[Accessed 16 February 2015]

3. http:// African Socialism - Encyclopedia.com  [Accessed 16 February 2015]

The successes and challenges faced by independent Africa?

1) the kind of states that emerged - their aims and visions (political ideologies);

2) political including:

Types of leaders:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/patrice-lumumba   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

“We are not communist, Catholics or socialist. We are African Nationalist. We retain the right to be friends with whoever we like in accordance with the principal of political neutrality.”

Patrice Lumumba

http://www.biography.com/people/patrice-lumumba-38745   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Mobuto Sese Seko

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0782891/bio   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

“After me, a flood of chaos. Apres moi, le deluge.” – MSS

http://spartacus-educational.com/COLDmobutu.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Nyerere (What are the qualities of a good leader?)

http://www.nyererefoundation.org/biography   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

"Violence is unnecessary and costly. Peace is the only way." - JN

https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nyerere/biography.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

- legacies of colonialism;

http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m7b/activity3.php   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

- types of government; and

- political stability and instability;

Economic including:

- types of economies (as third world countries)

social and cultural including:

- benefits of independence;

- education; and

 - Africanisation.

What was the impact of the internal and external factors on Africa during the time?

Africa in the Cold War: USSR, USA, Cuba, China and South Africa

Case study: Angola ( 11/11/1975...Portugal )

History of Angola ( briefly)...

Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/africa/angola/map_of_angola.jpg   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

Angola and slaves: 15th-19th century

Colonial period: 1885-1975

Independence: from1975

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad33   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/case-study-angola   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/angola-becomes-independent-portuguese-colonial-rule   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

The case study will include:

introduction: how Africawas drawn into the Cold War (broadly);

competing spheres of influence - trade, conflict and aid;

Angola: colonialism and independence (broad overview);

Source: http://africanhistory.about.com/od/angola/l/Bl-Angola-Timeline.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

outbreak of civil war in 1974

- MPLA and UNITA

www.sahistory.org.za/.../angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

reasons for and nature of involvement in Angola (USSR, USA, Cuba, China and South Africa);

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1owf55/why_did_so_many_countries_get_involved_in_the/   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

www.jstor.org/stable/2637389   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

impact on regional stability;

significance of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale 1987 and 1988;

http://www.sahistory.org.za politics and society ”º 20th Century South Africa  [Accessed 16 February 2015]

http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/download/71/99   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

the changing nature of international relationships after 1989

Recommended reading:

1.   http://jim.com/African_capitalism.htm   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

2. http://science.jrank.org/pages/7540/Capitalism-Africa.html   [Accessed 16 February 2015]

3.isbn: 0857203894 – Google Search. 2015. _Google Search [ ONLINE] Available at: https://booksgoogle.co.za/books?isbn=0857203894 . [ Accessed 09 February 2015].

4. http://www.raceandhistory.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=534 [Accessed 16 February 2015]

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Independent Africa comparative case study: the Congo and Tanzania Essay

Independent Africa comparative case study: the Congo and Tanzania Essay for Grade 12 and Grade 11 History.

This page contains an answer guide to the below History Essay Questions (memo):

• What were the ideas that influence the independent states Congo and Tanzania?

After attaining independence Congo and Tanzania were faced with economic, social, and political challenges although there were successes that Mobuto and Nyerere gained in trying to improve the living standards for blacks.

Table of Contents

Do you agree with this statement? Use appropriate evidence to support your argument.

[Plan and construct an original argument based on relevant evidence using analytical and interpretative skills.]

Candidates should indicate whether or not they agree with the statement and support their answer with relevant historical evidence. Candidates must specifically look at the economic, social and cultural challenges facing both countries after independence.

MAIN ASPECTS

Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction: Candidates should critically discuss the successes and challenges facing Tanzania and the Congo with specific reference to their economic, social and political development after gaining independence from colonial rule.

ELABORATION ECONOMY

• The Congo and Tanzania inherited a single-product economy from their colonisers.
• Tanzania followed a socialistic economic model.
• Congo followed a capitalistic model.
• Both countries struggled to develop their respective economies.
• Nyerere adopted an African Socialism model outlined in the Arusha Declaration which led to the nationalisation of industries and land.
• Its aim was to cut ties with Western countries and create self-sufficiency and self- dependency.
• Society would be stable and free of economic inequalities.
• Mobuto initially nationalised industries using the Zairianisation policy – which involved taking farms and businesses from the foreign owners who were replaced by Congolese.
• When it failed due to lack of skills and poor management he adopted a capitalistic model and returned businesses to foreign owners.
• Nyerere introduced Villagisation or Ujaama.
• A rural community with farming/collective labour.
• Lack of tools, water and management skills led to resistance which the police and military forces could not control.
• This led to destruction and abandonment of fields.
• Tanzania remained the poorest and most underdeveloped country.
• Tanzania reduced corruption of government officials through the “Leadership Code”.
• Both countries had to accept foreign aid and allow investments which Nyerere initially viewed as neo-colonialism.

SOCIAL CHALLENGES:

• Both countries inherited a colonial education system that promoted Eurocentric values
• Both countries were challenged by skills shortages; only a few technicians and engineers were available.
• Both countries were taught European history and languages, the African content was regarded as inferior and not taught. Tanzania:
• Promoted Swahili (local language) over English
• Introduced a massive literacy campaign that saw illiteracy drop drastically (from 80% to 20%) between 1961 and 1981
• Nyerere produced, ‘Education for Self-Reliance’ (1967) which promoted basic literacy in primary schools in all rural areas. Congo:
• Inherited only 14 university graduates
• Expanded its higher education system
• Increased primary education from 1,6 million to 4,6 million people between 1960 and 1974
• Unlike Swahili in Tanzania, French remained the language of instruction in Congo. Africanisation:

Villagisation (Ujamaa) in Tanzania embraced traditional community values based on self-reliance

Zairianisation in Congo replaced experienced Belgian human resources with local people and replaced European names with local names, e.g. Congo to Zaire

POLITICAL ASPECTS

• Attaining independence through democratic elections (the Congo 1960) J. Kasavubu became President and P. Lumumba became the prime minister
• After holding multi-party elections at independence, the Congo became a one- party state within the first five years after gaining the independence
• Mobuto Sese Seko remained as president for life until his death in 2007
• Mobuto Sese Seko created a kleptocracy where a group of appointed public officials abused their position for financial gain
• Brought back African values
• Strong centralised government
• Political stability (though based on authoritarianism)
• Any other relevant response
• Attaining independence through democratic elections (Tanzania 1961: J. Nyerere – amended the constitution to become President (1962)
• Smooth transition (peaceful change/racial harmony/commitment to promotion of human equality and dignity
• After holding multi-party elections at independence, it became a one-party state
• Nyerere remained as president between the 1960s and 1970s
• Nyerere introduced the Leadership Code in the Arusha Declaration which demanded high levels of integrity from public officials
• African socialism/ Ujamaa was appropriate for inhabitants
• Establishment of the United Republic of Tanzania (1964)
• Centralised and unitary state
• Any other relevant response Conclusion: Candidates should tie up their arguments with relevant conclusions.

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — Republic — A History Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo

A History of The Democratic Republic of The Congo

• Categories: Republic

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17 min read

Published: May 7, 2019

Words: 3307 | Pages: 7 | 17 min read

The Magnificent African Cake

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So much is at stake in writing a conclusion. This is, after all, your last chance to persuade your readers to your point of view, to impress yourself upon them as a writer and thinker. And the impression you create in your conclusion will shape the impression that stays with your readers after they've finished the essay.

The end of an essay should therefore convey a sense of completeness and closure as well as a sense of the lingering possibilities of the topic, its larger meaning, its implications: the final paragraph should close the discussion without closing it off.

To establish a sense of closure, you might do one or more of the following:

• Conclude by linking the last paragraph to the first, perhaps by reiterating a word or phrase you used at the beginning.
• Conclude with a sentence composed mainly of one-syllable words. Simple language can help create an effect of understated drama.
• Conclude with a sentence that's compound or parallel in structure; such sentences can establish a sense of balance or order that may feel just right at the end of a complex discussion.

To close the discussion without closing it off, you might do one or more of the following:

• Conclude with a quotation from or reference to a primary or secondary source, one that amplifies your main point or puts it in a different perspective. A quotation from, say, the novel or poem you're writing about can add texture and specificity to your discussion; a critic or scholar can help confirm or complicate your final point. For example, you might conclude an essay on the idea of home in James Joyce's short story collection,  Dubliners , with information about Joyce's own complex feelings towards Dublin, his home. Or you might end with a biographer's statement about Joyce's attitude toward Dublin, which could illuminate his characters' responses to the city. Just be cautious, especially about using secondary material: make sure that you get the last word.
• Conclude by setting your discussion into a different, perhaps larger, context. For example, you might end an essay on nineteenth-century muckraking journalism by linking it to a current news magazine program like  60 Minutes .
• Conclude by redefining one of the key terms of your argument. For example, an essay on Marx's treatment of the conflict between wage labor and capital might begin with Marx's claim that the "capitalist economy is . . . a gigantic enterprise of dehumanization "; the essay might end by suggesting that Marxist analysis is itself dehumanizing because it construes everything in economic -- rather than moral or ethical-- terms.
• Conclude by considering the implications of your argument (or analysis or discussion). What does your argument imply, or involve, or suggest? For example, an essay on the novel  Ambiguous Adventure , by the Senegalese writer Cheikh Hamidou Kane, might open with the idea that the protagonist's development suggests Kane's belief in the need to integrate Western materialism and Sufi spirituality in modern Senegal. The conclusion might make the new but related point that the novel on the whole suggests that such an integration is (or isn't) possible.

Finally, some advice on how not to end an essay:

• Don't simply summarize your essay. A brief summary of your argument may be useful, especially if your essay is long--more than ten pages or so. But shorter essays tend not to require a restatement of your main ideas.
• Avoid phrases like "in conclusion," "to conclude," "in summary," and "to sum up." These phrases can be useful--even welcome--in oral presentations. But readers can see, by the tell-tale compression of the pages, when an essay is about to end. You'll irritate your audience if you belabor the obvious.
• Resist the urge to apologize. If you've immersed yourself in your subject, you now know a good deal more about it than you can possibly include in a five- or ten- or 20-page essay. As a result, by the time you've finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you've produced. (And if you haven't immersed yourself in your subject, you may be feeling even more doubtful about your essay as you approach the conclusion.) Repress those doubts. Don't undercut your authority by saying things like, "this is just one approach to the subject; there may be other, better approaches. . ."

Copyright 1998, Pat Bellanca, for the Writing Center at Harvard University

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Independent Africa comparative case study: the Congo and Tanzania Essay

Independent Africa comparative case study: the Congo and Tanzania Essay for Grade 12 and Grade 11 History.

This page contains an answer guide to the below History Essay Questions (memo):

• What were the ideas that influence the independent states Congo and Tanzania?

After attaining independence Congo and Tanzania were faced with economic, social, and political challenges although there were successes that Mobuto and Nyerere gained in trying to improve the living standards for blacks.

Do you agree with this statement? Use appropriate evidence to support your argument.

[Plan and construct an original argument based on relevant evidence using analytical and interpretative skills.]

Candidates should indicate whether or not they agree with the statement and support their answer with relevant historical evidence. Candidates must specifically look at the economic, social and cultural challenges facing both countries after independence.

MAIN ASPECTS

Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction: Candidates should critically discuss the successes and challenges facing Tanzania and the Congo with specific reference to their economic, social and political development after gaining independence from colonial rule.

ELABORATION ECONOMY

• The Congo and Tanzania inherited a single-product economy from their colonisers.
• Tanzania followed a socialistic economic model.
• Congo followed a capitalistic model.
• Both countries struggled to develop their respective economies.
• Nyerere adopted an African Socialism model outlined in the Arusha Declaration which led to the nationalisation of industries and land.
• Its aim was to cut ties with Western countries and create self-sufficiency and self- dependency.
• Society would be stable and free of economic inequalities.
• Mobuto initially nationalised industries using the Zairianisation policy – which involved taking farms and businesses from the foreign owners who were replaced by Congolese.
• When it failed due to lack of skills and poor management he adopted a capitalistic model and returned businesses to foreign owners.
• Nyerere introduced Villagisation or Ujaama.
• A rural community with farming/collective labour.
• Lack of tools, water and management skills led to resistance which the police and military forces could not control.
• This led to destruction and abandonment of fields.
• Tanzania remained the poorest and most underdeveloped country.
• Tanzania reduced corruption of government officials through the “Leadership Code”.
• Both countries had to accept foreign aid and allow investments which Nyerere initially viewed as neo-colonialism.

SOCIAL CHALLENGES:

• Both countries inherited a colonial education system that promoted Eurocentric values
• Both countries were challenged by skills shortages; only a few technicians and engineers were available.
• Both countries were taught European history and languages, the African content was regarded as inferior and not taught. Tanzania:
• Promoted Swahili (local language) over English
• Introduced a massive literacy campaign that saw illiteracy drop drastically (from 80% to 20%) between 1961 and 1981
• Nyerere produced, ‘Education for Self-Reliance’ (1967) which promoted basic literacy in primary schools in all rural areas. Congo:
• Inherited only 14 university graduates
• Expanded its higher education system
• Increased primary education from 1,6 million to 4,6 million people between 1960 and 1974
• Unlike Swahili in Tanzania, French remained the language of instruction in Congo. Africanisation:

Villagisation (Ujamaa) in Tanzania embraced traditional community values based on self-reliance

Zairianisation in Congo replaced experienced Belgian human resources with local people and replaced European names with local names, e.g. Congo to Zaire

POLITICAL ASPECTS

• Attaining independence through democratic elections (the Congo 1960) J. Kasavubu became President and P. Lumumba became the prime minister
• After holding multi-party elections at independence, the Congo became a one- party state within the first five years after gaining the independence
• Mobuto Sese Seko remained as president for life until his death in 2007
• Mobuto Sese Seko created a kleptocracy where a group of appointed public officials abused their position for financial gain
• Brought back African values
• Strong centralised government
• Political stability (though based on authoritarianism)
• Any other relevant response
• Attaining independence through democratic elections (Tanzania 1961: J. Nyerere – amended the constitution to become President (1962)
• Smooth transition (peaceful change/racial harmony/commitment to promotion of human equality and dignity
• After holding multi-party elections at independence, it became a one-party state
• Nyerere remained as president between the 1960s and 1970s
• Nyerere introduced the Leadership Code in the Arusha Declaration which demanded high levels of integrity from public officials
• African socialism/ Ujamaa was appropriate for inhabitants
• Establishment of the United Republic of Tanzania (1964)
• Centralised and unitary state
• Any other relevant response Conclusion: Candidates should tie up their arguments with relevant conclusions.

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• dissertation defense essays economics crime and health michael topper

Dissertation Defense: “Essays in the Economics of Crime and Health” Michael Topper

Michael Topper , PhD Candidate, University of California, Santa Barbara

Michael Topper is an applied microeconomist with a particular interest in the economics of crime. His first paper, The Effects of Fraternity Moratoriums on Alcohol Offenses and Sexual Assaults is published in the Journal of Human Resources. Currently, his work focuses on policing. His job market paper, The Unintended Consequences of Policing Technology: Evidence from ShotSpotter (with Toshio Ferrazares), examines the unintended consequences of a wide-spread gunshot detection technology.

Michael is a devoted educator who emphasizes quality open-source materials. He assisted the creation of two courses at UCSB, Data Wrangling for Economics (Econ 145/Econ 245), and has authored a free online accompanying course textbook, Data Wrangling for Economists (with Danny Klinenberg). Moreover, Michael is the creator of the software R package Panelsummary which aims to streamline reproducible research.

Event Details

Join us to hear Michael’s dissertation defense. He will be defending his dissertation, “Essays in the Economics of Crime and Health” To access a copy of the  dissertation, you must have an active UCSB NetID and password.

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A Culture Warrior Takes a Late Swing

The editor and essayist Joseph Epstein looks back on his life and career in two new books.

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By Dwight Garner

NEVER SAY YOU’VE HAD A LUCKY LIFE: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life , by Joseph Epstein

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT: New and Selected Essays , by Joseph Epstein

When Tammy Wynette was asked to write a memoir in her mid-30s, she initially declined, she said in an interview, because “I didn’t think my life was over yet.” The publisher responded: Has it occurred to you that in 15 years no one might care? She wrote the book. “Stand by Your Man: An Autobiography” (1979) was a hit.

The essayist and editor Joseph Epstein — whose memoir “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life,” is out now, alongside a greatest-hits collection titled “Familiarity Breeds Content” — has probably never heard Wynette sing except by accident. (In a 1993 essay, he wrote that he wished he didn’t know who Willie Nelson was, because it was a sign of a compromised intellect.) But his memoir illustrates another reason not to wait too long to commit your life to print.

There is no indication that Epstein, who is in his late 80s, has lost a step. His prose is as genial and bland, if comparison to his earlier work is any indication, as it ever was. But there’s a softness to his memories of people, perhaps because it was all so long ago. This is the sort of memoir that insists someone was funny, or erudite, or charismatic, while rarely providing the crucial details.

Epstein aw-shucks his way into “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life” — pretending to be self-effacing while not being so in the least is one of his salient qualities as a writer — by warning readers, “I may not have had a sufficiently interesting life to merit an autobiography.” This is because he “did little, saw nothing notably historic, and endured not much out of the ordinary of anguish or trouble or exaltation.” Quickly, however, he concludes that his life is indeed worth relating, in part because “over the years I have acquired the literary skill to recount that life well.”

Here he is wrong in both directions. His story is interesting enough to warrant this memoir. His personal life has taken complicated turns. And as the longtime editor of the quarterly magazine The American Scholar, and a notably literate conservative culture warrior, he’s been in the thick of things.

He does lack the skill to tell his own story, though, if by “skill” we mean not well-scrubbed Strunk and White sentences but close and penetrating observation. Epstein favors tasseled loafers and bow ties, and most of his sentences read as if they were written by a sentient tasseled loafer and edited by a sentient bow tie.

He grew up in Chicago, where his father manufactured costume jewelry. The young Epstein was popular and, in high school, lettered in tennis. His title refers to being lucky, and a big part of that luck, in his estimation, was to grow up back when kids could be kids, before “the therapeutic culture” took over.

This complaint sets the tone of the book. His own story is set next to a rolling series of cultural grievances. He’s against casual dress, the prohibition of the word “Negro,” grade inflation, the Beat Generation, most of what occurred during the 1960s, standards slipping everywhere, de-Westernizing college curriculums, D.E.I. programs, you name it. His politics aren’t the problem. We can argue about those. American culture needs more well-read conservatives. The problem is that in his search for teachable moments, his memoir acquires the cardboard tone of a middling opinion column.

His youth was not all tennis lessons and root beer floats. He and his friends regularly visited brothels because, he writes, sex was not as easy to come by in the 1950s. He was kicked out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for his role in the selling of a stolen accounting exam to other students.

He was lucky to find a place at the University of Chicago, a place of high seriousness. The school changed him. He began to reassess his values. He began to read writers like Irving Howe, Sidney Hook, Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz, and felt his politics pull to the right.

After college, he was drafted into the Army and ended up in Little Rock, Ark., where he met his first wife. At the time, she was a waitress at a bar and restaurant called the Gar Hole. Here Epstein’s memoir briefly threatens to acquire genuine weight.

She had lost custody of her two sons after a divorce. Together they got them back, and she and Epstein had two sons of their own. After their divorce, Epstein took all four of the boys. This is grist for an entire memoir, but Epstein passes over it quickly. One never gets much of a sense of what his boys were like, or what it was like to raise them. He later tells us that he has all but lost touch with his stepsons and has not seen them for decades.

He worked for the magazine The New Leader and the Encyclopaedia Britannica before becoming the editor of The American Scholar in 1975. It was a position he would hold for 22 years. He also taught at Northwestern University for nearly three decades.

At The American Scholar he began to write a long personal essay in each issue, under the pseudonym Aristides. He wrote 92 of these, on topics such as smoking and envy and reading and height. Most ran to 6,500 words, or about 4,000 words longer than they should have been.

Many magazine editors like to write every so often, to keep a hand in. But there is something unseemly about an editor chewing up acres of space in his own publication on a regular basis. Editorially, it’s a droit du seigneur imposition.

A selection of these essays, as well as some new ones, can now be found in “Familiarity Breeds Content.” In his introduction to this book, Christopher Buckley overpraises Epstein, leaving the reader no choice but to start mentally pushing back.

Buckley calls Epstein “the most entertaining living essayist in the English language.” (Not while Michael Kinsley, Lorrie Moore, Calvin Trillin, Sloane Crosley and Geoff Dyer, among many others, walk the earth.) He repurposes Martin Amis’s comment about Saul Bellow: “One doesn’t read Saul Bellow. One can only reread him.” To this he adds, “Ditto Epstein.” (Epstein is no Saul Bellow.) Buckley says, “Joe Epstein is incapable of writing a boring sentence.”

Well. How about this one, from an essay about cats?

A cat, I realize, cannot be everyone’s cup of fur.

Or this one, from an essay about sports and other obsessions:

I have been told there are people who wig out on pasta.

Or this one, about … guess:

When I was a boy, it occurs to me now, I always had one or another kind of hat.

Juggling today appears to be undergoing a small renaissance.

If one is looking to save on fuel bills, politics is likely to heat up a room quicker than just about anything else.

In tennis I was most notable for flipping and catching my racket in various snappy routines.

The essays are, by and large, as tweedy and self-satisfied as these lines make them sound. There are no wild hairs in them, no sudden deepenings of tone. Nothing is at stake. We are stranded with him on the putt-putt course.

Epstein fills his essays with quotation after quotation, as ballast. I am a fan of well-deployed, free-range quotations. So many of Epstein’s are musty and reek of Bartlett’s. They are from figures like Lord Chesterfield and Lady Mary Montagu and Sir Herbert Grierson and Tocqueville and Walpole and Carlyle. You can feel the moths escaping from the display case in real time.

To be fair, I circled a few sentences in “Familiarity Breeds Content” happily. I’m with him on his distrust of “fun couples.” He writes, “A cowboy without a hat is suitable only for bartending.” I liked his observation, which he borrowed from someone else, that a career has five stages:

(1) Who is Joseph Epstein? (2) Get me Joseph Epstein. (3) We need someone like Joseph Epstein. (4) What we need is a young Joseph Epstein. (5) Who is Joseph Epstein?

It’s no fun to trip up a writer on what might have been a late-career victory lap. Epstein doesn’t need me to like his work. He’s published more than 30 books, and you can’t do that unless you’ve made a lot of readers happy.

NEVER SAY YOU’VE HAD A LUCKY LIFE : Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life | By Joseph Epstein | Free Press | 287 pp. | $29.99

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT : New and Selected Essays | By Joseph Epstein | Simon & Schuster | 441 pp. | Paperback, $20.99

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

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