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Republic of the Congo
Constitutional transfer from French Equatorial Africa.
- Independence
- August 15, 1960
- Before
- Middle Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- Fulbert Youlou
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Union Démocratique de Défense des Intérêts Africains (UDDIA)
“Today we reach our majority. We are like the young man who has become an adult. (Nous atteignons aujourd'hui notre majorité. Nous sommes comme le jeune homme qui est devenu adulte.)”
— Fulbert Youlou, August 15, 1960
Brazza's Treaty and the Concessions
In 1880 Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza signed a treaty with the Teke ruler Makoko that brought land north of the Congo River under French sovereignty. The territory, later called Middle Congo, was largely handed to concession companies. From 1910 Brazzaville was the capital of French Equatorial Africa. Building the Congo-Ocean railway (1921–1934) cost an estimated 17,000 or more forced labourers their lives. André Matsoua's Amicale, founded in 1926, organised protest. After Matsoua died in prison in 1942, his followers turned his memory into a messianic movement.
Capital of Free France
From October 1940 Brazzaville served as the capital of Free France. It was there that de Gaulle issued his Brazzaville Manifesto of 27 October 1940. The Brazzaville Conference of January–February 1944 promised social and political reforms for the empire, including an end to forced labour and representation in French assemblies. It also stated that self-government for the colonies, however distant, was to be ruled out. Congolese politics after 1946 developed within this framework of limited representation.
Rival Parties, Violent Streets
Fulbert Youlou, a Catholic priest barred from ministry after entering politics, founded the UDDIA in May 1956. He became mayor of Brazzaville in November 1956. His main rival was Jacques Opangault of the Mouvement Socialiste Africain, whose support came mainly from the Mbochi of the north. When Youlou became prime minister in December 1958, violence broke out in Brazzaville from 16 to 20 February 1959. The official toll was about a hundred dead; other estimates run far higher. Youlou became president in November 1959, and the country became independent on 15 August 1960.
Chronology
- 1880 — Makoko Treaty signed with Brazza
- October 27, 1940 — De Gaulle's Brazzaville Manifesto
- January 13, 1942 — André Matsoua dies in prison at Mayama
- January 30–February 8, 1944 — Brazzaville Conference
- February 16–20, 1959 — Political and ethnic violence in Brazzaville
- August 15, 1960 — Independence under Youlou
- August 13–15, 1963 — 'Trois Glorieuses' uprising ousts Youlou
Aftermath
The union-led uprising of August 1963 brought Alphonse Massamba-Débat to power. He adopted 'scientific socialism' as state ideology. On 31 December 1969 Marien Ngouabi proclaimed the People's Republic of the Congo, Africa's first self-declared 'people's republic', which was Marxist-Leninist in ideology. It lasted until 1992.
Legacy
The ethnic and regional rivalries of the late 1950s, often mobilised by party leaders, foreshadowed decades of coups, one-party Marxist rule and civil war in the 1990s.