Análisis e interpretación de los resultados

The rest of the DRC constitutes the periphery of Leopoldville as the centre. The periphery is made up of territorial entities different from each other in size, number of inhabitants and economic importance. The focus in this sub-section is on the selected restive peripheries.

4.2.2.1 Geography

The DRC's core region is the central Congo Basin. It measures roughly 800,000 Km², constituting about a third of the DRC’s territory. At the time of independence, except for Katanga Province, the Congo Basin comprised Equateur Province, Leopoldville Province, southern and the western fringes of Kivu Province, Oriental Province and northern Kasai. The following sub-section exposes the geographical settings within which the attempted secessions were staged. The three restive regions under discussion present geographic differences.

South Katanga in particular is a savannah region of eastern and southeastern DRC. According to the United Nations Development Programme (2009), among the provinces Katanga Province ranks second, after Oriental Province, in terms of land area representing 21.3% of the national area and covering 496,877 Km². Katanga province has two seasons (rainy and dry season) and two types of climates prevail there. Part of the province enjoys a tropical humid climate with a dry season and cold that lasts two to five months depending on the region and the other part a temperate climate with temperatures that can drop to -3°C. The annual average temperature is 20°C in the south and 24°C for the north. It varies between 19 and 25°C throughout the

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province (UNDP 2009:3). The Katanga Province is exceptional with its unique vegetation that reflects the richness of its basement. According to Copperflora (2012), the Katanga copper hills are recognized as a hot spot for biodiversity with more than 600 recorded taxa (Copperflora 2012: no page). The peripheral site and high inaccessibility of the South Katanga necessitated the search for foreign maritime outlets such as Lobito and Beira in Angola then Portuguese colony.

Geographically, the South Kasai corresponds nowadays to Kasai Oriental Province. Located in the centre of the country, the Kasai Oriental covers 173,110 km². According to Tourisme RDC (2015), the South Kasai was located in the heart of the DRC over an area of 173,110 km², about 7% of the total land area. South Kasai was bordered by the Oriental and Equateur Provinces to the north, Kivu Province in the east, West Kasai (Lulua ethnic group and Kuba region) in the west and Katanga in the south. South Kasai had no borders with the neighboring countries of the DRC. This explains and justifies the lack of influence or direct cross-border transactions with foreign countries as is the case with the other provinces of the DRC. The South Kasai was an agro-pastoral province disposing of vast expanses of arable lands for food-producing, garden and permanent production, and of lowlands and trays favourable to the breeding of the big and small stock. But the lure of artisanal diamond mining has caused a significant movement of people to the diamond mining centres (for example Bakwa Tshimuna, Tshiala, Lubilanji and Tshiaba) and therefore, the abandonment of agricultural activities and making it dependent on other provinces and abroad for its food needs (Tourisme RDC 2015: no page).

Bakwanga, the capital of South Kasai, was formed essentially as a result of the mass exodus of Lubas who came from several provinces such as Katanga and the rest of Kasai in the context of conflict discussed in section 4.4.

Located in the northeast of the DRC, with its 503,239 Km² (or 22 % of the national territory), Oriental Province was and still is the vastest province. According to Dominique Auzias and Jean-Paul Labourderette (2006), Oriental Province is dominated in the northeast by high trays. In the south, the province is covered with shrubby savannah. In the southeast, the massif of mount Hoyo which leans back on the big forest of Ituri consists of grey or reddish sandstones. The forest of Ituri, part of the big equatorial forest, shelters several kinds of fauna (such as the okapi) and flora. The south and the west are covered by the big equatorial forest which occupies the eastern part of the Congolese bowl and of which the forests with the colossal trees, the crossing of snaky rivers seem impenetrable (Auzias and Labourderette 2006:178).

By the time of independence, according to Fondation Monseigneur Emmanuel Kataliko (FOMEKA) (2014), the Kivu occupied a vast area of 260,000 km², which represented about 11%

of the national area. The eastern portion of Kivu, characterised by plateau and big lakes, has a good quality soil for agriculture and enable a large variety of food and industrial cultures either

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mild or tropical climate. Some areas, especially around and in the north of Lake Kivu, are constituted by rich soil of volcanic origin. All these aspects contributed toward growing populations along the northern portion of Lake Tanganyika and northern region in general (FOMEKA 2014: no page). At that time, conflicts about land between the various communities were less prominent and bloody than is currently the situation.

4.2.2.2 Mineral wealth in the peripheries

A prominent characteristic of the peripheries is that the most important natural resources of the DRC are located there. According to Kakonde Mbuyi (1991), the first urban settlements were located in the mining zones where the mining operations are often related to primary industrial processing plants. Examples are: Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), Jadotville (now Likasi) and Kolwezi in Katanga, Tshikapa and Bakwanga (now Mbuji-Mayi) in Kasai which all originated in this way. Urban settlements are also found in zones with high-yielding agro-industrial production such as Costermansville (now Bukavu) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) in Kivu and Oriental Province respectively, as well as along sea, rail and river communication routes, especially at transhipment points, as in the case of Leopoldville (Mbuyi 1991:117). The above-mentioned cities have in turn peripheries in their own hinterlands.

The striking similarity between Katanga, South Kasai and Oriental, including Kivu, is the fact that they are geologically all gifted with a wealthy basement. They were rich with mineral wealth at the time of independence and continuous to be so. Katanga was at the time of its attempted secession geologically the richest which induced a quite advanced industrialization of mainly metallurgy and chemistry. International Business Publications (IBP) (2013) argues that the Katanga province is the area with notable mineral opportunities. Katanga is part of the Central African Copperbelt, which extends from Angola through the DRC into Zambia. The Copperbelt is one of the world’s greatest metallogenic provinces containing 34% of the world’s cobalt reserves and over 10% of the world’s copper reserves (IBP 2013:35).

Devon Douglas-Bowers (2014) argues that the South Kasai region, like Katanga, was rich in mineral wealth, particularly diamonds. Until the mid-1970s, it produced one-third of global output of industrial diamonds. Although its mineral wealth was important due to the economics of the DRC (Douglas-Bowers 2014: no page).

At the time of independence, known mineral resources of the Oriental Province were gold, diamonds, iron, cassiterite, coltan, oil shale and limestone. Of all the minerals it is gold that was most exploited. According to Agayo Bakonzi (1982), the gold mines of Kilo-Moto are located at the extreme northeast of the DRC. They include two centres of mining operations: the gold mines of Moto in the District of the Upper Uélé and the gold mines of Kilo in the District of Kibali-Ituri. Gold was discovered there in 1903, and the mining of gold began in 1905 in Kilo and

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in 1911 in Moto. The local management of the gold mines of Kilo is located at Kilomines or Bambu; and that of Moto is at Watsa (Bakonzi 1982:355-358). However, in the 1960s, the Kivu region was known for its large deposit of valuable minerals such as tin, gold, wolframite, Pro chlorine, diamond, amethyst and tourmalines, spread across the north and south of the region.

There was also an abundant quantity of methane gas in the Kivu Lake.

The largest mining companies of the DRC at independence were located in the restive peripheries, namely Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) in Katanga, Société Internationale Forestière et Minière du Congo (FORMINIÈRE) in South Kasai, Office de Mines d’or de Kilo-Moto (OKIMO) in Oriental Province and Société Minière du Kivu (SOMINKI).

With regard to the appeal of secessionism, the natural resources were a major determinant of secessionism in the DRC. The leaders of the restive provinces were unquestionably motivated to secede from the Central Government given fabulous natural resources their regions enjoyed comparatively to other provinces of the DRC. The geographic concentration of mineral deposit in particular and their unequal distribution made the DRC for the most part prone to secessionism in the first half of 1960s. The three main restive regions were historically the biggest contributors to the national budget of the DRC. For that reason, the attempted secessions of the rich provinces would deprive the Central Government of substantial natural resources income. However, the role of mineral resources in the attempted secessions should not be overemphasized or seen in isolation of other factors such as ideological differences and ethnic conflict (Douglas-Bowers 2014: no page). See section 4.4.2.2 for more detail.

Furthermore, the peripheral areas within the provinces of the DRC are either rural or urban.

According to D'Ascenzo (2013)’s analysis on territorial organization of the DRC, the country outside of the centre is dotted with small towns and big villages that are generally situated along the rivers or between other bigger cities on the main roads, beyond which there are vast non-urban areas characterised by a lack of significant urban nuclei (D’Ascenzo 2013:100). The area of the cities of Elisabethville, Stanleyville and Bakwanga is 747 km², 1910 km² and 154.12 km² respectively. At independence, the rural population was largely orientated towards the regional capitals because of their proximity. Moving away from the community warmth inspired a feeling of fear to the natives of the peripheries distant from Leopoldville.

As mentioned, the principle that the provinces should give according to their means and receive according to their needs, applied. Many villages were far removed from the centre and received very little in return from the centre. Consequently, the peripheries were underdeveloped and their inhabitants faced poverty and security problems. The abolition of the ban on access to the cities at the time of independence led to mass rural migration to the centre and other cities, increasing the population numbers of these centres as well as the unemployment and crime rate among young people.

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The next section deals with the relations between the centre and the periphery within the DRC at the time of independence.