A bloody stupid name for a
country when there is already a country called
Congo, but oh no,
Laurent Kabila didn't care about ease of reference. For some odd reason this time round it's always called DR Congo or Dem Rep Congo to distinguish it from the other one, the
Republic of Congo. But when it was called this before, before
Mobutu renamed it
Zaïre in 1971, it was called Congo (
Kinshasa), and the other one was called Congo (
Brazzaville), after their capitals, a vastly more sensible arrangement.
To be precise: on 1 July 1960 Belgian Congo became independent as the Republic of the Congo. On 15 August 1960 the French colony of Middle Congo became independent as the Republic of the Congo. This ludicrous situation continued for six years, so they were referred to informally as Congo (Brazzaville) and Congo (Léopoldville). In 1965 Mobutu seized power and in 1966 renamed his country Democratic Republic of the Congo. Then he went on an authenticity jag and all the cities were renamed (Leopoldville becoming Kinshasa, etc.), as were all the citizens (Joseph-Désiré Mobutu becoming Mobutu Sese Seko, etc. in 1972), and in 1971 the country was renamed the Republic of Zaïre. After Mobutu's death and the advent of Laurent Kabila in 1997 the country was renamed back to the D.R. Congo.
Meanwhile, over in Brazzaville, a Marxist coup led to that country becoming the People's Republic of Congo in 1970. It reverted to plain Republic in 1992 when the Marxist junta was replaced by an elected government.
There was another People's Republic of the Congo: a rebel government in Congo (Leopoldville) was established at Stanleyville (now Kisangani in 1964-65, during the civil war.
The civil war started more or less as soon as independence came. The copper-rich province of Katanga in the south-west (later renamed Shaba but now back to Katanga) seceded under Moise Tshombe, and fought a long war against central forces and the United Nations. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was accidentally killed in a plane crash while touring the area. Central rule was finally restored in 1963.
Katanga was the biggest and longest lasting, but other provinces tried for secession too:
- Bumba, formerly Middle Congo province, in April-July 1963
- South Kasai in 1960-61 under President Albert Kalonji, the last few months of his rule being as Emperor Albert I of the Mining State of South Kasai, or mulopwe or traditional ruler of the Luba people. He escaped from central custody and tried again briefly in 1962.
- North Katanga seceded from Katanga in 1960-61
- Congo province, around Leopoldville, briefly in 1960
- North Kwilu in 1960
- Kwilu province mostly under rebel rule 1964-68
And that's not even to touch on what's happened since Kabila's rule turned sour and Rwanda and Uganda invaded in more recent years.
As always, rulers.org is wonderful.