First inhabited by Pygmies, Congo was later settled by Bantu groups
that also occupied parts of present-day Angola, Gabon, and
Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), forming the basis
for ethnic affinities and rivalries among those states. Several
Bantu kingdoms--notably those of the Kongo, the Loango, and the Teke--built
trade links leading into the Congo River basin. The first European
contacts came in the late 15th century, and commercial relationships
were quickly established with the kingdoms--trading for slaves
captured in the interior. The coastal area was a major source for
the transatlantic slave trade, and when that commerce ended in the
early 19th century, the power of the Bantu kingdoms eroded.
The area came under French sovereignty in the 1880s. Pierre
Savorgnon de Brazza, a French empire builder, competed with agents
of Belgian King Leopold's International Congo Association (later
Zaire) for control of the Congo River basin. Between 1882 and 1891,
treaties were secured with all the main local rulers on the river's
right bank, placing their lands under French protection. In 1908,
France organized French Equatorial Africa (AEF), comprising its
colonies of Middle Congo (modern Congo), Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari
(modern Central African Republic). Brazzaville was selected as the
federal capital.
Economic development during the first 50 years of colonial rule in
Congo centered on natural resource extraction by private companies.
In 1924-34, the Congo-Ocean Railway (CFCO) was built at a
considerable human and financial cost, opening the way for growth of
the ocean port of Pointe-Noire and towns along its route.
During World War II, the AEF administration sided with Charles
DeGaulle, and Brazzaville became the symbolic capital of Free France
during 1940-43. The Brazzaville Conference of 1944 heralded a period
of major reform in French colonial policy, including the abolition
of forced labor, granting of French citizenship to colonial
subjects, decentralization of certain powers, and election of local
advisory assemblies. Congo benefited from the postwar expansion of
colonial administrative and infrastructure spending as a result of
its central geographic location within AEF and the federal capital
at Brazzaville.
The Loi Cadre (framework law) of 1956 ended dual voting roles and
provided for partial self-government for the individual overseas
territories. Ethnic rivalries then produced sharp struggles among
the emerging Congolese political parties and sparked severe riots in
Brazzaville in 1959. After the September 1958 referendum approving
the new French Constitution, AEF was dissolved. Its four territories
became autonomous members of the French Community, and Middle Congo
was renamed the Congo Republic. Formal independence was granted in
August 1960.
Congo's first President was Fulbert Youlou, a former Catholic priest
from the Pool region in the southeast. He rose to political
prominence after 1956, and was narrowly elected President by the
National Assembly at independence. Youlou's 3 years in power were
marked by ethnic tensions and political rivalry. In August 1963,
Youlou was overthrown in a 3-day popular uprising (Les Trois
Glorieuses) led by labor elements and joined by rival political
parties. All members of the Youlou government were arrested or
removed from office. The Congolese military took charge of the
country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government
headed by Alphonse Massamba-Debat. Under the 1963 constitution,
Massamba-Debat was elected President for a 5-year term and named
Pascal Lissouba to serve as Prime Minister. However, President
Massamba-Debat's term ended abruptly in August 1968, when Capt.
Marien Ngouabi and other army officers toppled the government in a
coup. After a period of consolidation under the newly formed
National Revolutionary Council, Major Ngouabi assumed the presidency
on December 31, 1968. One year later, President Ngouabi proclaimed
Congo to be Africa's first "people's republic" and announced the
decision of the National Revolutionary Movement to change its name
to the Congolese Labor Party (PCT).
On March 18, 1977, President Ngouabi was assassinated. Although the
persons accused of shooting Ngouabi were tried and some of them
executed, the motivation behind the assassination is still not
clear. An 11-member Military Committee of the Party (CMP) was named
to head an interim government with Colonel (later General) Joachim
Yhomby-Opango to serve as President of the Republic. Accused of
corruption and deviation from party directives, Yhomby-Opango was
removed from office on February 5, 1979, by the Central Committee of
the PCT, which then simultaneously designated Vice President and
Defense Minister Col. Denis Sassou-Nguesso as interim President. The
Central Committee directed Sassou-Nguesso to take charge of
preparations for the Third Extraordinary Congress of the PCT, which
proceeded to elect him President of the Central Committee and
President of the Republic. Under a congressional resolution,
Yhomby-Opango was stripped of all powers, rank, and possessions and
placed under arrest to await trial for high treason. He was released
from house arrest in late 1984 and ordered back to his native
village of Owando.
After two decades of turbulent politics bolstered by
Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, and with the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the Congolese gradually moderated their economic and
political views to the point that, in 1992, Congo completed a
transition to multi-party democracy. Ending a long history of
one-party Marxist rule, a specific agenda for this transition was
laid out during Congo's national conference of 1991 and culminated
in August 1992 with multi-party presidential elections.
Sassou-Nguesso conceded defeat and Congo's new President, Prof.
Pascal Lissouba, was inaugurated on August 31, 1992.
Congolese democracy experienced severe trials in 1993 and early
1994. President Lissouba dissolved the National Assembly in November
1992, calling for new elections in May 1993. The results of those
elections were disputed, touching off violent civil unrest in June
and again in November. In February 1994, all parties accepted the
decisions of an international board of arbiters, and the risk of
large-scale insurrection subsided.
However, Congo's democratic progress was derailed in 1997. As
presidential elections scheduled for July 1997 approached, tensions
between the Lissouba and Sassou-Nguesso camps mounted. When
President Lissouba's government forces surrounded Sassou-Nguesso's
compound in Brazzaville with armored vehicles on June 5, Sassou-Nguesso
ordered his militia to resist. Thus began a 4-month conflict that
destroyed or damaged much of Brazzaville. In early October, Angolan
troops invaded Congo on the side of Sassou-Nguesso and, in
mid-October, the Lissouba government fell. Soon thereafter, Sassou-Nguesso
declared himself President and named a 33-member government.
In January 1998, the Sassou-Nguesso regime held a National Forum for
Reconciliation to determine the nature and duration of the
transition period. The forum, tightly controlled by the government,
decided elections should be held in about 3 years, elected a
transition advisory legislature, and announced that a constitutional
convention would finalize a draft constitution. However, the
eruption in late 1998 of fighting between Sassou-Nguesso's
government forces and a pro-Lissouba and pro-Kolelas armed
opposition disrupted the transition to democracy. This new violence
also closed the economically vital Brazzaville-Pointe Noire
railroad, caused great destruction and loss of life in southern
Brazzaville and in the Pool, Bouenza, and Niari regions, and
displaced hundreds of thousands of persons. In November and December
1999, the government signed agreements with representatives of many,
though not all, of the rebel groups.
The December accord, mediated by President Omar Bongo of Gabon,
called for follow-on, inclusive political negotiations between the
government and the opposition. During the years 2000-01,
Sassou-Nguesso's government conducted a national dialogue (Dialogue
Sans Exclusif), in which the opposition parties and the government
agreed to continue on the path to peace. Ex-President Lissouba and
ex-Prime Minister Kolelas refused to agree and were exiled. They
were tried in absentia and convicted in Brazzaville of charges
ranging from treason to misappropriation of government funds.
Ex-militiamen were granted amnesty, and many were provided
micro-loans to aid their reintegration into civil society. Not all
opposition members participated. One group, referred to as "Ninjas,"
actively opposed the government in a low-level guerrilla war in the
Pool region of the country. Other members of opposition parties have
returned and have opted to participate to some degree in political
life.
A new constitution was drafted in 2001, approved by the provisional
legislature (National Transition Council), and approved by the
people of Congo in a national referendum in January 2002.
Presidential elections were held in March 2002, and Sassou-Nguesso
was declared the winner. Legislative elections were held in May and
June 2002. In March 2003 the government signed a peace accord with
the Ninjas, and the country has remained stable and calm since the
signing. Internally displaced persons are returning to the Pool
region. President Sassou-Nguesso allowed Kolelas to return to Congo
for his wife's funeral in October 2005 and subsequently asked that
Parliament grant Kolelas amnesty. Parliament complied with
Sassou-Nguesso's request in December 2005.
In 2007, Sassou-Nguesso announced he would allow the return of
former president Pascal Lissouba, along with a pardon for the 2001
in absentia conviction for “economic crimes” for which Lissouba had
been sentenced to 30 years. By early 2008, however, Lissouba had not
returned to the country. Former prime minister Joachim Yhombi-Opango,
returned to the country in August 2007 after the Council of
Ministers granted him amnesty in May for a 2001 conviction in
absentia for allegedly improperly selling the country’s oil while in
office. Legislative elections were held in June and August 2007 and
were widely viewed as disorganized and marred by irregularities,
with low voter turnout. Presidential elections are scheduled for
2009. |
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