DRC deserves a better deal
On the African continent’s map, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) resembles a massive painting created by an inattentive artist who allowed a large blob of paint to flow both westward and southward, nearly severing Zambia in half and tearing a large chasm between the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and Angola.
During the Scramble for Africa, it appears that those who set boundaries had two objectives in mind. They wanted the vital Congo River to flow freely to the Atlantic Ocean for the exclusive benefit of a Belgian despot, and they also did not want to leave the large country landlocked.
DRC deserves a better deal
Since the reign of King Leopold II in the late 19th century, millions have perished there. This man’s brutality toward Africans has a long history that is widely documented.
In some ways, General Mobutu Sese Seko would emulate his ignoble deeds a century later. His protracted dictatorial misrule effectively plunged the nation into an economic abyss from which it has never emerged, which is why, 26 years after his fall, Africans are still killing one another for essentially the same motives: unbridled lust for the nation’s wealth.
Capitalists from the West and now the East have long been drawn to the country’s abundant mineral riches like packs of hyenas to blood.
Patrice Lumumba, a prominent African nationalist, was betrayed and put to death in 1961, the first year of the nation’s independence, marking the beginning of General Mobutu’s rule.
Similar to Leopold, he transformed the nation into his personal property and turned it into a voracious puppet of the West, ruining its economy with impunity until he was no longer useful to the neo-imperialists who had been pulling the strings all along.
The tragedy of the DRC is that despite being a storehouse of immense resources, it remains one of the world’s poorest nations. Copper, diamond, platinum, uranium, gold, zinc, manganese, silver, coal, oil, and rare earth elements like cobalt, lithium, and palladium are among its minerals. It also has an endless supply of lumber and other forestry resources, and if it had the capacity, it could easily provide hydroelectricity to the rest of Africa. It is extremely amusing in this regard that the country is allegedly severely affected by an unstable power supply.