Academic literature on the topic 'Léopoldville'

When Dag Hammarskjöld flew to Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on 17 September 1961 it was to meet Moïse Tshombe, the self-styled President of secessionist Katanga, in order to bring about a ceasefire to the fighting that was going on between his soldiers and those of the United Nations, especially in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi). One of the more spectacular components of diese hostilities was a French-built Fouga Magister, which had strafed some unprotected U.N. positions from the air, and journalists quickly located the Belgian pilot as a ‘Major’ Delin, depicted as a kind of modern ‘Lone Ranger’ defying the world community. The importance of ‘the little Fouga’ soon got blown out of all proportions, and when Hammarskjöld's DC-6B, nicknamed ‘Albertina’, took off from Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) it was decided to take a roundabout route in order to avoid being attacked by the Fouga. After the Secretary-General's plane had crashed, the press jumped to the conclusion that it had been shot down by the Fouga, and U.N. spokesmen confirmed that Ndola was within its range.

When most people think about the Belgian Congo and its path to independence on June 30, 1960, the figure that most frequently comes to mind is that of Patrice Lumumba and his strategy of uniting people across different ethnic groups. While Lumumba’s contributions have been well documented and recognized, this essay argues that the Kongo ethnic association–turned–political party, ABAKO (Association des BaKongo), and its leader Joseph Kasa-Vubu, were the driving force behind the independence movement in colonial Belgian Congo. ABAKO, however, used a completely different approach that successfully privileged ethnic nationalism, demonstrating that ideas of ethnic identity were often more important than a burgeoning national identity. Through the application of a performative analysis to three key events—the ABAKO countermanifesto of 1956; the Léopoldville rebellion of January, 1959; and the civil disobedience campaign advocating for an autonomous Kongo state in mid-1959—the author shows that members of ABAKO and its leadership effectively used performances of ethnic and territorial nationalism to greatly impact and lead the movement for Congolese independence.

Abstract In late October 1964, nearly 1,000 European and U.S. citizens were taken hostage by rebel forces in Stanleyville in northern Congo as part of an attempt to create the “People’s Republic of Congo,” an opposition regime designed to rival the pro-Western government in the capital Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). The hostages were captured to use as leverage against the advancing Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC), led by white mercenaries as part of a Western-backed military effort to crush the rebellion. In response, Belgium and the United States launched a military intervention to rescue their citizens on 24 November 1964, publicly justifying the incursion on humanitarian grounds. In reality, the main purpose was to crush the rebellion and secure Western interests in Congo. The intervention reflected a cavalier attitude toward sovereignty, international law, and the use of force in postcolonial Africa and had the adverse effect of discrediting humanitarian reasoning as a basis for military intervention until the end of the Cold War. The massacre of tens of thousands of Congolese in Stanleyville was a unique moment in which African countries united in their criticism of Western policies and demanded firmer sovereignty in the postcolonial world.

Cette thèse examine les rapports entre musique et politique dans l’espace de circulations musicales s’étendant entre Sophiatown, à Johannesburg, en Afrique du Sud, et la « cité indigène » de Léopoldville (aujourd’hui Kinshasa), au Congo belge, de 1930 à 1960. L’étude envisage à la fois la fabrique musicale de ces quartiers ségrégués – l’usage des nouvelles technologies d’écoute, l’appropriation des styles afro-atlantiques, la profusion des fêtes et la vie des bars – et la formation de l’espace transcolonial de la musique congolaise moderne, mieux connue sous le nom de « rumba congolaise », à l’ère de la radio. Bien que souvent occulté, le développement précoce de l’industrie musicale sud-africaine joua un rôle important dans l’émergence et la mobilité des premières célébrités médiatiques congolaises qui parcouraient les routes transimpériales entre Léopoldville, Elisabethville (Lubumbashi), Nairobi et Johannesburg. Étudiés conjointement, l’ancrage et le déploiement de ce que nous appelons l’« urbanité sonore » permettent d’éclairer la place des célébrités et chansons transcoloniales dans l’imaginaire politique des auditeurs africains. Ces phénomènes témoignent également des nouvelles possibilités d'émancipation que l'économie des plaisirs offraient aux catégories les plus marginalisées de la ville coloniale, telles que les « femmes libres » et/ou membres des sociétés d'élégance.A la cité de Léopoldville, comme à Sophiatown, auditeurs, danseurs et musiciens contestaient la définition coloniale de l’urbanité alors que le gouvernement monopolisait la définition de « la ville », en même temps qu’il en conditionnait l’accès, symbolique et concret. Jusqu’au lendemain de l’Indépendance du Congo en 1960, la scène musicale de la cité s’établit comme le principal espace d’expression politique et d’affirmation de la place du Congo moderne dans l’Atlantique noir.L’étude considère ainsi la musique dans la continuité de l’écologie sonore de la ville afin d’« écrire le monde depuis une métropole africaine ». Il ne s’agit pas seulement de penser la musique en contexte, mais aussi comme contexte, en tant que paysage, en l’étendant au-delà de la performance pour inclure les différents jeux d’échelle qui façonnaient les mondes musicaux. Pour comprendre la dimension politique des échanges afro-atlantiques impliqués dans la création de la rumba congolaise – un style africain né de l’écoute des musiques afro-cubaines –, il importe de prendre en compte le contexte de globalisation des modes d’écoute et de l’ethnicité. A une époque où le nationalisme racialisé des États-Unis façonnait la compréhension du jazz, comment repenser l’opposition d’une « Afrique latine » à une « Afrique du jazz », dont les pôles respectifs se situeraient à Johannesburg et Léopoldville ? Cette thèse cherche à déconstruire ces représentations tout en observant la puissance d’agir de la musique noire – « sa réalité et son inexistence » – en fonction des contextes, des acteurs et des lieux
This thesis studies connections between music and politics within the space of music circulation stretching from Sophiatown, in Johannesburg, South Africa, to the cité (the “native quarters”) of Léopoldville (today Kinshasa), in the Belgian Congo, from 1930 to 1960. This study considers the music making of these segregated areas – the uses of new sound technologies, the appropriation of Afro-Atlantic styles, the profusion of festivities and nightlife – as well as the formation of the trans-colonial space of modern Congolese music—better known as “Congolese rumba”—in the age of radio. Although often overlooked, the early development of the South African record industry played an important role in the making and mobility of the first Congolese media celebrities who circulated across the trans-imperial roads between Léopoldville, Elisabethville (Lubumbashi), Nairobi and Johannesburg. Studied together, the grounding and the deployment of what I call “sonic urbanity” highlight the place of trans-colonial celebrities and songs in the political imaginary of African listeners. These phenomena also show how the economy of pleasure offered new possibilities of emancipation to the most marginalized categories such as the "free women" and members of women’s fashion associations.Both in the cité of Léopoldville and in Sophiatown, listeners, dancers and musicians challenged ideas of black exclusion to urbanity enforced by the government that conditioned symbolic and material access to “the city”. Until the day after independence in 1960, the musical scene represented the main space for political expression in the modern Congo, allowing it to claim its place in the Black Atlantic.This thesis thus conceptualizes music as part of the city’s ecology of sound in an attempt to “write the world from the African metropolis”. It does not merely think of music in context but also regards it as context and soundscape, extending it beyond performance by including the different “scale games” that shaped musical worlds. Understanding the political dimension of the AfroAtlantic exchanges involved in the creation of Congolese rumba – an African style born out of listening to Afro-Cuban music – requires a consideration of the globalisation of ways of listening and ethnicity. How can we rethink the opposition of a “Latin Africa” to an “Africa of jazz”, whose poles would be located respectively in Léopoldville and Johannesburg, at the moment when U.S. racialized nationalism shaped understandings of jazz? This thesis seeks to both deconstruct these representations and examine the power of black music to act—its “reality and non-existence”— depending on contexts, actors and places

Entre 1930 et 1970, brazzaville et leopoldville (actuellement kinshasa) ont entretenu une reciprocite d'influences qui s'est exercee sur plusieurs domaines. Dans le domaine economique, ces deux capitales -les deux capitales les plus rapprochees au monde en terme de distance- ont joue des roles complementaires. Leopoldville, capitale economique de l'afrique congolaise, a attire un grand nombre de brazzavillois grace a la densite de son tissu industriel. Dans le domaine culturel et social, les deux villes ont constitue un theatre unique d'innovations. Par le sport, la musique et les associations recreatives les jeunes urbains congolais ont tente d'influencer le rapport de forces colonial et de prendre possession de la "ville du blanc". Le domaine politique, particulierement bien observable a partir des annees 1954-56, a vue les congolais de brazzaville influencer de maniere considerable toute la marche vers la decolonisation au congo-belge. Avec les independances et les choix ideologiques divergents on a assiste a la naissance de nouvelles solidarites dans lesquelles les phenomenes ethniques demeurent un facteur decisif. Aujourd'hui, brazzaville et kinshasa continuent a vivre leur vicinite d'influences : pour le meilleur et pour le pire. .
Between 1930 and 1970 brazzaville and leopoldville (actually kinshasa) reciprocally influenced one another, and these influences spanned several domains. In the economic world these two cities, the two closest capitals in the world geographically speaking, played complementary roles. Leopoldvlle, economic capital of congolese africa, attracted a great number of brazzavillians due to industrial density within the city. In cultural and social spheres the two cities consisted of a unique theater with innovative behaviors. Through sports, music and cultural associations the young congolese tried to alger the colonial power structure and to take over the "city of whites. " noticeably between 1954 and 1956 the brazzaville congolese exerted a considerable influence within the political realm over the march towards the decolonization of the belgian-congo. With the independences and the opposed ideological choices, one awaited the birth of new solidarities and new evolutions in which the ethnic phenomenons continued to be the deciding factor. Today, brazzaville and kinshasa continue to live in their tight "vicinity of influence" : for better or worse. .

Dissertação de mestrado em História
A 23 novembro de 1959 foi criado dentro da estrutura do Ministério do Ultramar uma organização denominada Gabinete de Negócios Políticos, cuja função era auxiliar e obter informações para o ministro do Ultramar utilizar na sua actividade governativa. Tendo como base este gabinete, serão estudadas as relações entre o Congo- Léopoldville, Angola e Portugal, entre 1960, ano da independência do Congo belga, e 1965, ano em que Mobutu se torna chefe de Estado. O Congo tinha uma importância fundamental para Portugal. A sua independência irá ser decisiva para o início da guerra colonial em Angola, pois nele estavam instalados alguns dos movimentos de libertação que lutavam contra o regime português. Portugal vai seguir os sobressaltos do novo Estado, em especial a secessão do Catanga, de forma a proteger o seu império, num mundo marcado pela Guerra Fria e pela descolonização.
On 23 November, 1959 was created within the framework of the Ministry of Overseas an organization called the Office of Political Affairs whose function was to help and to obtain information to the minister of Overseas. Based on this case it will be studied the relations between Congo-Léopoldville, Angola and Portugal, between 1960, year of independence of the Congo (Leo), and 1965, year in which Mobutu becomes head of state. The Congo (Leo) had a fundamental importance to Portugal. Its independence will be crucial to the beginning of the colonial war in Angola, because some of the liberation movements that fought against Portuguese rule were installed in the Congo (Leo). Portugal will follow the surprises of the new state, specially the secession of Catanga, to protect his empire, in a world marked by Cold War and decolonization.