ABAKO
Encyclopedia
ABAKO or Alliance des Bakongo was a cultural and political organization, headed by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, which emerged in the late 1950s as vocal opponent of Belgian colonial rule
History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Early Congolese history:The area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was populated as early as 10,000 years ago and settled in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. by Bantus from present-day Nigeria. During its history the area has also been known as Congo, Congo Free State, Belgian Congo...

 in what today is the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. Additionally the organization served as the major ethno-religious organization for the Bakongo
Kongo people
The Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...

 and became closely intertwined the Kimbanguist Church which was extremely popular in the lower Congo.

Because of its long exposure to the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

 and rich heritage of messianic unrest
Kimbanguism
Kimbanguism is a branch of Christianity founded by Simon Kimbangu in what was then the Belgian Congo . The church's name is the Kimbanguist Church , and is a large, independent African Initiated...

, the lower Congo region, homeland of the Kongo people, was the first area to emerge as a focal point of militantly anti-Belgian sentiment and activity. ABAKO and Kasa-Vubu spearheaded ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...

 there and in 1956 issued a manifesto calling for immediate independence. The move came about as a response to a far more conciliatory statement by a group of non-Kongo intellectuals identified with the editorial committee of a Léopoldville
Leopoldville
Leopoldville may refer to:* The capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, today known as Kinshasa* SS Leopoldville, a troopship sunk in 1944...

 newspaper, Conscience Africaine. In it they gave their full endorsement to the ideas set forth by Professor A.A.J. Van Bilsen
Antoine van Bilsen
Anton A. Jozef "Jef" Van Bilsen was a Belgian professor who, in December 1955, proposed a thirty-year plan for creating a self-sufficient independent state out of the Belgian Congo. The timetable called for a gradual change over 30 years, the time he estimated it would take to create an educated...

 in his newly published Thirty-Year Plan for the Political Emancipation of Belgian Africa. Far more impatient in tone and radical in its objectives, the ABAKO manifesto stated: "Rather than postponing emancipation for another thirty years, we should be granted self-government today."

The metamorphosis of ABAKO into a major vehicle of anticolonial protest unleashed considerable unrest throughout the lower Congo. In the capital city, the party emerged as the dominant force: the urban elections of December 1957 gave ABAKO candidates 133 communal council seats out a total of 170, thus vesting unfettered control of the African communes in the hands of the partisans of "complete independence." While the ABAKO victory at the polls greatly strengthened its bargaining position vis-à-vis the administration, in the countryside its local sections quickly proliferated, creating a de facto power structure almost entirely beyond the control of the colonial civil servants. In Léopoldville, meanwhile, the situation was rapidly getting out of hand. The turning point came on January 4, 1959, when Belgian administrators took the fatal step of dispersing a large crowd of ABAKO supporters gathered to attend a political meeting. Widespread rioting throughout the city immediately followed, resulting in the wholesale plunder of European property. When order was finally restored, at the price of an exceedingly brutal repression, forty-nine Congolese were officially reported killed and 101 wounded. A week later, on January 13, the Belgian government formally recognized independence as the ultimate goal of its policies. "It is our firm intention," King Baudouin I solemnly announced, "without undue procrastination, but without fatal haste, to lead the Congolese forward to independence in prosperity and peace." Although no precise date was set for independence, the tide of nationalist sentiment could not be stemmed. A year later, the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

 would be hurtling toward independence.

Its anti-Belgian orientation notwithstanding, ABAKO was first and foremost a Kongo movement. Its concentration on the past splendors of the Kongo Kingdom
Kingdom of Kongo
The Kingdom of Kongo was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

 and on the cultural values inherent in the Kikongo language was entirely consonant with its proclaimed objective of working toward the reconstruction of the Kongo polity, and, at one point, of advocating secession as the quickest way of achieving this all-consuming goal. Thus, while inspiring other groups of Africans to emulate its demands for immediate independence, another consequence of ABAKO militancy was to structure political competition along ethnic lines. Kongo elements in Léopoldville came into conflict with a group of Lingala
Lingala language
Lingala, or Ngala, is a Bantu language spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a large part of the Republic of the Congo , as well as to some degree in Angola and the Central African Republic. It has over 10 million speakers...

-speaking upriver people; in 1959 and 1960, the rivalry became a major trial of strength between the forces of ethno-regionalism and the claims of territorial nationalism.

A political party using the acronym ABAKO called the Alliance des Bâtisseurs du Kongo (Alliance for the Builders of Kongo) won three National Assembly seats in the 2006 general election
Democratic Republic of the Congo general election, 2006
General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 30, 2006, the first multiparty elections in the country in 41 years. Voters went to the polls to elect both a new President of the Republic and a new National Assembly, the lower-house of the Parliament.The polls were...

.
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