Katangaprovince, Democratic Republic of the Congo

historical region in southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, bordering Lake Tanganyika to the east, Zambia to the south, and Angola to the west. The name Shaba, the region’s name during the Zairean period, comes from the Swahili word for copper, and the region’s mines yield most of Congo’s copper, cobalt, uranium, zinc, cadmium, silver, germanium, coal, gold, iron, manganese, and tin. Local people used those minerals before the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century. Economic development since 1900 has brought about a complex of mining and industrial towns and transportation and communications networks, which make the region the most highly industrialized in Congo outside of Kinshasa, the national capital. Agriculture (cotton, tobacco, corn [maize], and vegetables), livestock herding, and poultry raising are also significant. The major towns of the region include Lubumbashi, Likasi, and Kolwezi. Upemba and Kundelungu national parks are in Katanga.

Katanga was under Belgian colonial administration from 1885 and was the scene of much strife following independence. In 1960, led by a local politician, Moise Tshombe, and supported by foreign mining interests, Katanga seceded from the newly independent Congo and entered into a period of political confusion and bloodshed involving Congolese, Belgian, and United Nations forces. After the fighting ended in 1963, the region gradually became reintegrated into the republic, while some rebel leaders took refuge in Angola. In 1977 they unsuccessfully invaded Zaire (as Congo was then called) from Angola, and unrest continued into the late 20th century.

African ruler, one of the most successful of the 19th-century immigrant adventurers and state builders in Central Africa.

About 1856 Msiri settled in southern Katanga with a few Nyamwezi followers, and by about 1870 he had succeeded in taking over most of this valuable copper region from its previous Lunda rulers. During the height of his power in the mid-1880s Msiri not only ruled directly a very large kingdom but also received tribute from neighbouring areas. His prosperity was largely based on the copper trade, though he dealt in slaves and ivory as well; thus his basic policy was to keep trade routes open toward both the east and west coasts. In the 1870s he began to trade with the Arab trader and state builder Tippu Tib. Msiri was especially interested in buying rifles, which he saw as absolutely necessary to his military strength.

Missionaries first entered Msiri’s kingdom in 1886. Of greater consequence, however, was the realization by other Europeans that Katanga was rich in minerals. Msiri refused to negotiate with the British South Africa Company, but in 1891 more importunate expeditions arrived from the Belgian king Leopold II’s Congo Free State. One tried to encourage rebellion against Msiri, who was fatally shot while negotiating with another expedition.

Though Msiri adopted older patterns of indigenous Lunda state building, he also introduced new political titles and ceremonies and made some changes in customary law. Of at least equal importance was the introduction by the Nyamwezi into Katanga of the sweet potato, smallpox vaccination, and a technique for making copper wire.

African nationalist leader, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (June–September 1960). Forced out of office during a political crisis, he was assassinated a short time later.

Lumumba was born in the village of Onalua in Kasai province, Belgian Congo. He was a member of the small Batetela ethnic group, a fact that became significant in his later political life. His two principal rivals, Moise Tshombe, who led the breakaway of the Katanga province, and Joseph Kasavubu, who later became the Congo’s president, both came from large, powerful ethnic groups from which they derived their major support, giving their political movements a regional character. In contrast, Lumumba’s movement emphasized its all-Congolese nature.

After attending a Protestant mission school, Lumumba went to work in Kindu-Port-Empain, where he became active in the club of the évolués (Western-educated Africans). He began to write essays and poems for Congolese journals. He also applied for and received full Belgian citizenship. Lumumba next moved to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to become a postal clerk and went on to become an accountant in the post office in Stanleyville (now Kisangani). There he continued to contribute to the Congolese press.

In 1955 Lumumba became regional president of a purely Congolese trade union of government employees that was not affiliated, as were other unions, to either of the two Belgian trade-union federations (socialist and Roman Catholic). He also became active in the Belgian Liberal Party in the Congo. Although conservative in many ways, the party was not linked to either of...