Albert Kalonji Ditunga (6 June 1929 – 20 April 2015) was a Congolese politician best known as the leader of the short-lived

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

ist state of

South Kasai South Kasai (french: Sud-Kasaï) was an unrecognised secessionist state within the Republic of the Congo (the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) which was semi-independent between 1960 and 1962. Initially proposed as only a province, ...

(''Sud-Kasaï'') during the

Congo Crisis The Congo Crisis (french: Crise congolaise, link=no) was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The crisis began almost immediately after ...

Early life

Little is known about Albert Kalonji's early life. He was born in 1927 or 1929 in Hemptinne, Kasai Province,

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. He attended Scheut Missionaries-run Catholic schools in Lusambo before studying at an agricultural school in Kisantu for five years.

Early career

Kalonji, a chief from the Luba ethnic group, began his political career under Belgian colonial rule as a member of the nationalist

Mouvement National Congolais The Congolese National Movement (french: Mouvement national Congolais, or MNC) is a political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. History Foundation The MNC was founded in 1958 as an African nationalist party within the Belgian Cong ...

(MNC) party led by

Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba (; 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June u ...

. Kalonji, however, split with Lumumba to form a federalist faction of the party, known as the Mouvement National Congolais-Kalonji (MNC-K), which failed to achieve significant success while Lumumba was made Prime Minister of the independent Congo in 1960.

South Kasai

Within days of being independent from Belgium, the new Republic of the Congo found itself torn between competing political factions, as well as by foreign interference. As the situation deteriorated,

Moise Tshombe Moise is a given name and surname, with differing spellings in its French and Romanian origins, both of which originate from the name Moses: Moïse is the French spelling of Moses, while Moise is the Romanian spelling. As a surname, Moisè and Mo ...

declared the independence of Katanga Province as the State of Katanga on 11 July 1960. Kalonji, claiming that the Baluba were being persecuted in the Congo and needed their own state in their traditional Kasai homeland, followed suit shortly afterwards and declared the autonomy of the

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...

-rich

on 8 August, with himself as head.The Imperial Collection: The Autonomous State of South Kasai
/ref> Unlike Tshombe, Kalonji shrank from declaring full independence from the Congo and rather declared its "autonomy" with a hypothetical, federalised Congo. He, as representatives of his party, continued to sit in the Congolese parliaments in

Léopoldville Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

. In emulation of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

, he adopted the

V sign The ''V sign'' is a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted to make a V shape while the other fingers are clenched. It has various meanings, depending on the circumstances and how it is presented. When displa ...

for victory to express his confidence in South Kasai's ability to achieve its goals. On 12 April 1961, Kalonji's father was granted the title ''Mulopwe'' (which roughly translates to "emperor" or "god-king"), but he immediately "abdicated" in favor of his son. On 16 July, In April 1961, Kalonji took the royal title Mulopwe ("King of the Baluba") to tie the state more closely to the pre-colonial Luba Empire. The act divided the South Kasaian authorities and Kalonji was disavowed by the majority of South Kasai's parliamentary representatives in Léopoldville. The move was controversial with members of Kalonji's own party and cost him much support. Kalonji's reign, however, proved to be short-lived. As preparation for the invasion of Katanga, Congolese government troops invaded and occupied South Kasai, becoming involved in ethnic-based violence and displacing thousands of Baluba. On 30 December, Kalonji was arrested. He did manage to escape shortly afterwards. The administrative apparatus of South Kasai survived, under Congolese occupation, until a coup d'état was led against Kalonjists by the state's Prime Minister, Joseph Ngalula, in October 1962 when the state returned to the Congo.

Legacy and subsequent activities

Escaping from arrest, Kalonji fled to

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. He returned to the Congo between 1964-65 to hold a ministerial portfolio in the central government led by Tshombe but returned to exile following Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's 1965

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

, which ended his political career. Under Mobutu, the territory of South Kasai was divided into two regions to discourage future secessionist tendencies. In exile in Europe, Kalonji still claimed the title ''Souverain Possesseur des Terres occupées par les Balubas'' (Sovereign Owner of the Lands occupied by the Baluba). He wrote about his experiences in ''Memorandum: Ma lutte, au Kasai, pour la Verité au service de la Justice'' ("Memorandum: My fight in Kasai in the Service of Truth and Justice", published 1964) and ''Congo 1960. La Sécession du Sud-Kasaï. La vérité du Mulopwe'' ("Congo 1960. The South Kasai Secession. Truth from the Mulopwe", published 2005). He died in April 2015 and was buried in Katende.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

RDC: décès d'Albert Kalonji Mulopwe
at Radio Okapi {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalonji, Albert 1929 births 2015 deaths African monarchs People from Kasaï-Central Luba people Mouvement National Congolais politicians Heads of state of former countries Heads of state of states with limited recognition Democratic Republic of the Congo anti-communists People of the Congo Crisis Governors of provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Pretenders Self-proclaimed monarchy 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people