Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the

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 ...

in 1914. It was one of the eleven

provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Article 2 of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo divides the country into the capital city of Kinshasa and 25 named provinces. It also gives the capital the status of a province. Therefore, in many contexts Kinshasa is ...

between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika,

Haut-Lomami Haut-Lomami (French for "Upper Lomami") is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Haut-Lomami, Haut-Katanga, Lualaba, and Tanganyika provinces are the result of the dismemberment ...

, Lualaba, and Haut-Katanga provinces. Between 1971 and 1997 (during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko when Congo was known as

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

), its official name was Shaba Province. Katanga's area encompassed . Farming and ranching are carried out on the Katanga Plateau. The eastern part of the province is considered to be a rich mining region, which supplies

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

, tin,

radium Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rathe ...

, uranium, and

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, ...

s. The region's former capital, Lubumbashi, is the second-largest city in the Congo.

History

Copper mining in Katanga dates back over 1,000 years, and mines in the region were producing standard-sized

ingots An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedure of sha ...

of copper for international transport by the end of the 10th century CE. In the 1890s, the province was beleaguered from the south by Cecil Rhodes'

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodes ...

, and from the north by the

, the personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium. Msiri, the King of Katanga, held out against both, but eventually Katanga was subsumed by the Belgian Congo. After 1900, the Societe Generale de Belgique practically controlled all of the mining in the province through Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK). This included uranium,

, copper,

, zinc, cadmium, germanium, manganese,

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

, and tin. In 1915, a deposit of pitchblende and other uranium minerals of a higher grade than had ever been found before anywhere in the world and higher than any found since were discovered at Shinkolobwe. The discovery was kept secret by UMHK. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

ended a factory was built at

Olen Olen may refer to: Places * Olen, Belgium, a municipality in the province of Antwerp, Belgium * Olen, Russia, a village in Tula Oblast, Russia * Ølen, a former municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway ** Ølensjøen, a village formerly withi ...

; the secrecy was lifted at the end of 1922 with the announcement of the production of the first gram of radium from the pitchblende. By the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the mining companies "constituted a state within the

". The Shinkolobwe mine near

Jadotville Likasi (formerly official names: Jadotville (French language, French) and Jadotstad (Dutch language, Dutch)) is a city in Haut-Katanga Province, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Demographics Likasi has a population of around ...

(now Likasi) was at the centre of the Manhattan Project. In 1960, after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called Republic of the Congo) gained independence from Belgium, the UMHK, Moise Tshombe and Godefroid Munongo supported the

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 l ...

of Katanga province from the Congo. This was supported by Belgium but opposed by the Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. This led to the assassination of Lumumba and the Katanga Crisis (or "Congo Crisis"), which lasted from 1960 to 1965. The breakaway State of Katanga existed from 1960 to 1963. In 2005, the new constitution specified that Katanga was to be split up into separately administered provinces. Militias such as

Mai Mai Kata Katanga Mai-Mai Kata Katanga, also called Mai-Mai Bakata Katanga, is a ''mai-mai'' rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which advocates the independence of the Congo's Katanga Province. It was formed shortly after the group's leader, Géd ...

led by Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga fought for Katanga to secede, and his group briefly took over the provincial capital Lubumbashi in 2013. In 2015, Katanga Province was split into the constitutional provinces of Tanganyika,

, Lualaba, and Haut-Katanga.

Economy

Copper mining is an important part of the economy of Katanga province. Cobalt mining by individual contractors is also prevalent. A number of reasons have been advanced for the failure of the vast mineral wealth of the province to increase the overall standard of living. The local provincial budget was US$440 million in 2011.

Mining

Lubumbashi, the mining capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a hub for many of the country's biggest mining companies. The Democratic Republic of Congo produces "more than 3 percent of the world’s copper and half its

, most of which comes from Katanga". Major mining concessions include Tilwezembe and Kalukundi.

Mining companies

* Gécamines, (''La Générale des Carrières et des Mines'', the former UMHK), the state-owned copper-cobalt mining company, had monopoly concessions in the province. * Katanga Mining Ltd ''TSX:KAT'' operates a major mining complex in Katanga province, producing refined copper and cobalt with the "potential of becoming Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s largest cobalt producer". Katanga Mining Ltd is majority-owned by Swiss commodity trader Glencore DCC. A joint venture of Katanga Mining (75%) and Gécamines (25%) began mining Tilwezembe, an open-pit copper and cobalt mine, in 2007.

Geography

The province bordered Angola and formed the entire Congolese border with Zambia. It also bordered Tanzania – although on Lake Tanganyika rather than on land. Katanga has a wet and dry season. Rainfall is about . The province was divided in 2015 into five successor provinces, based on the districts of Katanga at that time: File:Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 provinces) - Lualaba.svg , Lualaba Province File:Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 provinces) - Lomami.svg , Lomami Province File:Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 provinces) - Haut-Lomami.svg ,

Province File:Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 provinces) - Haut-Katanga.svg , Haut-Katanga Province File:Democratic Republic of the Congo (26 provinces) - Tanganyika.svg, Tanganyika Province

Education and medical care

The

University of Lubumbashi The University of Lubumbashi (), also known by the acronym UNILU, is one of the largest universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located in Lubumbashi in Haut Katanga Province, previously Katanga Province. The campus is locate ...

, located in the northern part of Lubumbashi city, is the largest university in the province and one of the largest in the country. TESOL, the English Language School of Lubumbashi, is a secondary school that serves the expatriate community. It was founded in 1987 on the grounds of the French School, Lycée Français Blaise Pascal, which suspended operations in 1991 with a new French School starting in 2009. Katanga province has the highest rate of

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...

in the world, with 184 of 1000 babies born expected to die before the age of five. Katanga provincial parliament building

Transportation

The Congo Railway provides Katanga Province with limited railway service centered on Lubumbashi. Reliability is limited. Lubumbashi International Airport is located northeast of Lubumbashi. In April 2014, a train derailment killed 63 people.

People

* Laurent-Désiré Kabila, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo * Moise Tshombe, former president of the breakaway State of Katanga *

Barbara Kanam Barbara Kanam (born September 27, 1973) is a Congolese singer-songwriter, music producer and actress. Early life and work Kanam was born in Bukavu, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1991 (the year she became involved in m ...

, popular singer *

Frédéric Kibassa Maliba Frédéric Kibassa Maliba (28 December 1939 – 5 April 2003) was a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kibassa held the positions of Deputy Minister of Mines and then Minister of Mines in the Laurent-Désiré Kabila governme ...

, former opposition leader and president of UDPS * Odilon Kafitwe wa pa Bowa, former national minister of Zaire and leader of UFERI * Lunda Bululu, former prime minister of Zaire * Godefroid Munongo, politician

References

External links

The United Nations and the CongoRush and Ruin: The Devastating Mineral Trade in Southern Katanga
{{Authority control Former provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1966–2015) Haut-Lomami Tanganyika Province 1966 establishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2015 disestablishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Provinces of the Belgian Congo