Antoine Gizenga

Antoine Gizenga (5 October 1925 – 24 February 2019) was a Congolese politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 30 December 2006 to 10 October 2008. He was the secretary-general of the Unified Lumumbist Party (PALU).

Antoine Gizenga was born on 5 October 1925 in the small village of Mbanze in present day Kwilu province in what was then the Belgian Congo. He attended a Catholic missionary primary school and received his secondary education at the Kinzambi and Mayidi seminaries. He became an ordained Catholic priest in 1947 and led a parish out of his home in Kwilu. He left his position for personal reasons and took several clerical and accounting jobs. After briefly serving in law enforcement for the colonial government, Gizenga became a teacher at a secondary Catholic school. He soon thereafter married Anne Mbuba, with whom he later had four children.

Inspired by the nationalist and Pan-Africanist ideas of Patrice Lumumba, the co-founder of the Mouvement National Congolais, Gizenga helped to organize the Parti Solidaire Africain (which was openly left leaning). He later became the leader of the party. Following independence and free elections in 1960, Gizenga became Lumumba's deputy prime minister of the new Republic of the Congo.

In September, President Joseph Kasa-Vubu dismissed Lumumba and Gizenga from their positions for the former's decision to involve the Soviet Union in the Congo Crisis. Lumumba protested, and the government went into a deadlock over the issue. A coup launched shortly thereafter by Colonel Joseph Mobutu politically incapacitated both Lumumba and the President, though Mobutu soon developed a working relationship with the latter. Gizenga objected to the new government and left for Stanleyville on 13 November to form his own. On 12 December, he declared his government, the Free Republic of the Congo, to be the legitimate ruling authority in the Congo. Lumumba had attempted to join him, but was arrested and eventually executed in the State of Katanga in January 1961. Gizenga's government persisted for half the year and garnered diplomatic recognition from the Soviet Union, China, and Egypt, though it received no logistical support.

In August, Gizenga agreed to rejoin the regular Congolese government as deputy prime minister, now under the leadership of Cyrille Adoula. Aside from his reinstatement ceremony, he chose to stay out of Léopoldville and remained in Stanleyville. Gizenga soon realized that Adoula was under the influence of Western governments and willing to negotiate with rebel leader Moise Tshombe. He denounced Adoula and declared that the government was committing treason.

In January 1962 the Congolese Assembly demanded that Gizenga return to Léopoldville to hear charges levied against him for leading a rebel government. He replied that he would only come back when the Katangan secession was resolved. Gizenga then attempted to arrest Armée Nationale Congolaise Commander-in-Chief Victor Lundula and a UN official, both of whom were in Stanleyville to investigate the Kindu atrocity. The plan backfired when Gizenga's militiamen refused to obey his orders. Clashes between his regular supporters and Congolese soldiers ensued, resulting in several deaths. United Nations Secretary General U Thant ordered peacekeeping troops to restore order in Stanleyville, while Adoula had Gizenga placed under house arrest by UN and Congolese troops. He was flown back to Léopoldville via UN aircraft and detained at Camp Kokolo.

Gizenga turned down an offer of UN protection and was eventually imprisoned on the island Bula Mbemba which lies in the mouth of the Congo River. In July 1964 Tshombe became prime minister and, as part of an attempted political reconciliation, ordered Gizenga's release. In spite of this, Gizenga quickly organised a Lumumbist party and denounced Tshombe's handling of the Simba rebellion. As a result, Gizenga was placed under house arrest in September. Mobutu seized power in a coup in November 1965, thereby freeing Gizenga. He fled to Congo-Brazzaville, though he soon settled in Moscow to pursue a doctorate in political science.

Over the next couple of years Gizenga traveled to Egypt, Guinea, Mali, and Ghana to solicit support for the fractured and crumbling anti-Mobutu movement. In 1973 he briefly joined Laurent-Désiré Kabila's China-backed rebel group in eastern Zaire (as The Congo was then called), thereby losing Soviet support. He then moved to France, but was deported to Algeria. After briefly living in Angola, he returned to the Republic of the Congo before finally settling in Canada. Mobutu invited him to return to Zaire in 1977 to serve as a figurehead for opposition groups, but Gizenga declined.