PACA Stands with the People of the DRCongo Pan African Community Action (PACA) stands in solidarity with the Telema Movement and the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo in their clear unified demand to have a self determined future and the removal of President Joseph Kabila. The Congolese youth have spoken. They have taken to the streets to express their rejection of the Kabila regime’s attempt to stay in power even though his term limits have expired. After suffering for 15 years under the brutality of Kabila and his security forces, the people have decided they no longer want an elitist authoritarian regime. Instead, they want to hold democratic presidential elections in order that they themselves decide the future course of their nation. To PACA the self determination of the people of the Congo, is of upmost importance. We define self determination as a people, and/or a nation having full decision making powers over their own destiny, something that should be supported by all freedom loving peoples.
For centuries, European and Euro-settler societies have plundered the human and natural resources of the Congo. This exploitation has included the slave trade, colonialism, and today, neocolonialism. But at each stage the Congolese people have resisted efforts to undermine their right to self-determination. Some examples are Dona Beatrice and the Antonian movement to end the slave trade in the 17th century, Simon Kimbangu and the independent church movement in the early 20th century to stop colonial conquest in Africa, and the attempts of Patrice Lumumba, the country’s first president, to gain Congo’s independence. In fact, Larry Devlin, the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Congo station chief in the 1960s, admitted that the US made several assassination attempts on Lumumba’s life. Unfortunately, in 1961 the U.S. and its Congolese proxies were successful in murdering Lumumba, the man, but the current uprising shows they did not kill his ideas.
PACA follows in the tradition of George Washington Williams, an African from the US who in the late 19th century documented the genocide committed by King Leopold, the sole proprietor of Congo at the time. Similar to Black activists like Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka who protested at the United Nations and disrupted a meeting after learning of Lumumba’s CIA backed assassination, we stand side by side with OUR people who are fighting for selfdetermination in the heart of Africa.
In conclusion, we understand that the state violence occurring in the Congo is just one example of many that happens globally to African people from Kinsasha to Baltimore and from Baltimore to Bahia, Brazil. And since our oppression crosses borders so must our solutions. This is why Kwame Nkrumah, also overthrown in a CIA orchestrated coup, said:
“I see no alternative for the future of the Congo, except in the arms of a united Africa within the framework of a continental Union Government. Until this is achieved, the dangers facing the Congo will not only multiply but will be complicated by many factors which will involve the whole of Africa” (Challenge of The Congo, p. XVI)
In the words of the unified resistance in the streets of Kinshasa, "Kabila your mandate is finished!" While the removal of Kabila is progressive, the total liberation of the Congolese people can only be realized with the creation of a socialist United States of Africa. Forward ever to the liberation of the Congo! Backward never from the total liberation and unification of the entire African continent!
#BlackLivesMatter
#BlackPower
#Amandla
#ReactOrDie
#FeesMustFall
#Telema
#PanAfricanismOrPerish