Qualla: South Kasai

South Kasai: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit WessyTheBoy54, CC BY-SA 4.0. Albert Kalonji stood before the Leopoldville Parliament in the summer of 1960, declared the proposed cabinet "anti-Baluba," and announced his intention to form a sovereign state. Within weeks he had done it. On 9 August 1960, South Kasai proclaimed its secession from the newly independent Republic of the Congo. Unlike its larger neighbor Katanga to the south, South Kasai never formally declared full independence -- it claimed to be an autonomous part of a federal Congo. But it had its own constitution, its own postage stamps, and its own diamond exports to pay for both. Within two years it would also have its own massacres, described by the UN Secretary-General as "a case of incipient genocide."

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Image: WessyTheBoy54 | CC BY-SA 4.0

South Kasai: Old Wounds, New Borders

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The roots of South Kasai ran deep into colonial-era ethnic engineering. Before European rule, the region formed part of the territory once dominated by the Luba Empire, annexed by the Congo Free State in 1889. Belgian colonial administration reorganized the country into hierarchi...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

South Kasai: The Offensive That Became a Massacre

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Harry Pot for Anefo ]]), 1945-1989 - negatiefstroken zwart/wit, nummer toegang 2.24.01.05, bestanddeelnummer 910-9740, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba saw South Kasai as the first obstacle on the road to reclaiming Katanga. The breakaway state controlled critical railway junctions that the Congolese army needed for its southern campaign. When the United Nations refused to help suppress the secessi...

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Image: Harry Pot for Anefo ]]), 1945-1989 - negatiefstroken zwart/wit, nummer toegang 2.24.01.05, bestanddeelnummer 910-9740 | CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

South Kasai: A Kingdom of Stamps and Diamonds

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. South Kasai survived the initial assault, largely because the central government's attention shifted elsewhere. Kalonji's regime persisted in a strange twilight -- producing its own stamps and constitution while its leaders simultaneously served in the Congolese parliament. The s...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

South Kasai: The Fall of Kalonji

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The arrangement could not last. In December 1961, Kalonji was accused of ordering corporal punishment against a political prisoner. Parliament stripped his immunity, and the army arrested him in Leopoldville. A delegation of 400 Luba tribal elders who traveled to the capital to p...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

South Kasai: Echoes in Renamed Streets

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. After the secession ended, Bakwanga was renamed Mbuji-Mayi -- "Goat-Water" in Tshiluba -- as a gesture of Luba reconciliation. Nearly 2,000 loyalist soldiers went into hiding, waging a guerrilla campaign under General Mwanzambala until 1963, when they accepted integration into th...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain