Justin Bomboko

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Justin Bomboko (1960)

Justin Marie Bomboko Lokumba (born September 22, 1928 in Bolomba , Equator Province, Belgian Congo ; † April 10, 2014 in Brussels ) was a politician of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who, along with Patrice Lumumba, was one of the fathers of the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo belonged, was foreign minister several times and at times prime minister. He was also the first Congolese to graduate from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 1955 .

Life

Co-signer of the declaration of independence and first foreign minister

Bomboko graduated from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) with a degree in sociology , making him the first Congolese to obtain a university degree there in 1955. During his studies he was president of the local union of students from the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Urundi (l'Union générale des étudiants du Congo belge et du Ruanda Urundi) . For some time he worked at the Institute for Sociology at the ULB.

After his return he became involved with Patrice Lumumba in the movement for the independence of the Belgian Congo colony from Belgium . Together with Lumumba, he was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence on June 30, 1960.

After independence as the Republic of the Congo on June 30, 1960, Bomboko, a member of the UNIMONGO (Union of Mongo) party, became the first foreign minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Lumumba. In the following years, Bomboko was encouraged by the then ambassador of Belgium in Kinshasa , Jean van den Bosch , to overthrow Lumumba. On August 8, 1960, the Congolese government under Patrice Lumumba declared a state of emergency, ordered the closure of the seven Belgian consulates and ordered Bosch to leave the state by noon on the same day, after which Bosch, escorted by United Nations troops, followed suit Ghana drove.

prime minister

In the course of this Congo crisis , Lumumba was finally overthrown on September 5, 1960 by Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu , the army chief of staff. After two subsequent brief transitional governments by Joseph Iléo and Albert Ndele , Bomboko finally became Prime Minister himself on October 3, 1960, as Chairman of the Council of Commissioners General. As General Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, he also remained Foreign Minister.

On February 9, 1961, President Joseph Kasavubu dismissed the college of commissioners set up by Mobutu during the coup and installed a new government under Prime Minister Joseph Iléo, Mobutu retired to his military function. However, Bomboko initially remained Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, before he only held the post of Foreign Minister in the government of Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula on August 2, 1961 . The office of foreign trade minister was then taken over by Marcel Bisukiro .

As part of a cabinet reshuffle, Bomboko was replaced as Foreign Minister by Auguste Mabika-Kalanda on April 18, 1963 and instead took over from Weregemere as Minister of Justice. For his services to the Congolese independence he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in 1963 .

In the government formed by Prime Minister Léonard Mulamba on November 28, 1965, Bomboko again took over the post of Foreign Minister, which he now also held in the later presidential governments under Mobutu until his replacement by Cyrile Adoula on August 1, 1969. Most recently, he held the title of Minister of State from March 5 to August 1, 1969.

On February 18, 1981, Bomboko, who was also ambassador to the USA and Belgium for some time , was again Foreign Minister and at the same time Vice Prime Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister (Premier Commissaire d'État) Nguza Karl-I-Bond . However, he lost these two offices just two months later after the end of Nguza Karl-I-Bond's tenure on April 23, 1981. After the end of Mobutu's tenure, he became a senator.

Bomboko died after a long illness in the university hospital of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fidelis Etah Ewane, The United Nations in the Congo from 1960-64 : Critical Assessment 2010 - 36 pp., 6.
  2. ↑ A few hours before Lumumba's news conference, his government declared a state of emergency throughout The Congo and ordered the immediate closing of Belgium's seven conulates in the vast Central African nation. The government also ordered Barone Jean Von den Bosch head of the Belgian diplomatic mission in Leopoldville, to quit th country before noon. see: Red Bank Register, August 9, 1960, UN Orders Belgian Troops Withdrawn (PDF; 9.3 MB)
  3. ↑ Peter Scholl-Latour , Matata am Kongo , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1961-307 pp., P. 76
  4. ↑ Gerhard Th Mollin, The USA and Colonialism: America as a Partner and Successor to Belgian Power in Africa , 1939–1965
personal data
SURNAME Bomboko, Justin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bomboko Lokumba, Justin Marie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Congolese Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Bolomba , Equator Province, Belgian Congo
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 2014
Place of death Brussels