Force Publique

The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885 (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State) until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965.

Creation to Independence

The FP was initially conceived in 1885 when King Léopold II of Belgium, who held the Congo Free State as his private property, ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create military and police forces for the state. Soon afterwards, in 1886 Leopold dispatched a number of Belgian officers to the colony, as well as noncommissioned officers to undertake the creation of the actual military force. In order to ensure that European needs were met, the FP's officer corps was to consist entirely of these whites, who consisted of a mixture of Belgian soldiers, as well as mercenaries or other Europeans, usually looking to get rich off the Congo's tremendous resources, or were simply there for the allure and adventure of Africa.

Subservient to these Europeans was an ethnically-mixed African soldiery. Many of these "recruits" were cannibals from the fiercest tribes of the upper Congo while others had been kidnapped during the raids on villages in their childhood and brought to Catholic missions, where they received a military training in conditions close to slavery. The FP was constructed on the basis of defending Free State territory and combatting Arab slavers. Under Leopold however its main purpose was to enforce the rubber quotas, and other means of forced labor. The FP's aim was, more or less, to terrorise the local population. Armed with modern weapons and the chicotte — a bull whip made of hippopotamus hide —the FP routinely took and tortured hostages (mostly women, who were held captive in order to force their husbands to meet state demands, usually rubber quotas), flogged, and raped the natives. They also burned recalcitrant villages, and took human hands as trophies on the orders of white officers to show that bullets hadn't been wasted.

Not surprisingly, the organization was plagued with institutional problems throughout its history. During the early years of the FP, mutinies engineered by the black soldiers were commonplace, and by the early 1890s, much of the eastern portion of the colony came under the control of Arab slave traders (though Belgium was able to re-establish control over the east by the mid-1890s). Organizational problems were also quite prevalent during the Free State era, with many officers being stationed in remote areas of the territory, many took to using soldiers under their control to further their own economic agenda rather than focusing on military concerns.[1].

Following the take over of the Free State by the Belgium Government in 1908, the Force Publique was organised into 21 separate companies, along with a separate artillery and engineers unit. Each company was intended to have four Belgian officers and NCOs plus up to 150 askaris (African soldiers). There were 8 Congolese NCOs as part of this establishment. Belgian officers and NCOs replaced nearly all the multi-national Europeans employed under the Free State. The Troupes de Katanga constituted an autonomous force of six companies plus a cyclist unit.

In 1914 the Force Publique, inclusive of the Katanga companies totaled about 17,000 men. The majority of these served in small static garrisons with a primarily police role. Only the Katangese units were organised in batallions with a primarily military function. Much had been done to remedy the worst excesses of the Free State period and the Force Publique had become a more typical colonial army - well disciplined but with an inevitably repressive role. Most askaris were armed with single shot 11mm Albini Rifles. They continued to wear the blue uniform, red fez and sash of the Free State period until replaced by khaki during 1915-17. Initial enlistment was for a period of seven years.

During World War I an expanded Force Publique served against German colonial forces in the Camerouns, Ruanda, Burundi and German East Africa. They generally performed well, winning the respect of their British and Portuguese allies, as well as that of their German opponents.

For the remainder of the period of Belgium rule the Force Publique continued its joint military and police role, although a separate Gendarmerie was organised in 1959, drawn from the Territorial Service Troops of the FP. During World War II the FP provided detachments to serve with the Allied forces in Italian Eritrea and the Middle East.

Between 1945 and 1960 Belgium continued to organise the Force Publique as an entity cut off from the people that it policed, with recruits serving in tribally mixed units and no more than a quarter of each company coming from the province in which they served. Tightly disciplined and drilled the Force Publique impressed visitors to the Congo with its smart appearance but a culture of separateness, encouraged by its Belgian officers, led to brutal and unrestrained behaviour when the external restraints of colonial administration were lifted in 1960. The infamous chiquotte was only abolished in 1955. The Belgian Government made no effort to train Congolese commissioned officers until the very end of the Colonial period and there were only about 20 African cadets in training on the eve of Independence.

Post-Independence

On 5 July 1960, a mere five days after the country gained indepence from Belgium, the army (the Force Publique) near Léopoldville mutinied against its white officers (who had remained in complete command) and attacked numerous European and Congolese targets. The immediate incident sparking the mutiny was reported to have been a tactless speech made by the Belgian general commanding the FP to African soldiers at the main base outside Leopoldville, in which he stated that Independence would not bring any change in their status or role. General Janessen's intention may only have been to stress the need for continued discipline and obedience to orders but the impact on the soldiers, unsettled by the demands of maintaining order during Independence celebrations and fearful that they would be excluded from the benefits of the new freedom, was disastrous. The outbreak caused great alarm amongst the approximately 100,000 Belgian civilians and officials still resident in the Congo and ruined the credibility of the new government as it proved unable to control its own armed forces. Soon afterwards, the FP was renamed as the Congolese National Army (Armée Nationale Congolaise - ANC), and its leadership was Africanised.

This violence immediately led to a military intervention into Congo by Belgium in an ostensible effort to secure the safety of its citizens. The reentry of these forces was a clear violation of the national sovereignty of the new nation, as it had not requested Belgian assistance (See: Congo Crisis). The chain of events this started eventually resulted in Joseph Mobutu (Mobutu Sésé Seko), a former Sergeant-Major in the FP who had been promoted to chief of staff of the ANC by Patrice Lumumba, gaining power and establishing his dictatorial kleptocracy. His regime was to remain in power until 1997.