Joseph Ngalula
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Joseph Ngalula
|image = 125px
|caption = Joseph Ngalula in the 1980s
|office = Minister of Education of the Republic of the Congo
|primeminister = Cyrille Adoula
|term_start = August 1961
|term_end = April 1963
|predecessor =
|successor =
|birth_name =
|birth_date = 12 December 1928
|birth_place = Lusambo, Belgian Congo
|death_date = 5 February 2001 (aged 72)
|death_place =
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|party =
|spouse =
|children =
|alma_mater =
}}
Joseph Ngalula Mpandajila (Lusambo, 12 December 1928 – 5 February 2001) was a Congolese writer and politician who played a prominent role in the Kasai secession of the early 1960s.
Biography
Joseph Ngalula was born on 12 December 1928 in Lusambo, Belgian Congo to a Baluba family. He undertook six years of primary education and five years of professional courses.{{sfn|CRISP|1961|p=119}} He was fluent in English and French.{{sfn|Othen|2015|loc=Chapter 5: L'Affair du Sud-Kasaï}} He served as editor of the publication Presence Congolaise, a weekly paper written by and for the Congolese population, which was placed as an insert within Le Courrier d'Afrique.{{Cite journal |last=Covington-Ward |first=Yolanda |date=2012 |title=Joseph Kasa-Vubu, ABAKO, and Performances of Kongo Nationalism in the Independence of Congo |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23215196?seq=17 |journal=Journal of Black Studies |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=72–94 |issn=0021-9347}} In June 1960 Barthélemy Mukenge was elected President of Kasai Province by the provincial assembly. Unhappy with the results, on 14 June the assembly opposition declared their own provincial government under Ngalula. On 16 June 1960 Ngalula was appointed Kasai Minister of Economic Affairs by Mukenge without consultation.{{citation| title = Mukenge Announces Kasai Government| publisher = Belgian Congo Home Service| location = Léopoldville| date = 16 June 1960| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EC8jAQAAMAAJ}} On 9 August Albert Kalonji declared that the south-eastern region of the province was seceding to form the Autonomous State of South Kasai and appointed Ngalula its Prime Minister.{{sfn|Nzongola-Ntalaja|2007|p=105}} In July 1961 the relationship between the two deteriorated, and Ngalula was driven into exile.{{sfn|Packham|1996|p=90}} Since he had been the person chiefly responsible for the organisation of the state, South Kasai's administration broke down following his departure.{{sfn|Young|1965|p=396}} He subsequently established his own political party, the Democratic Union, to oppose the Kalonjists.{{sfn|Packham|1996|p=111}} In August 1961 he was appointed Minister of Education under Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula. He held the post until April 1963.{{sfn|Young|1965|p=347}}
Ngalula was one of the Members of Parliament who signed an open letter to Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1980.{{sfn|Lettre ouverte au Citoyen Président|1980}} Later, he co-founded the opposition party UDPS, together with Étienne Tshisekedi, Marcel Lihau, and others. Because of his engagement in the political opposition to Mobutu, he was imprisoned, banished, and pardoned several times.{{sfn|Kisangani|Bobb|2009|p=396}}
There exists confusion over Ngalula's fate. According to some sources, he died on 5 February 2001 from a heart attack.{{cite web |author= |date=7 February 2001 |title=Congo-Kinshasa: Décès de l'un des Pères de l'Indépendance Congolaise |url=https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200102070385.html |website=allAfrica |access-date=14 March 2025}}{{cite web |author= |date=5 February 2024 |title=RDC: 23 ans déjà depuis que Joseph Ngalula, auteur du Manifeste de la Conscience Africaine, est décédé |url=https://rtnc.cd/rdc-23-ans-deja-depuis-que-joseph-ngalula-auteur-du-manifeste-de-la-conscience-africaine-est-decede |website=RTNC |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240206014341/https://rtnc.cd/rdc-23-ans-deja-depuis-que-joseph-ngalula-auteur-du-manifeste-de-la-conscience-africaine-est-decede |archive-date=6 February 2024 |access-date=14 March 2025}}{{cite web |last=Bastin |first=Jean-François |date=1 March 2018 |title=Filmer, de Haïti à Lumumba. Entretien avec Raoul Peck |url=https://www.revuepolitique.be/filmer-de-haiti-a-lumumba |website=Revue politique |access-date=14 March 2025}} Despite this, Emizet François Kisangani's historical dictionary of the Congo claims that Ngalula went on to be elected to the Senate in 2007.{{sfn|Kisangani|Bobb|2009|p=396}} However, in a more recent edition of the same work, Kisangani omits this and instead states that Ngalula already died in 1990.{{cite book|last1=Kisangani|first1=Emizet François|last2=Bobb|first2=Scott F.|title=Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo|date=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781442273153|page=473}}
Citations
{{reflist}}
References
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book| title = Congo 1960| publisher = Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques| series = Les Dossiers du C.R.I.S.P.| date = 1961| location = Brussels| language = French| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZA5AQAAIAAJ|oclc= 490898702| ref = {{harvid|CRISP|1961}}}}
- {{cite book|last1=Kisangani|first1=Emizet François|last2=Bobb|first2=Scott F.|title=Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvAWPTaRvFYC|date=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6325-5}}
- {{cite web|title = Lettre ouverte au Citoyen Président-Fondateur du Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution, Président de la République, par un groupe de parlementaires| publisher = | location = Kinshasa| date = 1 November 1980| url = http://www.politique-africaine.com/numeros/pdf/003094.pdf |ref={{sfnref|Lettre ouverte au Citoyen Président|1980}} }}
- {{cite book|last=Nzongola-Ntalaja|first=Georges|authorlink=Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja|title=The Congo, From Leopold to Kabila: A People's History|url=https://archive.org/details/congofromleopold00geor|url-access=registration|date=2007|publisher=Palgrave|location=New York|isbn=978-1-84277-053-5|edition=3rd}}
- {{cite book| last = Othen| first = Christopher| title = Katanga 1960–63: Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that Waged War on the World| publisher = The History Press| edition = illustrated| date = 2015| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d3MTDQAAQBAJ| isbn = 9780750965804}}
- {{cite book| last = Packham| first = Eric S.| title = Freedom and Anarchy| publisher = Nova Publishers| location = New York| edition = illustrated| date = 1996| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oVMV3YxfhrkC | isbn = 9781560722328}}
- {{cite book| last = Young| first = Crawford| title = Politics in the Congo: Decolonization and Independence|location= Princeton| publisher = Princeton University Press| date = 1965| oclc= 307971}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngalula, Joseph}}
Category:Possibly living people
Category:People of the Congo Crisis
Category:Members of the Senate (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Category:Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Category:Governors of provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Category:21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people