Marcel Bisukiro

Marcel Bisukiro was born on 27 September 1929{{efn|According to the Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques and Artigue, Bisukiro was born in November.{{sfn|CRISP no. 120|1961|loc=paragraph 98}}{{sfn|Artigue|1961|p=37}}}} in Kamayi, Rutshuru Territory, Kivu Province, Belgian Congo{{sfn|Artigue|1961|p=37}} to a Nyarwanda family. He attended middle school in Nyangezi. He later worked as a clerk for the Office dès produits agricoles du Kivu.{{sfn|CRISP no. 120|1961|loc=paragraph 98}}

Bisukiro cofounded the Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA) party in Bukavu in 1958{{sfn|Contribution à la connaissance des peuples|2002|p=36}} and assisted in establishing several new chapters.{{sfn|Artigue|1961|p=37}} He also acted as the commercial director of the party publication, Vérité.{{sfn|CRISP no. 120|1961|loc=paragraph 98}} Bisukiro had connections with foreign leftists and took a programmatic approach to his politics.{{sfn|Weissman|1974|pp=20–21}} In August 1959 Bisukiro was elected secretary general of the party.{{sfn|Artigue|1961|p=37}} That year he was also elected to the Kadutu communal council.{{sfn|CRISP no. 120|1961|loc=paragraph 98}} He attended the Belgo-Congolese Political Round Table Conference of January–February 1960 as a deputy delegate for CEREA{{sfn|The Belgo-Congolese Round Table|1960|pp=62–63}} and participated in the subsequent Economic Round Table Conference.{{sfn|CRISP no. 120|1961|loc=paragraph 98}}

File:First Congolese government.jpg shortly after its investiture; Bisukiro stands fourth from the left.]]

In the general elections of 1960, Bisukiro was elected by the Provincial Assembly of Kivu to serve in the Senate on a non-customary, CEREA ticket.{{sfn|Artigue|1961|p=37}} In June 1960 he was appointed by Patrice Lumumba to serve as Minister of External Commerce in his government.{{sfn|Artigue|1961|p=37}} After Lumumba's dismissal, he continued to hold the office under Joseph Iléo, but later in the year he fled the capital to take up the same portfolio in Antoine Gizenga's rival government. On 19 March 1961 Bisukiro founded a journal, Dignité Nouvelle, in Bukavu. Negotiations between various factions resulted in the investiture of a new government on 2 August under Cyrille Adoula, and he returned to his post as Minister of External Commerce in the central government.{{sfn|CRISP no. 120|1961|loc=paragraph 98}} On 13 April 1962 a motion of censure was tabled against him in the Chamber of Deputies. The petitioning deputies stated that his commercial activities in the private sector were constitutionally incompatible with his ministerial duties, accused him of scheming to sell Virunga National Park to foreigners, and suggested that he was of "non-Congolese" nationality. Though he was vociferously defended by Chamber First Vice-President Joseph Midiburo, following the debate the motion of censure was passed, 58 votes to six with seven abstentions, and Bisukiro was dismissed from his post.{{sfn|Bonyeka|1992|pp=323–324}} In November the Adoula Government decreed a state of military rule and arrested Bisukiro and three other parliamentarians on charges of plotting rebellion. On 23 November the Chamber forced the government to rescind its actions.{{sfn|Young|1965|p=364}} After ending his service in Parliament he worked as a businessman.{{cite web| url = http://www.virunganews.com/rdcmarcel-bisukiro-tabaro-pionnier-de-lindependance-oublie-par-le-gouvernement/| title = RDC:Marcel Bisukiro Tabaro, pionnier de l'indépendance oublié par le gouvernement.|language= French| last = Murangwa| first = Memeyi| date = 27 June 2010| website = VirungaNews| access-date = 23 April 2019}} In 1964 a new constitution was ratified that marginalised Rwandan immigrants. Bisukiro criticised it as discriminatory.{{sfn|The International Journal of African Historical Studies|1997|p=523}} On 1 July 2010 he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the National Heroes Kabila-Lumumba by President Joseph Kabila.

Bisukiro died on 7 June 2016. His body was flown to Goma on 12 July, where it was received at the airport by the Provincial Governor of Kivu and the President of the Provincial Assembly and given honours by the police. After a funeral procession toured the city, the body was brought to the locality of Kahanga, Rutshuru Territory and was buried in a family cemetery. A wake was held for him at the Rugabo II stadium in Rutshuru.{{cite web| url = http://acpcongo.com/acp/des-hommages-merites-a-goma-au-patriarche-marcel-bisukiro-tabaro/| title = Des hommages mérités à Goma au patriarche Marcel Bisukiro Tabaro.| date = 13 July 2016| publisher = Agence Congolaise de Presse| access-date = 5 September 2018| language = French}}

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{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book| last= Artigue |first= Pierre |title = Qui sont les leaders congolais?|series= Carrefours Africains| publisher = Éditions Europe-Afrique| volume = 3| date = 1961| language = French| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=24c5AQAAIAAJ|location=Brussels|oclc=469948352}}
• {{cite book| title = The Belgo-Congolese Round Table: The historic days of February 1960| publisher = C. Van Cortenbergh| date = 1960| location = Brussels| url = https://archive.org/details/TheBelgo-congoleseRoundTable |oclc = 20742268| ref= {{harvid|The Belgo-Congolese Round Table|1960}}}}
• {{cite book| last = Bonyeka| first = Bomandeke| title = Le Parlement congolais sous le régime de la Loi fondamentale| publisher = Presses universitaire du Zaire| date = 1992| location = Kinshasa| language = French| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=u9dEAQAAIAAJ| oclc = 716913628}}
• {{cite book| title = Contribution à la connaissance des peuples de l'Est de la R.D. Congo: cas des Hutu du Nord-Kivu| publisher = Droit et vérité| date = 2002| location = Kinshasa| language = French| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tY5zAAAAMAAJ| oclc = 52391170| ref = {{harvid|Contribution à la connaissance des peuples|2002}}}}
• {{cite book| title = The International Journal of African Historical Studies| publisher = Africana Publishing Corporation| date = 1997| location = New York| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UncMAQAAMAAJ| issn = 0361-7882| ref = {{harvid|The International Journal of African Historical Studies|1997}}}}
• {{cite journal| title = Onze mois de crise politique au Congo| journal = Courrier Hebdomadaire du CRISP| issue = 120| pages = 1–24| publisher = Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques| date = 1961| language = French| url = http://www.cairn.info/revue-courrier-hebdomadaire-du-crisp-1961-30-page-1.htm| location= Brussels| doi = 10.3917/cris.120.0001| ref = {{harvid|CRISP no. 120|1961}}| url-access = subscription}}
• {{cite book| last = Weissman| first = Stephen R.| title = American Foreign Policy in the Congo: 1960-1964| publisher = Cornell University Press| date = 1974|location= Ithaca| url = https://archive.org/details/americanforeignp00step| url-access = registration| isbn = 9780801408120}}
• {{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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{{Lumumba Government}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bisukiro Tabaro wa Kamonyi, Marcel}}

Category:1929 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:People of the Congo Crisis

Category:People from North Kivu

Category:Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Category:21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people