RELEASE OF CIA/RR GM 60-3, THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, 30 SEPTEMBER 1060, CONFIDENTIAL, TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01006A000100170001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 14, 1960
• Content Type: MF

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ATTENTION DD/AB/SS
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SUBJECT
Of ClAilltR QM 60.30
;Fusco? 30 September
Cleveramente
14 OCT 1860
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CNVI5ENTIAL Copy No 223
GEOGRAPHIC
INTELLIGENCE
MEMORANDUM
CIA/RR GM 60-3
30 September 1960
THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND REPORTS
WARNING
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within
the meaning of the espionage laws, Title 18, USC, Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or
revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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Approved For Release 2000/05/11: CIA-RDP79-01006A000100170001-8
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Introduction
The establishment of the new Republic of the Congo is complicated by a nota-
ble lack of physical and cultural elements that facilitate the development of
national unity. The virtually landlocked republic is practically coterminous
with the Congo River Basin, but the unifying influence of the river system is
limited by the great distances involved and the numerous interruptions to
river traffic. Unification is further complicated by the existence of a pot-
pourri of highly diverse peoples unevenly distributed over 909,000 square miles
of varied physical environments. Mineral resources are largely concentrated in
one province and are so situated that the most suitable avenues of export cross
foreign territory. The potential agricultural wealth has just begun to be
tapped and the lowest level of subsistence farming is still widespread. Admin-
istrative and technological training has been woefully inadequate, and local
educational facilities fall far short of meeting the needs of a modern state.
Population
No one knows precisely how many people live in the Congo; however, an offi-
cial estimate in 1958 indicated a population of some 13.5 million. The European
population in 1958, before the recent large-scale exodus, totaled only 113,000,
or less than 1 percent of the number of Congolese. Because of improving health
conditions and a higher standard of living the Congolese birth rate has in-
creased and the mortality rate has decreased. The population of the Congo, at
the current growth rate, will double in 30 years.
The people of the Congo are unevenly scattered throughout their vast terri-
tory, a land area almost as large as western Europe. More than half of the
Congo is sparsely occupied, and at least 10 percent is virtually uninhabited;
on the other hand, some areas are so overcrowded that resettlement projects
have been attempted.
The origin of the people of the Congo is obscure, but there is some evidence
that, between the 10th and 14th centuries, tribes belonging to the east and
south African linguistic family known as Bantu invaded the Congo and destroyed,
repulsed, subjected, or absorbed older ethnic groups. Today, most of the Con-
golese may be classified as Bantu. They are a collection of kindred peoples
rather than a race and are subdivided into hundreds of tribal affiliations each
with its distinctive social and political structures.
The non-Bantu people of the Congo include the Nilotic tribes in the north-
east, the Sudanese who pushed back or absorbed the Bantu in the north, and a
few remaining pygmies scattered throughout the east and north. Within the Congo
the behavior pattern of each group is distinct enough to make a visitor from
another tribe feel very much like a foreigner.
Cultural heterogeneity is one of the underlying causes of the current unrest
in the Congo. Tribal allegiances are deeply intrenched, and there is so little
awareness of belonging to a larger political entity that no single nation-vide
political party has been able to emerge. The basis of political strength is a
single tribe or a coalition of tribes. For example, the Abako (Association des
Bakongo), led by Joseph Kasavdbu, primarily represents the Bakongo tribes; the
Puna (Parti de l'Unite Nationale) is backed by the Bangala tribes) and the
Union Mongn by the Mongo ethnic group. The Union Congolaise, one of the first
Congolese political parties, was almost wiped out in the December 1959 elections
because it lacked a tribal base.
Most of the people of the Congo speak Bantu dialects; however, with some
exceptions, they are no more mutually understandable than are English and
German. Four of the Bantu dialects are understood over fairly wide areas and
by people of a number of tribes. Lingala has become the language of commerce
along the banks of the Congo River as far inland as Stanleyville and 18 taught
to all recruits of the Force Publique. A degraded form of Swahili, the lingua
franca of East Africa, is spoken in the eastern Congo. Kikongo is the speech
of the lower Congo and Baluba of Kasai and part of Katanga.
The basic form of settlement in the Congo is the agricultural village based
on subsistence farming. A settlement may range in size from a hamlet with per-
haps no more than a half-dozen families to an agglomeration with several hundred
.CCNEIDEN-TlictO
individuals. Under traditional methods of farming the soil is quickly exhausted
and the village is shifted to a new site, where the process is repeated. Even-
tually, as the soil recovers its productivity, the village may return to its
original site. Villages dependent on hunting, fishing, and grazing also shift
their locations as the available resources are depleted.
Traditionally, the primary occupations have been subsistence farming, hunt-
ing, and fishing. As recently as 1940, only 19 percent of the adult male Afri-
cans had been absorbed into the modern economy. By the end of 1957, however,
the proportion had risen to 37 percent as rural villagers were attracted by
varied labor demands of the mines, plantations, and large cities. The strong
cityward drift has resulted in an impressive urban growth, but the preponderance
of young men in the cities and women in the rural areas has created new social
and economic problems. In 1945, less than 10 percent of the African population
lived in the non-rural centers. By 1958, the percentage bad increased to about
23 percent.
The average Congolese has had little or no formal education, aeldom going
beyond the primary.grades. As of March 1960, there was not a Congolese in the
Congo who was a doctor, lawyer, or engineer; only about 10 Congolese were uni-
versity graduates, and less than 500 Congolese students were enrolled in the
two recently established local universities. Probably no more than 75 Con-
golese students were in schools abroad. Most of the workers are still unskilled
and able to use only the simplest of tools. Numbering in the thousands, however,
is a recently urbanized group that has learned to use and maintain relatively
complicated modern machinery and has attained a standard of production varying
from 50 to 70 percent of that of European workers.
Economy
The economy of the Congo is sustained by mineral production and associated
metallurgical plants and by commercial agriculture. The majority of the Con-
golese continue to live at a subsistence or near-subsistence level, contribut-
ing little to and drawing little upon the potential wealth of the nation. This
wealth is primarily located in the mineral-producing Katanga Province, in the
extreme southeast.
The mineral and metallurgical industries in 1959 employed roughly 10 percent
of the wage-earning labor force, but accounted for 62 percent of the total value
of all exports. In the 1954-58 period, the Congo produced 72 percent of the
world's industrial diamonds, 60 percent of the cobalt (mine basis), 10 percent
of the beryl, 10 percent of the tantalum-columbium concentrates, 8 percent of
the tin (mine basis), 7 percent of the copper, and significant amounts of ger-
manium and uranium. Copper Was the largest single source of foreign exchange.
The bulk of these materials were exported by rail to the Portuguese ports of
Lobito in Angola and Beira in Mozambique in preference to the costly internal
rail-and-water route to the port of Matadi within the Congo.
The wide range of climates in the Congo permits the growing of a variety of
crops. The typical monotonous climate of the tropics prevails throughout the
country, but latitude and altitude introduce discernible variations. Only the
area within 3 or 4 degrees north and south of the equator is without some dry
weather, but real dry seasons occur in the extreme north (December through
February) and in the south (May through October). Annual rainfall is not high
for the tropics -- 50 inches in the south and 70 inches in the north. Daily
maximum temperatures generally reach the high 80's or low 90's, except in the
eastern highlands, where both temperature and humidity are lower.
As of 1959 the agricultural sector of the modern economy employed almost 3
times as many wage earners as the mining industry and provided 38 percent of
the total value of all exports -- primarily palm oil, coffee, cotton, and rubber.
Of these only palm oil comprises a significant share of the world's agricultural
production. Under Belgian administration, the Congo bad the most efficient
oil-palm industry in Africa and exported well over 25 percent of the world's
supply. Coffee production has increaded rapidly during the past 2 decades and
could continue to increase if current markets for coffee are maintained and the
extension of credit continues. Cotton, the third most valuable export crop, is
important primarily as a "civilizing agent" through 'which Congolese families
are introduced to a money economy. The production of rubber, the fourth ranking
export crop, has increased greatly; and, although the Congolese cultivated only
CONFIIIET
TERRAIN
Plains
MHan
ME Mountains
Oa Major fOrefted area
COMMERCIAL
AGRICULTURE
tit Cotton
Oil palm
Coffee
ED Rubber
C244F+951:411.41
17 percent of the acreage in bearing trees in 1957, they owned 30 percent of the
acreage in young trees.
The majority of the Congolese, however, continue to be subsistence farmers
who raise manioc, plantains, maize, and rice. Except in northern Kivu Province,
manioc is the dominant food crop throughout the Congo. Other major food crops
include plantains in Orientale and northern Kivu, maize in southern Kasai, and
rice in northern Kasai, eastern Kivu, and Orientale. Despite the possession of
large areas suitable for cattle raising, the Congo has proportionally fewer
cattle than neighboring countries, and stock raising among the Congolese has
lagged behind that of the Belgian colon.
Transportation
Major lines of internal communication are commonly a combination of river,
rail, and road Iransport that necessitates numerous transshipments during the
course of a single journey.
The heart of the Congo is a large central basin ringed with higher ground
except for the narrow gap in the vest through which the Congo River reaches the
sea. The Congo-Lualaba and the Congo-Kasai river systems drain an area of
nearly 1.5 million square miles, but river courses are interrupted by falls and
rapids that reduce their value as economical inland waterways. Even the lower
Congo, the outlet for this vast river system, is interrupted by 32 cataracts
with a combined drop of 870 feet between Leopoldville and Matadi.
Through transportation to coastal ports is possible only by traversing the
territory of other nations. Most sizable centers of population and industry
have developed along the 9,000 miles of navigable inland waterways that serve
all but the extreme southern and northeastern sections of the country. The
Congo-Lualaba river system is the major avenue of transport to the north and
east, the Congo-Kasai system to the southwest. On some waterways, seasonal
fluctuations of the water level can be as much as 18 feet, and transport is
frequently restricted or interrupted during the dry season. Although the Congo
below Leopoldville is not navigable, the important routes from Leopoldville to
Stanleyville via the Congo River and from Leopoldville to Port Francqui via the
Congo and Kasai Rivers are navigable without interruption the year round.
The railroads of the Congo were constructed to link navigable sections of
river or to reach areas without navigable waterways and do not provide uninter-
rupted through routes. The 3,000 miles of narrow-gauge railroad are all single
tracked and are characterized by steep grades, sharp curves, and 'numerous
bridges. Traffic on railroads is interrupted by landslides and washouts and by
law water on connecting inland waterways. Because no alternate routes exist,
rerouting is impossible when interruptions occur. In addition to the direct
rail line to Lobito in Angola, which carries 56 percent of the mineral exports
of the Katanga, the southern Congo is connected by rail with the ports of Beira
and Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, on the Indian Ocean, and with ports of the
Union of South Africa. Only by transshipment over inland waterways can rail
cargoes from the Katanga reach Matadi, the largest deep water port in the Congo,
or Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika, on the Indian Ocean.
Highway transport occupies an important supplementary position in the econo-
my of the country. The 86,000 miles of highways are used primarily for hauling
ores and minerals to railheads or river ports and for short-distance movement
of agricultural products. The Belgian Government's economic policy favored de-
velopment of inland waterways and rail links rather than a system of national
highways in a modern sense. Poor road foundations, narrow roads and bridges,
and numerous ferry crossings limit long distance highway traffic. A few roads
in the vicinity of Leopoldville, Matadi, Elizabethville, and Bukavu have paved
surfaces, but most highways are, at best, graveled and may be impassable at
times during the rainy season. Detours around obstructions are often impracti-
cal because of soft ground, jungle foliage, or rough terrain.
Air transportation has been of growing importance, particularly for Euro-
peans, and has served to complement rather than compete with rail and water
routes. Three of the airfields are capable of handling the largest of jet
transports and a total of 37 localities were served by scheduled flights of
DC-3's or larger aircraft. The remainder of the more than 200 air facilities
are small strips used for air ambulance, charter service, and private flying.
Few airfields are equipped with lights and many of the smaller ones are not
usable during wet weather.
GANHOftlitAt,
III
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Approved For Release 2000/05/11: CIA-RDP79-01006A000100170001-8