Jean-Baptiste Kibwe

Jean-Baptiste Kibwe Pampala Uwitwa (Kilwa, 3 March 1924 — Brussels, 21 November 2008) was a Congolese-Katangese politician who was the Minister of Justice and Vice-President of the State of Katanga.

Jean-Baptiste Kibwe
Minister of Finance of the State of Katanga
In office
4 August 1960 – 21 January 1963 (end of the secession)
Personal details
Born3 March 1924
Kilwa, Belgian Congo[1]
Died21 November 2008(2008-11-21) (aged 84)
Brussels, Belgium[2]
Political partyConfédération des associations tribales du Katanga

Early life
The Belgian Congo Bank in Léopoldville, around 1942.

Jean-Baptiste Kibwe was a Bwile, population group which mostly lives around Lake Mweru, Pweto territory. He attended primary school and four years of Catholic secondary school. Afterwards, he worked for the railway firm of the Comité spécial du Katanga (CSK) for a year. From 1948 to 1949, he was a clerk at the Banque du Congo belge. In 1949, he became a civil servant working for the Belgian colonial administration until 1956. From 1954 to 1956, he was a judge at the municipal court of Élisabethville.[3] In 1956, he quit the colonial administration to take up a mandate at the customary tribunal.[4]

Political career

When the provincial governor Moïse Tshombe of the newly independent Congo proclaimed the independence of his province, Kibwe first became the Minister of Finance, and then from 30 August 1960, Vice-President of the Ministerial Council. Together with Tshombe and Godefroid Munongo, he was one of the strongmen of the newly installed regime.[5]

Involvement in Lumumba's murder

Kibwe's name is often cited as a major player in the murder of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. On the day when Lumumba, Joseph Okito, and Maurice Mpolo were transferred from Léopoldville to Élisabethville, Kibwe was doing a few test rounds of Austrian jeeps, together with Secretary of State of Public Works Gabriel Kitenge. Munongo, on his way to Luano airport, told Kibwe that "three packages" would be delivered, namely the three Léopoldville politicians. Later that day, Kibwe attended the execution of Lumumba and his two colleagues, about sixty kilometres from Élisabethville.[6]

Later life

After the secession ended in 1963, Kibwe was a candidate in the election to become provincial President of the newly created Katanga Oriental province. He obtained eight votes, and lost against Édouard Bulundwe, who obtained thirteen votes out of a total of twenty-one provincial deputies. He became the provincial Minister of Finance under Bulundwe.[7]

In 1965, the year of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's second coup d'État, the new president appointed Kibwe as administrator for Union Minière du Haut-Katanga for a brief period.[8] After the nationalisation of Union Minière, when the Belgian company became the Congolese company Gecomin, later Gécamines, Kibwe became the President of the Administrative Board.[9]

In February 1968, Kibwe was arrested and condemned to penal servitude.[10]

In 1976, Kibwe went to Luanda, Angola, and approached the anti-Mobutu Congolese National Liberation Front (FLNC) rebels, who would try to overthrow the president of the renamed Zaire twice during the Shaba I and Shaba II wars. The representative of Kibwe, Deogratias Symba, was a notable personality within the FLNC, but rebel leader Nathanaël Mbumba tried to arrest Kibwe, who succeeded in escaping through the help of the Belgian ambassador.[11] Between the two Shaba wars, Mobutu pushed through several political reforms and political purges. In this context, he dismissed Jean Nguza Karl-i-Bond, Tshombe's nephew, from his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, citing an alleged collusion with Kibwe a few months before Shaba I in which he allegdly was informed of an imminent attack.[12]

Kibwe was an MP for the non-armed opposition during the political transition period from 2003 to 2006.[13] On 16 July 2001, Kibwe testified in front of the Belgian Parliamentary Commission regarding the assassination of Lumumba.[14] In November of the same year, he was arrested in Lubumbashi and transferred to Kinshasa, probably within the context of his testimony for the Lumuba commission.[15] He also exercised a function at the Katebe Katoto foundation.[16]

Further reading
  • Rich, Jeremy. "Kibwe, Jean-Baptiste". In Akyeampong, Emmanuel K.; Gates, Henry Louis (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.50560. Retrieved 16 January 2021.

References
  1. Rich, Jeremy. "Kibwe, Jean-Baptiste". In Akyeampong, Emmanuel K.; Gates, Henry Louis (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.50560. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  2. "RDC: décès d'un important artisan de la Sécession Katangaise". RTBF. 22 November 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  3. Rich, Jeremy. "Kibwe, Jean-Baptiste". In Akyeampong, Emmanuel K.; Gates, Henry Louis (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.50560. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  4. Jean Omasombo Tshonda, ed. (2018). Haut-Katanga: Lorsque richesses économiques et pouvoirs politiques forcent une identité régionale. Tome 1: Cadre naturel, peuplement et politique (PDF). Africamuseum. p. 239.
  5. Jean-Philippe Rémy (28 November 2008). "Jean-Baptiste Kibwe, pilier de la sécession katangaise". Le Monde. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  6. "Enquête parlementaire visant à déterminer les circonstances exactes de l'assassinat de Patrice Lumumba et l'implication éventuelle des responsables politiques belges dans celui-ci" (PDF). Belgian Chamber of Representatives. 16 November 2001. pp. 764–766. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Entre 20h30 heures et 20h45, ce convoi s'est rendu à l'endroit où l'exécution devait avoir lieu, à plus ou moins soixante kilomètres de la ville. L'endroit avait, manifestement, été préparé à l'avance : une fosse avait déjà été creusée. Les prisonniers ont été placés devant cette fosse. Un policier désigné à cette fin les a abattus un par un, et ils sont ensuite tombés dans la fosse. Kibwe a assisté à ces événements.
  7. Jean Omasombo Tshonda, ed. (2018). Haut-Katanga: Lorsque richesses économiques et pouvoirs politiques forcent une identité régionale. Tome 1: Cadre naturel, peuplement et politique (PDF). Africamuseum. pp. 273–275.
  8. Jean-Philippe Rémy (28 November 2008). "Jean-Baptiste Kibwe, pilier de la sécession katangaise". Le Monde. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  9. Wolf Radmann (1978). "The Nationalization of Zaire's Copper: From Union Minière to Gecamines" (PDF). Africa Today. 25 (4): 43. JSTOR 4185805. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  10. Larmer, Miles; Kennes, Erik (2016). The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa: Fighting Their Way Home. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-253-02150-2.
  11. Larmer, Miles; Kennes, Erik (2016). The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa: Fighting Their Way Home. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-253-02150-2.
  12. Larmer, Miles; Kennes, Erik (2016). The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa: Fighting Their Way Home. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-253-02150-2.
  13. "RDC: décès d'un important artisan de la Sécession Katangaise". RTBF. 22 November 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  14. Fabrice Voogt (17 July 2001). "Congo Témoignage de l'ancien ministre des Finances de Tshombe à la commission Jean-Baptiste Kibwe a vu mourir Lumumba". Le Soir. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  15. "Kibwe aangehouden". De Standaard. 7 December 2001. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  16. Jean-Philippe Rémy (28 November 2008). "Jean-Baptiste Kibwe, pilier de la sécession katangaise". Le Monde. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
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