Unit 9: Lumumba

The prompt for this blog was: If Lumumba had been able to overcome the challenges to his rule and stay in power, would he have been able to keep the former Belgian Congo from falling apart? Would he have established the country as a democracy or become a dictator?

I doubt that he could have kept the country from falling apart. I believe that regionalism was too great an obstacle to overcome. Over all, I think his only hope for maintaining power - under the circumstances - would have been to consolidate power.

He wanted a strong and unified country and not division. A parliamentary government with the opportunity for different regions and factions to build coalitions might have succeeded. But, major deciding factor would have been just who was in control of the military. I just don't see Lumumba being successful in keeping all of the former Belgian Congo intact as a democracy. If the separatists had been able to break away and create independent states, he might have succeeded in maintaining a democracy in what regions remained. Or, he might have been forced to consider working toward a confederation of independent states. But, in order to keep the former Belgian Congo intact as a single state, I think some sort of dictatorship would have been necessary.