ABAKO

The Alliance of Bakongo (Alliance des Bakongo, or ABAKO) was a Congolese political party, founded by Edmond Nzeza Nlandu, but headed by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, which emerged in the late 1950s as vocal opponent of Belgian colonial rule in what today is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Additionally, the organization served as the major ethno-religious organization for the Kongo people (also known as Bakongo) and became closely intertwined with the Kimbanguist Church which was extremely popular in the lower Congo. Because of its long exposure to the West and rich heritage of messianic unrest, the lower Congo region, homeland of the Kongo people, was the first area to emerge as a focal point of militantly anti-Belgian sentiment and activity. ABAKO and Kasa-Vubu spearheaded ethnic nationalism there and in 1956 issued a manifesto calling for immediate independence. The move came about as a response to a far more conciliatory statement by a group of intellectuals from other ethnic groups identified with the editorial committee of a Léopoldville newspaper, Conscience Africaine ("African Consciousness"). In it they gave their full endorsement to the ideas set forth by Belgian professor A. A. J. Van Bilsen in his 1955 essay, the Thirty-Year Plan for the Political Emancipation of Belgian Africa, sometimes known as the Van Bilsen Plan. Far more impatient in tone and radical in its objectives, the ABAKO manifesto stated: "Rather than postponing emancipation for another thirty years, we should be granted self-government today." The metamorphosis of ABAKO into a major vehicle of anti-colonial sentiment unleashed considerable unrest throughout the lower Congo region. In the capital city of Léopoldville (present-day Kinshasa) the party emerged as the dominant force: in the municipal elections of December 1957 ABAKO candidates won 133 out of 170 seats on the communal council, giving unfettered control of African communes into the hands of the party which advocated "complete independence.