The paternalistic tendencies of Belgian colonial rule bore traces of two characteristic features of Leopoldian rule: an irreducible tendency to treat Africans as children and a firm commitment to political control and compulsion. The elimination of the more brutal aspects of the Congo Free State notwithstanding, Belgian rule remained conspicuously unreceptive to political reform. By placing the inculcation of Western moral principles above political education and apprenticeship for social responsibility, Belgian policies virtually ruled out initiatives designed to foster political experience and responsibility.

Not until 1957, with the introduction of a major local government reform (the so-called statut des villes [“statute of the cities”]), were Africans afforded a taste of democracy. By then a class of Westernized Africans (évolués), eager to exercise their political rights beyond the urban arenas, had arisen. Moreover, heavy demands made upon the rural masses during the two world wars, coupled with the profound psychological impact of postwar constitutional reforms introduced in neighbouring French-speaking territories, created a climate of social unrest suited for the development of nationalist sentiment and activity.

The publication in 1956 of a political manifesto calling for immediate independence precipitated the political awakening of the Congolese population. Penned by a group of Bakongo évolués affiliated with the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO), an association based in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), the manifesto was the response of ABAKO to the ideas set forth by a young Belgian professor of colonial legislation, A.A.J. van Bilsen, in his “Thirty-Year Plan for the Political Emancipation of Belgian Africa.” Far more impatient than its catalyst, the ABAKO manifesto stated: “Rather than postponing emancipation for another thirty years, we should be granted self-government today.”

Under the leadership of Joseph Kasavubu, ABAKO transformed itself into a vehicle of anticolonial protest. Nationalist sentiment spread through the lower Congo region, and, in time, the nationalist wave washed over the rest of the colony. Self-styled nationalist movements appeared almost overnight in every province. Among the welter of political parties brought into existence by the statut des villes, the Congolese National Movement (Mouvement National Congolais; MNC) stood out as the most powerful force for Congolese nationalism. The MNC never disavowed its commitment to national unity (unlike ABAKO, whose appeal was limited to Bakongo elements), and with the arrival of Patrice Lumumba—a powerful orator, advocate of pan-Africanism, and cofounder of the MNC—in Léopoldville in 1958 the party entered a militant phase.

The turning point in the process of decolonization came on January 4, 1959, when anti-European rioting erupted in Léopoldville, resulting in the death of scores of Africans at the hands of the security forces. On January 13 the Belgian government formally recognized independence as the ultimate goal of its policies—a goal to be reached “without fatal procrastination, yet without fatal haste.” By then, however, nationalist agitation had reached a level of intensity that made it virtually impossible for the colonial administration to control the course of events. The Belgian government responded to this growing turbulence by inviting a broad spectrum of nationalist organizations to a Round Table Conference in Brussels in January 1960. The aim was to work out the conditions of a viable transfer of power; the result was an experiment in instant decolonization. Six months later, on June 30, the Congo formally acceded to independence and quickly descended into chaos.