Jean-Chrysostome Weregemere

Jean-Chrysostome Weregemere
Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of the Congo
In office
2 August 1961 – 11 July 1962
President Joseph Kasa-Vubu
Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula
Minister of Justice of the Republic of the Congo
In office
11 July 1962 – 7 December 1962
Preceded by Rémy Mwamba
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
for South Kivu
In office
1960–1964
Personal details
Born 5 September 1919
Kabaré, Kivu, Belgian Congo
Political party Centre du Regroupement Africain
Rassemblement de l'Est du Congo
Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution
Children 9

Jean-Chrysostome Weregemere or Weregemere Bingwa Nyalumeke (5 September 1919 – ?) was a Congolese politician who led a faction of the Centre du Regroupement Africain. He served as Minister of Agriculture in the Congolese government from August 1961 until July 1962 and then as Minister of Justice until December 1962. Weregemere later held prominent positions in parastatals and sat on the central committee of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution from 1980 until 1985.

Weregemere was born in Kivu Province, Belgian Congo. After studying with various Catholic institutions and taking courses in medicine, he entered the workforce, but frequently ran afoul of the colonial authorities for engaging in political activities. In 1958 he cofounded the Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA), a political party. He successfully expanded its influence and became its secretary-general, but continued to be challenged by the Belgian administration. In early 1960 he accused the leadership of CEREA of communist sympathies and created a splinter party. In the Congo's first free elections later that year Weregemere won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. In August 1961 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture. In July 1961 Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula reorganised his government and Weregemere was made Minister of Justice. The appointment was not well received by the public, and following attempts by the Adoula Government to arrest members of Parliament, Weregemere was removed from his office by a motion of censure in the Chamber in December.

During President Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's tenure, Weregemere was given many board positions on various parastatals. In September 1980 he was inducted into the central committee of the state-sponsored party, the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution, where he served until his expulsion in 1985, allegedly for opposing a government appointment. He was thereafter banished to a remote farm in his home region and was restricted to leave to seek treatment for glaucoma. Following a measure of political liberalisation in the early 1990s, He reestablished CEREA and took part in the Conference Nationale Souveraine to discuss the restoration of democracy.

Biography

Early life

Jean-Chrysostome Werengemere was born on 5 September 1919 to a Muhavu family in Katana (near Kabaré), Kivu, Belgian Congo.[1][2] He received his primary education in Bukavu from Catholic missionaries until he was twelve.[3] He then studied via correspondence at a minor seminary in Katanga[1] for four years.[2] He studied medicine for two years and at the age of 21 took up work as a clerk in the Bukavu court of justice. He remained there until he was drafted by the administration for service during World War II. Since he had engaged in political activity, the Force Publique refused to enlist him, and he was instead assigned a post in the war production effort.[3] In 1948 Werengemere was fired from his job for involvement in politics. Unable to find to work in the Congo, he moved his family to Ruanda-Urundi where he was hired by a small accounting firm. He eventually became the president of a small sports and cultural organisation. In 1956 Werengemere was expelled from Ruanda-Urundi for political activity and returned to Kivu. He threatened to turn his family (including seven children; he would have nine in total) over to the care of the colonial authorities unless they allowed him to find work. The administration in turn asked him to promise to abstain from politics. Weregemere gave them an ambivalent answer but nevertheless was able to become an accountant.[4] In 1958 he became an agent for the Bralima Brewery in Bukavu.[2]

Leader of CEREA

On 23 August 1958 Werengemere joined 11 other Congolese in forming the Centre du Regroupement Africain (CEREA) party. Party members nominated him as chairman of the sectional committee for Bukavu and as a member of the political bureau, and he was appointed secretary of peasant affairs. He then successfully established CEREA in Kasongo. In 1959 Weregemere became secretary-general of the party. In that capacity he led CEREA's delegation to the Pan-African Movement for Eastern and Central Africa conference in Dar es Salaam.[2] That year all 12 founders of CEREA were arrested but eventually released.[4] In late October a nationalist party congress was convened in Stanleyville. Weregemere led the CEREA delegation and was elected vice-president of the conference. Civil unrest followed the congress and he was arrested and imprisoned.[2] He was released in Stanleyville, where he was closely monitored for six weeks. In late 1959 municipal elections took place across the Congo and Werengemere's name was inserted into the lists for the Bukavu council election. He encouraged the public to boycott the elections, but his wife was elected in his place in December to serve on the council.[4]

Werengemere attended the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in early 1960, but appeared later than the rest of the CEREA delegation. Upon his arrival he was disappointed to learn that the other delegates had employed a Communist adviser and endorsed federalism (contrary to the official party plank supporting a unitary system).[5] In April Werengemere accused the president and vice-president of CEREA of harbouring Communist sympathies and organised his own moderate branch of the party, CEREA-Werengemere.[6]

Government career

"Lumumba had not taken him as a minister because I had advised him against it...However, Lumumba appreciates the spirit of this wise and certainly intelligent man...Weregemere speaks provocatively and provokingly, which makes him unpopular. He is criticised for being egocentric..."

Anicet Kashamura's thoughts on Weregemere (translated from French)[7]

In the Congo's first elections later that year Werengemere earned a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, representing the South Kivu district on the Rassemblement de l'Est du Congo (RECO/REKO) party ticket[1] with 2,721 preferential votes.[8] He accompanied Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba on his trip to the United Nations Headquarters in July as his appointed Commissioner of Public Relations.[4] In August he led Lumumba's economic delegation to the United States. He spent four weeks in the country, meeting with dozens of representatives of private organisations, foundations, banks, business firms,[9] as well as United States government officials and delegates of the International Monetary Fund.[2] In September 1960 relations between Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu broke down, creating a political impasse. Werengemere then became a member of the parliamentary commission created to try and reconcile the two and acted as its spokesperson.[10][lower-alpha 1] In October he was made a member of a commission assembled by Lumumba tasked with managing his relations with the United Nations Operation in the Congo.[12]

Fearing for his life in the capital, Léopoldville, Weregemere fled to Bukavu on 9 January 1961. He was then arrested and tortured by local authorities and imprisoned in Stanleyville. Weregemere returned to Léopoldville, but was arrested. Shortly thereafter he was released to testify before a UN conciliation commission. He then went back to Stanleyville and became Minister of Information in the government of the rebellious Free Republic of the Congo, which tasked him with restoring order in Kivu in June.[13]

Following the Lovanium Conclave in July, on 2 August 1961 Werengemere was made Minister of Agriculture under Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula.[14][13] From 23 September to 5 October he led an agricultural fact-finding mission to the Republic of China.[15] In November he attended the 11th session of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Conference in Rome.[16] On 11 July 1962 Adoula reorganised his government and made Werengemere Minister of Justice.[14][13] The appointment proved unpopular throughout the country, and there were fears in Bukavu that it would lead to the reemergence of a radical polity.[17]

In November the Adoula Government decreed a state of military rule and arrested four deputies on charges of plotting rebellion. The Chamber was furious; on 23 November the body forced the government to rescind its actions.[18] Seven days later Weregemere submitted a request to the Chamber Bureau for authorisation to indict Deputy Christophe Gbenye on charges of subversion for allegedly appealing to President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana to send him troops to support his political activities. On 4 December a parliamentary committee was formed to investigate the claim. On 7 December it delivered its report to the Chamber, its members unanimously rejecting the allegation. That same day the Chamber called upon Weregemere to face a motion of censure for conducting arbitrary arrests of parliamentarians contrary to the constitution and thereby generating tension between Parliament and the government.[19] Though he pointed out that the November arrests had been conducted by the Ministry of Interior, the motion was passed, 76 votes to four with four abstentions, and he was dismissed.[20][21] The following year he led the Belgian delegation in negotiations on Belgo-Congolese litigation.[13] On 30 May 1964 he was appointed the central government's Minister-Resident in Stanleyville to oversee the activities of the Orientale provincial government.[22] He was relieved of his duties in July 1964.[13]

Later life

Under President Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's authoritarian rule, he was appointed Administrator of Parastatal Companies, and Government Representative on the board of directors of Joint Ventures. He successively served as a member of the board of directors of the Office des Mines de Kilo Moto,[lower-alpha 2] managing director of the Office des Mines de Kilo Moto, managing director of the Office des transports au Congo,[lower-alpha 3] vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Institut de Gestion du Portefeuille in charge of the mining sector, and director general of the Société Africaine d'Explosifs.[13]

Weregemere joined the central committee of the state-sponsored party, the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution, on 2 September 1980. He served in its premier bureau as second vice-president.[13] He was expelled from the central committee on 30 September 1985.[25][lower-alpha 4] According to Weregemere, this was because he opposed the government's choice for a new mwami in Kabaré.[26] He was subsequently banished to a remote farm in Katana. Though by then he suffered from glaucoma, the government refused to allow him to undergo eye surgery. As a result, Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience and called for his release.[27] In the early 1990s Mobutu, after years of totalitarian rule, agreed to institute political reforms in the Congo. With the possibility of renewed elections in Kivu, Werengemere joined a former colleague in reestablishing CEREA.[28] He participated in the Conference Nationale Souveraine as a member of the commission to oversee the national political transition towards democracy.[29]

Notes

  1. ↑ The commission exacted a promise from Lumumba to govern under the supervision of another parliamentary commission of which Weregemere was designated to be a member. The plan never materialised.[11]
  2. ↑ Mulumba and Makombo write that Weregemere was given this position on 14 September 1966,[13] while the executive order announcing the appointment is dated 9 September 1968 by the government gazette, Moniteur Congolais.[23]
  3. ↑ According to Gretton, Weregemere was at first appointed to the board of the Office on 27 January 1971.[24]
  4. ↑ Mulumba and Makombo write that Weregemere served in the central committee until October.[13]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 CRISP no. 120 1961, paragraph 94.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mulumba & Makombo 1986, p. 483.
  3. 1 2 Morrissett 1960, p. 49.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Morrissett 1960, p. 50.
  5. ↑ Merriam 1961, p. 168.
  6. ↑ Coleman & Rosberg Jr. 1964, p. 589.
  7. ↑ Kashamura 1966, p. 96.
  8. ↑ Bonyeka 1992, p. 386.
  9. ↑ Morrissett 1960, p. 34.
  10. ↑ Hoskyns 1965, p. 219.
  11. ↑ Artigue 1961, p. 311.
  12. ↑ Kashamura 1966, p. 159.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mulumba & Makombo 1986, p. 484.
  14. 1 2 Young 1965, p. 346.
  15. ↑ China Yearbook 1963, p. 263.
  16. ↑ "B. Delegates and observers attending the eleventh session of the conference". Food and Agriculture Organisation. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  17. ↑ Graviola 1968, p. 269.
  18. ↑ Young 1965, p. 364.
  19. ↑ Bonyeka 1992, p. 326.
  20. ↑ Masson 1970, p. 76.
  21. ↑ Weissman 1974, p. 185.
  22. ↑ CRISP 1965, p. 71.
  23. ↑ "Office des Mines d'OR de Kilo-Moto : Nomination - Membres du Conseil" (PDF). Moniteur Congolais (in French). 9 (18). Kinshasa: Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 15 September 1970. p. 1456. OCLC 225137192.
  24. ↑ Gretton 1971, p. 15.
  25. ↑ Sub-Saharan Africa Report 1985, p. 110.
  26. ↑ "Congo-Zaïre : l'empire du crime permanent, massacres dits de l'Île d'Idjwi et de Kabare". Le Phare (in French). Kinshasa. 14 August 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  27. ↑ Amnesty International 1987, p. 121.
  28. ↑ Boone 2014, p. 288.
  29. ↑ Republique du Zaire 1992, p. 347.

References

  • Artigue, Pierre (1961). Qui sont les leaders congolais?. Carrefours Africains (in French). 3. Brussels: Éditions Europe-Afrique. OCLC 469948352.
  • Amnesty International Report 1987. London: Amnesty International. 1987. ISBN 0 86210 125 5.
  • Bonyeka, Bomandeke (1992). Le Parlement congolais sous le régime de la Loi fondamentale (in French). Kinshasa: Presses universitaire du Zaire. OCLC 716913628.
  • Boone, Catherine (2014). Property and Political Order in Africa: Land Rights and the Structure of Politics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107729599.
  • China Yearbook : 1963–64. Taipei: China Government Information Office. 1963. OCLC 610369624.
  • Coleman, James S.; Rosberg Jr., Carl G., eds. (1964). Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical Africa. Berkley: University of California Press. OCLC 794016247.
  • Congo 1964 (in French). Brussels: Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques. 1965. OCLC 16518788.
  • Gaviola, Carlos A. (1968). Misión en el Congo: dos años con la UN en Kiw (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Kraft. OCLC 912150961.
  • Gretton, George, ed. (April 1971). Report on World Affairs. 52. London: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. OCLC 828213798.
  • Hoskyns, Catherine (1965). The Congo Since Independence: January 1960 – December 1961. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 414961.
  • "Onze mois de crise politique au Congo". Courrier hebdomadaire du CRISP (in French). Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (120): 1–24. 1961. doi:10.3917/cris.120.0001.
  • Kashamura, Anicet (1966). De Lumumba aux colonels (in French). Paris: Buchet. OCLC 465788990.
  • Masson, Paul (1970). Dix ans de malheurs; Kivu 1957-1967 (in French). 2. Brussels: M. Arnold. OCLC 872209409.
  • Merriam, Alan P. (1961). Congo: Background of Conflict. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. OCLC 424186.
  • Morrissett, Ann (1960). "Conversations with a Congolese Congressman". Liberation: An Independent Monthly. Vol. 5–6. New York. ISSN 0024-189X.
  • "MPR Central Committee Ends 10th Regular Session" (PDF). Sub-Saharan Africa Report. United States Foreign Broadcast Information Service: 109–111. 27 December 1985.
  • Mulumba, Mabi; Makombo, Mutamba (1986). Cadres et dirigeants au Zaïre, qui sont-ils?: dictionnaire biographique (in French). Kinshasa: Editions du Centre de recherches pédagogiques. OCLC 462124213.
  • "Rapport Final des Travaux de la Commission Sociale et Culturelle" (PDF) (in French). Kinshasa: Republique du Zaire. August 1992.
  • Weissman, Stephen R. (1974). American Foreign Policy in the Congo: 1960-1964. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801408120.
  • Young, Crawford (1965). Politics in the Congo: Decolonization and Independence. Princeton: Princeton University Press. OCLC 307971.
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