Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1960-08-14

Just as the Congo province
which now bears his name, King
Katanga's realm was bordered by
Luvua River in the north, by Lake
Moero in the east. by the Lualaba
River in the west and by the Fam
best watershed in the south.
Great herds of antelope and
rogue elephants roamed the i'm
mense grasslandS, and bands Of
Arab Slavers lurked along the
waterways. At night they would
SWoop down on some Bantu viii
lage, set fire to a hut or two for
light, loot the other huts of their
treasure in ivory and of the hap
less indwelling family's utensils.
then round up the young and the
able-bodied among the sinistrated
trlbesmen, and sail doWnstre0 m
towards the slave markets, after
finishing off the wounded, the old
and the infants.
When the first Belgians ap-
peared on the scene under the
leadership of Capt. William Grant
Stairs "a Canadian adventurer
from Halifax, Katanga was ruled
by the son of an Arab SLAYER, King
MuShidi
Mushidi was killed during the
Belgian take-over, and when the
Arab SlaverS showed up on tire
Luvua River they were met with
musket fire by the Belgians. Bel
gian mining men came in 1892
under the leadership of a famous
geologist. DR.. Jules Cornet. The
latter did not find the gold de-
posts he was seeking, but saw
plenty of outcroppingS of copper
ore and of cassiterite tin ore.
which he noted on the map.
BeIeion Compony Formed
On October 80. 1906. after fur
Their exploration had revealed the
presence Of zinc, silver, gold, cobalt
and of whole galaxy of other
minerals, some Belgian and Brit
lsh capitalists founded a company
to tap all that wealth. The power
full Union Miniere du Haut Ka-
tanga-that'S the name of the
giant concern-today owns about
all the mineral deposits and min
ing works in the province.
1t had difficult beginnings. The
region was lost in the African i'm
menSity and was without anv
communication with the rest of
the world other than bush trails
towards Portuguese of British
Africa or rapidS-marred water
ways down the continents of the
Congo. Because of the sparse
population - the Bantus did not
take well to the Katanga high
lands where pneumonia decimated
them during the cool rainleSS sea-
son-most of the workers for the
mines had to be brought from the
nelghborlng territories of Kasai
and Kivu.
All those workers were ignorant
of the wheel and Belgian foremen.
could only gesticulate in despair
as their newly recruited HELPERS
filled the Wheelbarrows with ore,
then proceeded to load the vehi-
Giles on their backs. and carry the
heavy burden towards the ore
dressing installations.
African miners, at a whim.
would often leave the works and
head for the bush. with complete
disregard for the consequences of
their action.
Material Advantages
The Union Miniere tackled all
those problems with patience, pa.
ternallSm, fat pay checks and
plenty of consumer goods in the
company stores. While the British
further South and the French
further North gave their African
wards massive doses of democracy
but little hard cash. the BelgianS
in Katanga gave no democracy at
all, but concentrated on tangible
material advantages.
The richness of the Katanga
ore bodies helped them. The re-
serves of copper-cobalt-S ilver-gold
ores uncovered at the copper mines
alone represent some $40 billion,
over one-half of which is expected
to be clean profits. BelgianS thus
were able to pursue their program
without worrying where the money
was to come from. AS Katanga's.
open air mines were brought into
full production, African employees
learned the advantages of steady
of professional train
ing and of responsible jobs.
Modern American-type cities -
Jadotville, Kolwezi.
Manono - mushroomed amid the
sustained by booming ex-
tractive industry. while nearby
were turned into big
Belgian-managed farms and Bel
3ian-owned cattle ranches.
When independence came. local
politicians found the Katanea
ok, now living in comfortable
homes, provided with modern
schools and hospitals and drawing
substantial salaries, mainly anx-
Gus to keep things as they were.
They also found them determined
o keep in the country the Belgian
capitalists and technicians who
made this possible and TO keep out