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10 Francs 1960, Katanga

in Krause book Number: 5a
Years of issue: 01.12.1960
Edition:
Signatures: Un Directeur: Prosper Makasu Tshimwanga
Serie: Serie 1960
Specimen of: 01.12.1960
Material: Cotton fiber
Size (mm): 137 x 74
Printer: Roto-Sadag S.A., Geneva, Switzerland

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10 Francs 1960

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10 Francs 1960

Moïse Kapenda Tshombe

Moïse Kapend Tshombe (sometimes written Tshombé) (10 November 1919 – 29 June 1969) was a Congolese businessman and politician. He served as the president of the secessionist State of Katanga from 1960 to 1963 and as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1964 to 1965.

Along with Godefroid Munongo, he founded the Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) party. CONAKAT promoted a federal Congo independent of the Belgian colonial empire.

CONAKAT won control of the Katanga provincial legislature in the May 1960 general elections. One month later the Congo became an independent republic. Tshombe became President of the autonomous province of Katanga. Patrice Lumumba was tasked with forming a national government. Members of his party, the Mouvement National Congolais, were given charge of the portfolios of national defence and interior, despite Tshombe's objections. The portfolio for economic affairs was awarded to a CONAKAT member, but this was undercut by the positioning of nationalists in control of the Ministry and Secretariat for Economic Coordination. Mines and land affairs were placed under separate portfolios. Tshombe declared that this diluting of CONAKAT's influence rendered his agreement to support the government "null and void".

On the evening of 11 July, Tshombe, accusing the central government of communist leanings and dictatorial rule, announced that Katanga was seceding from the Congo. Favoring continued ties with Belgium, he asked the Belgian government to send military officers to recruit and train a Katangese army.

Tshombe demanded United Nations recognition for independent Katanga, and he announced that any intervention by UN troops would be met with force. Nonetheless, Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and his successor, Cyrille Adoula, successfully requested intervention from UN forces. UN forces were sent under the direction of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.

France, wishing to take advantage of Katangese minerals, sent to Tshombe the reinforcement of the mercenary Bob Denard and his men. It was supported by the networks of Jacques Foccart, the "Mr. Africa" of the French government.

Lumumba's government was dissolved, and Lumumba taken prisoner by Mobutu and detained at Camp Hardy in Thysville. Harold Charles d'Aspremont Lynden (Belgian minister for African Affairs) sent a highly confidential telegram on 16 January 1961 to the government in Léopoldville (President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Mobutu) to send Lumumba to Katanga. That would have stemmed from Lumumba's increasing popularity among soldiers, who might release him. Meanwhile, soldier mutinies and unrest increased by the day, at Prison Camp Hardy in Thysville. The telegram has still not been shown to exist.

Whilst being flown in a Sabena Douglas DC-4 plane to Katanga, Lumumba was beaten by the Congolese soldiers escorting him. In custody in Katanga, Lumumba was visited by Katangese notables and Belgian officers, who included Tshombe, Godefroid Munongo, Kibwe, Kitenge, Grandelet, Son, Gat, Huyghé, Tignée, Verscheure, Segers and Rougefort. Lumumba's execution, on 17 January, was carried out by a firing squad led by a Belgian mercenary, Julien Gat.

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10 Francs 1960

Le Théâtre Municipal Le Théâtre Municipal Le Théâtre Municipal

Municipal theater building in Élisabethville (today - Lumumbashi) - Le Théâtre Municipal.

Work of the architect Claude Strebelle, this magnificent complex was built by specialized workers from Belgium and helped by the local workforce.

It was inaugurated with great pomp on August 4, 1956 with the piece "Lotus and Bulldozer", represented by the National Theater of Belgium.

Claude Strebelle (2 February 1917 - 16 November 2010) was an architect and Belgian urban planner, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1941. (users.skynet.be/aloube .fr)

Comments:

Seceding from the newly independent Congo in July 1960, Katanga maintained an identity as an independent state for two-and-a-half years before being re-integrated with the Congo in 1963. During the period of secession, Katanga established a complex infrastructure which allowed the issue of bank notes, coins and postage stamps.