| Intro | Congolese politician (1933-2004) |
| Is | Politician |
| From | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Type | Politics |
| Gender | male |
| Death |
Oxford |
Thomas Rudolphe Kanza (1933 – 25 October 2004) was a politician, diplomat, and one of the first Congolese nationals to graduate from a university. From 1960–1962 he served as the Republic of the Congo’s first ambassador to the United Nations and from 1962–1964 was a delegate to the United Kingdom. His opposition to the governments of Moïse Tshombe and Joseph Mobutu led him to first rebel and ultimately flee the Congo. He returned in 1983 and resumed politics, showing favor for Mobutu. From Mobutu’s ousting in 1997 until his own death, Kanza served in diplomatic roles for the Congo.
Biography
Thomas Kanza was born in 1933. He was the son of Daniel Kanza, who would emerge in the 1950s as a leader of the ABAKO party. He was the very first Congolese national to receive a college education in an area other than theology, studying at the Université catholique de Louvain from 1952–1956. In the late 1950s he worked for the European Economic Community in Belgium. He met future prime minister Patrice Lumumba in 1955, whom he would eventually become friends with.
When plans for a Congolese Round Table Conference on the future of the Belgian Congo were announced in late 1959, Kanza took up a position as a liaison between the various participating parties. He also formally invited the popular Congolese bands Le Grand Kallé et l’African Jazz and OK Jazz to come perform at the talks. Unlike his contemporaries, Kanza envisioned a much longer transition period from the Belgian colonial administration to Congolese independence, and didn’t advocate for the latter until it was declared.
Following independence on 30 June 1960, Kanza left his old job in Belgium and was appointed by Lumumba to be the newly created Republic of the Congo’s Minister Delegate (de facto ambassador) to the United Nations. In mid-September Lumumba was removed from power by Colonel Joseph Mobutu and placed under arrest. Kanza approached Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko for help, but was disappointed to learn that there was little they could do. He then appealed to United States President John F. Kennedy through Eleanor Roosevelt, asking that he intervene to protect Lumumba. Kennedy responded that the handling of prisoners was a United Nations matter. Lumumba was eventually executed on 17 January 1961.
Meanwhile, Lumumba’s absence had created a dilemma surrounding the authority of his delegation at the United Nations, which was led by Kanza. On 8 November 1960 President Joseph Kasa-Vubu proposed his own delegation, leading to a dispute in the General Assembly. On 22 November 1960 the Assembly voted to recognize Kasa-Vubu’s delegation, thereby subverting Kanza. He then served as the representative for Antoine Gizenga’s brief rival government based in Stanleyville.
In 1962 Kanza was transferred to be chargé d’affaires of the United Kingdom embassy. In 1964, he was recalled to the Congo. He soon entered a dispute with the new prime minister, Moïse Tshombe, and joined Pierre Mulele’s rebel group. Following its defeat and Mobutu’s definitive seizure of power in 1965, Kanza fled to Europe. He shortly thereafter moved to the United States and in 1965 published a largely autobiographical novel, Sans rancune. In 1972 he published a memoir on Lumumba, entitled, The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba: Conflict in the Congo. He later became a professor of politics at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Kanza returned to the Congo in 1983 following the declaration of a general amnesty by Mobutu. He unsuccessfully ran for president against Étienne Tshisekedi in 1992 as the pro–Mobutu candidate. In June 1997, he was appointed Minister of International Cooperation in the new government of Laurent Kabila. By 1998, he was the Minister of Labour and Social Security.
Kanza died of a heart attack in London on 25 October 2004 as the Congo’s ambassador to Sweden.