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Biography of Antoine Gizenga
Antoine Gizenga began as a Priest but later
discovered his true calling was not a religious
but a political leader, rising to the second
highest office in the land.
He was born on the 5th of October 1925 in
the village of Mbanze in what was then the
Belgian Congo.
Gizenga went to a Catholic missionary primary
school and got his secondary education at
the Kinzambi and Mayidi seminaries.
He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1947
and oversaw a parish in his home province
of Kwilu.
However for personal reasons, he left the
priesthood and took up several clerical and
accounting jobs.
He also served in the law enforcement in
the colonial government before becoming a
teacher at a secondary Catholic school.
If there were doubts as to whether he really
had left the priesthood for good, all that
was cleared when he married Anne Mbuba and
went on to father four children with her.
Gizenga was inspired by the Pan-Africanist
ideas of Patrice Lumumba, the co-founder of
the Congolese National Movement, and he played
a major role in setting up the African Solidarity
Party (PSA),of which he later became head.
When Belgian Conngo got independence in
1960 and elections were held, Gizenga was
named Lumumba's deputy prime minister of the
new Republic of the Congo.
In September, President Joseph Kasa-Vubu sacked
Lumumba and Gizenga from their posts. Lumumba
would not let go easily and so there was a
political deadlock.
Finally a coup carried out by Colonel Joseph
Mobutu saw Lumumba lose power and a new government
was set up.
Gizenga left for Stanleyville in protest against
the new government and on the 12th of December
1960, he declared his own government as the
legitimate ruling authority.
 Meanwhile Lumumba was arrested by the parallel
government of Kasa-Vubu and subsequently executed
when he made attempts to join Gizenga.
Gizenga's government got diplomatic recognition
from China, Egypt and the Soviet Union and
persisted for half a year.
Later on, Gizenga agreed to disband his parallel
government and rejoin the regular Congolese
government as deputy prime minister, with
Cyrille Adoula now in the lead.
 However Gizenga chose to remain in Stanleyville
instead of the capital Leopoldville.
 When he learnt that Adoula was under the
influence of Western governments and had shown
willingness to negotiate with rebel leader
Moise Tshombe who led a break away state in
Katanga, he promptly condemned Adoula and
declared that the government was committing
treason.
In January 1962 he was summoned to Leopoldville
by the Congolese Assembly to hear charges
levied against him for leading a rebel government.
 He replied that he would return to Leopoldville
only when the Katangan secession was resolved.
Gizenga then made an attempt to arrest Commander-in-Chief
Victor Lundula and a UN official, both of
whom were in Stanleyville for an investigation.
But Gizenga's militiamen refused to obey
him. This resulted in a clash between his
regular supporters and Congolese soldiers,
leading to several deaths.
Peacekeeping troops from the United Nations
had to step in to restore peace in the area.
Adoula then ordered that Gizenga be placed
under house arrest by UN and Congolese troops.
He was subsequently flown back to Léopoldville
and detained at Camp Kokolo.
Gizenga was given an offer of UN protection
but he strongly turned it down and was eventually
imprisoned on the island Bula Mbemba.
 In July 1964 former rebel leader of the
Katanga secession Tshombe became prime minister.
 As part of an attempted political reconciliation,
he ordered that Gizenga be released.
 But this did not seem to appease Gizenga
who quickly organised a Lumumbist party and
denounced Tshombe in the handling of the Simba
rebellion.
The government did not take lightly Gizenga’s
actions and in September, had him placed under
house arrest.
Fate agained favoured  Gizenga when Mobutu
seized power in a coup in November 1965. The
coup enabled Gizenga to regain freedom.
He then fled to Congo-Brazzaville and later
to Moscow to study for a doctorate in political
science.
In the ensuing years, Gizenga made trips to
Egypt, Guinea, Ghana and Mali to garner support
for the anti-Mobutu movement.
 In 1973 he briefly aligned with Laurent-Désiré
Kabila and his pro-China rebel group, an alliance
which made him lose his Soviet Union support.
After a short stay in Angola, he returned
to the Republic of the Congo before finally
settling in Canada.
Mobutu started a civilian rule process in
Zaire in 1990, allowing Gizenga to return
to the country.
In 1993, he set up the Unified Lumumbist
Party (PALU), a consolidation of Lumumbist
groups.
The party did not have many members but Gizenga
was well respected for his history of opposing
Mobutu.
He backed Laurent-Désiré Kabila's seizure
of power in 1997, which resulted in the country's
name being reverted to The Congo.
Gizenga stood as the presidential candidate
of PALU in the July 2006 election. He came
third with about 13.06% of the vote, behind
Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba.
 On the 30th of September 2006, Gizenga agreed
to a coalition with the the Alliance for the
Presidential Majority (AMP), Kabila's platform.
In the agreement, he would support Kabila
in the second round of the presidential election
in October and in exchange of being made the
Prime Minister.
Kabila won the election and Gizenga was
subsequently appointed Prime Minister.
After about two years in office as Prime Minister,
on the 25th of September 2008, Gizenga submitted
his resignation to Kabila.
 Speaking on television later in the day,
he said his decision to resign was due to
his advanced age and therefore felt it was
unwise to continue in office.
The opposition however said his resignation
had nothing to do with age but rather it was
an admission of the failure of his government
to stem the general state of crisis in the
country.
President Kabila however acknowledged his
resignation officially and appointed Adolphe
Muzito as his successor, still retaining the
governing coalition with Gizenga’s party.
Gizenga then went back to his duties as Secretary-General
of PALU.
On the 30th of June 2009, Kabila accorded
Gizenga the award of the Order of National
Heroes, which is the DRC's highest honor.
This made him the only living member of the
order. The award came with mouth-watering
largesse including a monthly equivalent of
a Prime Minister’s salary, a lavish residence,
vehicles and bodyguards.
He died on the 24th of February 2019 after
being hospitalized at the Kinshasa Medical
Centre. He was aged 93.
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