The Congo - From Colonization to Today, + Indigenous Diamonds

Dear Guerrilla History listeners,

As always, things are remarkably busy, and we have plenty of new material out for you! Our African Revolutions and Decolonization series is picking up steam, and we, as always, have episodes outside of the confines of that series coming out as well. Allow us to first let you know about two of the episodes that have come out from the series recently first (the episodes are linked in the titles below, so just click on the title and you will be directed to the episode landing page for each).

It was our great pleasure to have the esteemed Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Professor Emeritus of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, previously serving as the DRC's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and author of numerous brilliant books, including Patrice Lumumba and The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History, on the show twice in recent weeks! First, we went back to the moment of colonization of the Congo, with the story of Leopold II and the way in which he personally obtained the Congo for himself. We then went through the passage of the Congo from Leopold personally to the Belgian state, followed by the process of decolonization and Lumumba’s short time as Prime Minister. We finished by discussing the coup against Lumumba and the rise of Mobutu. An extremely important history, which we followed up in our next episode, titled:

If you follow the news related to the DRC today, you will likely be seeing quite a bit about the rebellion in the east, where M23 rebels continue their incursions and are capturing fairly sizable cities. Where did M23 come from though, and who is backing them? Well, to answer that, we need to first pick up where we left off last time, with Mobutu’s time, followed by the ascension of the first Kabila and the First Congo War. Rwanda and Uganda feature prominently in this discussion as well. After we finish off talking about the fairly recent history of the DRC, we do turn our attention squarely to M23 and the questions about them posed above. Very important to understand, and something which gets extremely little attention in the imperialist core’s media! Be sure to listen to these two episodes and share with comrades!

Outside of the African Revolutions and Decolonization series, we are also putting out more material for you! A recent one we think you will enjoy is:

Admittedly, this episode sounds like it will be extremly esoteric, and frankly the topic itself may be. With that being said, it is a wide ranging and fascinating conversation! Among other things, it covers the history of diamonds in Sakha, the politics of indigeneity in Russia, branding diamonds as "indigenous"extractivism in neoliberal capitalism and more broadly the “indigenizing” of resources, and how sanctions on Russia impact indigenous peoples, + more! You certainly will learn a lot from this discussion with Sardana Nikolaeva, who is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, where she is an indigenous anthropologist studying indigeneity, indigenous methodologies, extractivism, and more. Also, do yourself a favor and read the wonderful study that this episode is based on - Indigenous Diamonds: Extractivism and Indigenous Politics in the Diamond Province of Russia!

As always, we have lots more coming soon! The Egyptian Revolution, Nasserism, Indigenous methodologies, media narratives, and much more, so be sure to subscribe to Guerrilla History wherever you get your podcasts!

You can also help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory

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