Introduction: The Gender of Decolonization

Abstract

Shortly before independence on June 30, 1960, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba met resistance from a surprising source: his wife. Pauline Opango and other women organized against their husbands in Lumumba’s incoming administration at a moment when the men would seem to need the loyal support of their spouses. Why? Anicet Kashamura explains the mounting tensions in the Lumumba household as independence approached:

Lumumba’s family drama intensifies when he starts assuming responsibilities. Pauline Opango, his wife, is worried…. She is the first in the Congo to notice that independence is going to bring about changes in Congolese homes. A man who happens to become a minister, she says, will be tempted to marry a better educated, more Europeanized woman, able to play a part in diplomatic ceremonies. That’s why she organizes a women’s movement in Leopoldville to protest the behavior of the ministers and of her husband. (7)¹