President Kabila was pronounced dead 40 years and a day after his mentor Patrice Lumumba, the founding father of Congolese nationalism and a Pan Africanist voice, was assassinated�with help of the CIA and United Nations.

Mr. Lumumba was the first elected prime minister of the Congo after independence was won from Belgium in June 1960. With western nations worried about his vision of a truly independent Africa and citing fear of the possible spread of communism, UN operations that were supposed to help stabilize the country led to Mr. Lumumba�s death and the rise of a young military man, Mobutu Sese Seko, who would rule the country for three decades. It was Mr. Kabila�s rebel movement that brought down the Mobutu regime.

The irony of the series of events did not go unnoticed in Africa.

Laurent Kabila, in whom the spirit of revolution for the Congo and Africa dwelt, has been killed nearly to the day of the 40th anniversary of the murder of his predecessor Patrice Lumumba, noted David Kasuba, secretary-general of the Movement for Africa Unity, in a press statement released by the Pan African News Agency. Mr. Kasuba, whose Pan African non-governmental organization is located in Lusaka, Zambia, blamed the Kabila assassination on old enemies, the same "western imperialists who regarded (Mr. Lumumba) as an obstacle to smooth looting of Congolese natural resources."

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located on the Equator in the center of Africa, bordered by nine nations. It boasts the second-largest rain forest in the world, and is home to rare animals, such as the nearly extinct mountain gorilla.

The Congo is the third largest country in Africa and is critically important for health, political and environmental reasons, according to observers like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Congo is more than one-fourth the size of the United States and as large as Western Europe. It is one of the most mineral-rich areas in the world, with gold, diamonds and rare strategic minerals. "These resources can fuel the country�s development�as well as the whole African continent," observed USAID in a 1997 report. USAID is responsible for providing development assistance to poorer nations.

As a young boy, Mr. Kabila fought alongside Mr. Lumumba against the Belgians. In 1996, Laurent Kabila began a march across the Congo to free his homeland from the Mobutu dictatorship, which enjoyed U.S. support.

Mr. Kabila and his then-allies, Uganda and Rwanda, took just eight months to wrest control from the Mobutu regime. As the armies marched from the east to Kinshasa, the people chanted in Lingala, one of the national languages "Kabila Yaka," which means "Kabila comes." Such joy was short-lived.

The Congolese people barely enjoyed a year of peace before Uganda and Rwanda attacked in August 1998, claiming the need to protect their borders from rebels who were camped in eastern Congo. At present six African nations and five rebel factions are fighting in the country once known as Zaire.

"The people of the Congo have not been allowed to breathe the air of freedom," said Professor Yaa-Lengi M. Ngemi, an author, lecturer and director of the New York-based African Research and Educational Institute. He is also a Congo native.

Mr. Ngemi has recently written a book called "Genocide In The Congo." He argues the United States and global corporations were determined to control the country�s wealth. The Clinton administration and western businesses were bound to assassinate any leader who argued the people of the Congo should control their own resources and benefit from them, he said.

The strategy was to keep conflict going in the country to prevent the growth of any strong movement that could lead to true independence, according to Mr. Ngemi.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright coined the phrase "Africa�s first world war," when speaking about the Congo conflict before the United Nations Security Council on Jan. 23, 2000. Countries involved in the Congolese war include Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, who sided with Mr. Kabila versus Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi who sided with anti-Kabila rebels. Among the rebels are former Mobutu army officers and their supporters.

President Kabila attended the same UN meeting, his first visit to America, charging his country had been "invaded by the nations of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi."

He accused them of plundering diamonds, cobalt, gold and zebras from Congolese territory. The strife in his country was not a civil war, Mr. Kabila declared. He also invited companies to do business in the Congo but wanted to control their level of participation and power, and ensure that his people benefited, say his supporters.

"The west has the machinery to exploit the resources of the Congo and in killing President Kabila they believe that the legacy of Patrice Lumumba died with him," Elombe Brath, chairman of New York-based Patrice Lumumba Coalition told The Final Call, during a Jan. 18 telephone interview.

"We have to measure what Laurent Kabila was up against. We have to measure what he was trying to do," Mr. Brath said. President Kabila faced the power of the west, the impact of a long civil war and Africa�s legacy of colonialism, Mr. Brath said.

Despite Congo�s wealth, rescue organizations reported that most of the country�s infrastructure had been destroyed. Still, four-years-ago, there was optimism about the potential for a comeback. "Though the country�s infrastructure is devastated, the people of the Congo are well organized and highly motivated to rebuild this society," reported USAID in 1997.

The World Bank Organization said at an early October 2000 consultation meeting in Paris: "We note with satisfaction positive evolution of the political and economic situation in the Republic of the Congo, and the cessation of hostilities." This was a meeting of organizations such as the African Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Development Program.

There were also representatives attending from the Congo, Belgium, European Union, France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. The group approved a Congolese government request for funds from the IMF�s Emergency Post-Conflict Assistance Policy Program. It would seem that the money institutions had few problems with President Kabila�s leadership, say his supporters.

One problem for President Kabila was the characterization by the western media that he was hindering Congolese political and economic growth. The attacks date back to 1997 as the Associated Press noted, "Skepticism is strong among U.S. officials about the willingness of Kabila, once associated with leftist-causes, to lead Zaire to democracy." He was also accused of cronyism, putting supporters in positions of power and allowing the slaughter of Tutsis in the eastern part of the country.

The press attacks on the president continued after his death, as the New York Times wrote on Jan. 19: "Kabila�s own dictatorial style had made him increasingly unpopular," reporting that the Congolese people are not mourning the fallen leader. He was also referred to as a small time guerrilla fighter, and the British Broadcasting Company claimed he "was not a thinking person."

"That is why we cannot let them interpret the legacy and life of President Kabila. We must guard his image," argues Mr. Brath, saying Mr. Kabila and mentor Patrice Lumumba were devoted to the cause of Black liberation worldwide.

Horace Campbell, a Black Studies professor at Syracuse University and member of the U.S.-based Black Radical Congress, called President Kabila "an obstacle to peace" and offered the belief that the Congolese people will now be able to participate in a national dialogue and find a political solution to their problems.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, chairman of the Department of Black Studies at California State University-Long Beach and chairman of the organization Us, told The Final Call that the current most important issue is ending the suffering of the Congolese people.

While he did not criticize the leadership of Mr. Kabila outright, he did say, "It is not enough for us to say that we are leading the people�we must create the context where they become self-conscious agents of their own life and liberation."

Dr. Karenga did note that under President Kabila there were no organized political parties. There could be no democracy without political parties and a national dialog to create free elections, said Dr. Karenga.

When Mr. Kabila came to power, he promised to hold elections in two years, however, he pushed the timetable back as war with his former allies erupted.

Suliman Baldo, of Human Rights Watch, said it is much easier to talk about solutions to the Congo crisis, then to actually solve problems. Mr. Baldo just returned from a three-week fact finding trip in the eastern Congo city of Bunia. In an exclusive interview with The Final Call, he argued there are no simple answers and slams those who oversimplify issues by blaming Laurent Kabila.

"The problem is Uganda and Rwanda who are propping up the rebel forces. None of these groups have a social or political base. They don�t even have structure," he said, adding, "This is causing very serious consequences for the Congolese people.

"Refugees are fleeing the country by the thousands. The people who stay face hunger and sickness from polio and HIV/AIDS," Mr. Baldo reported.