Jason Sendwe (1917 – 19 June 1964) was a Congolese politician and the founder and leader of the General Association of the Baluba of the Katanga (BALUBAKAT) party. He later served as Second Deputy Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) from August 1961 until January 1963, and as President of the Province of North Katanga from September 1963 until his death, with a brief interruption.
Sendwe was born in 1917 in Mwanya, Kabongo Territory, Belgian Congo, to an ethnic Baluba family. He was educated in Methodist schools and nursing institutions. Unable to become a doctor due to a lack of medical schools in the Congo, he found work as a minister, teacher, and nurse. He became involved in several cultural organisations, and in 1957 founded BALUBAKAT to fight for the interests of the Baluba. He espoused Congolese nationalism and believed that the Congo should remain a united country after Belgian rule. In May 1960, shortly before the country's independence, he was elected to the newly constituted Chamber of Deputies. Sendwe sought to obtain control over the government of Katanga Province, but lost to a power struggle against his rival, Moïse Tshombe, and the Confederation of Tribal Associations of Katanga (CONAKAT) party. Regardless, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba nominated him for the office of State Commissioner for Katanga.
In early July 1960 Tshombe announced the secession of an independent State of Katanga. Sendwe opposed the breakaway state and rejected Tshombe's entreaties for him to join the rebel government, rupturing relations between the two men. Invested with the responsibilities of State Commissioner by the Senate, Sendwe unsuccessfully attempted to restore central government control over Katanga. After a period of turmoil he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in August 1961 with the hope that he could use his political influence to win the central government support in Katanga. Four months later he was made Commissioner-General Extraordinaire for the province, nominally giving him complete authority over the area.
Sendwe's political prospects were severely damaged in December 1962 when the Senate censured him and forced his subsequent resignation from the deputy premiership. In early 1963, he increasingly focused his activities in Katanga, as the province acceded to central authority and Tshombe fled into exile. The territory was divided into new political units against Sendwe's wishes. Despite his dissatisfaction, he assumed office as President of North Katanga in September. In January 1964 he lost his position as president of BALUBAKAT. In June Simba rebels overthrew his government and killed him, though it is unclear who held ultimate responsibility for his death. Sendwe's demise greatly demoralised the Baluba, and his reputation drifted into obscurity.
Early life Jason Sendwe was born in 1917 in Mwanya, Kabongo Territory, Belgian Congo to a Baluba family. The Luba were a large ethnic group indigenous to the Katanga and Kasaï regions of the Congo. Sendwe was a childhood friend of Moïse Tshombe. He received six years of primary schooling from Methodists in Kabongo and four years of secondary education at the Kanene Methodist Mission in Kamina. For five years he took nursing courses in Stanleyville and at the École officielle pour Infirmiers à Élisabethville. He completed his studies at the École des Assistants Indigènes de Léopoldville, graduating as a nurse.
His aspirations to become a doctor were curtailed by the lack of medical schools in the Congo. He worked as a minister and teacher at the Kanene Methodist Mission, and in 1942 entered the service of the colonial administration as a clerk. Sendwe later became a nurse and then a medical assistant, working in Élisabethville, Mutshatsha, Kongolo and Kabongo. He was a founding member and treasurer of the Amitiés Belgo-Congolaises cultural organisation, treasurer of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, councillor of the Association Saint-Luc, councillor of the Foyer social Léopold III, and served on the council of the Church of Christ in the Congo. Sendwe married and had eight children.
Entry into politics In 1957 Sendwe founded and became president of the Association Générale des Baluba du Katanga (BALUBAKAT), with the stated aim of encouraging unity among the Baluba of the Katanga Province. According to journalist Évariste Kimba, he was able amass much of their support through his "dynamism" and frequent interactions with the population. Three tenants underlined his political philosophy: protection of the Baluba, achievement of Congolese independence, and the primacy of conciliation in settling disputes.
In 1958 Sendwe attended the Brussels Expo, working as a medical assistant at the African Personnel Reception Center. Afterwards he joined the short-lived Mouvement pour le Progres National Congolais, a party formed by attendees of the exposition. On 5 February 1959 Sendwe brought BALUBAKAT into Tshombe's Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) party on the condition that it be able to maintain a significant amount of autonomy. He initially shared the xenophobic stances of CONAKAT, but soon grew concerned that its hostility toward immigrants would extend to incoming Baluba. Sendwe was also worried by Tshombe's close connections to the Belgians and was repulsed by the prominence of several of his political rivals within the party's ranks. BALUBAKAT began to form two trends, one sympathetic to CONAKAT, and the other supportive of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). The latter was led by Sendwe. In October he sent a letter to Baudouin, King of the Belgians, urging him to oppose efforts at "dismantling the immense country" created by his predecessors.
In November 1959 Sendwe withdrew BALUBAKAT from CONAKAT. He subsequently negotiated the formation of a "Cartel Katangais" between BALUBAKAT and two other organisations to compete against CONAKAT in the December 1959 municipal elections. Sendwe met with Baudouin on 25 December. By January 1960 Sendwe had decided he would pursue Congolese independence with aim of creating a federal state with a robust central government, in contrast to CONAKAT's vision of a confederation. That month he went to Brussels to participate in the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference, a meeting to discuss the political future of the Belgian Congo. The conference resolved with the Belgian government acceding to Congolese demands for the colony's independence on 30 June 1960.
Rise to prominence
In the national elections before the Republic of the Congo's independence on 30 June 1960, Sendwe was elected to the Chamber of Deputies with 20,282 votes from the Élisabethville constituency. CONAKAT won a slight majority of the seats in the Katanga Provincial Assembly, and could thus determine the composition of the provincial government. Sendwe ordered the BALUBAKAT deputies to abstain from sitting; when the assembly convened on 5 June it did not have a quorum to vote on the provincial portfolios. CONAKAT offered Sendwe the office of Katanga Vice-president and the responsibility of several ministries, but he refused to negotiate. On 15 June the Belgian Parliament modified the Congo's provisional constitution to reduce the number of deputies necessary for a quorum to vote on a government. Cartel Katangais representatives subsequently declared that they would wait for the Congolese central government's decision after independence. That same day Sendwe signed a deal with MNC leader Patrice Lumumba to create a coalition in Parliament to support a government under Lumumba. In exchange, BALUBAKAT would get some ministerial portfolios and Sendwe would be nominated to be the State Commissioner for Katanga. On 19 June a BALUBAKAT delegation led by Prosper Mwamba Ilunga covertly travelled to Léopoldville to meet with Lumumba. They encouraged him to dismiss Sendwe if he did not follow his instructions, and expressed their disapproval of Sendwe's decision to instruct the BALUBAKAT deputies to boycott the Katanga Provincial Assembly.
On 23 June the Cartel Katangais declared its preferred Katangese government, which placed Sendwe as Provincial President. In the meantime CONAKAT voted in its own government. Despite this, Lumumba, as Prime Minister, nominated Sendwe to be the State Commissioner for Katanga. The President of the Katanga Provincial Assembly, Charles Mutaka, threatened secession if the appointment were confirmed. In early July Tshombe went forward with the secession of the province with Belgian backing but actively sought Sendwe's support, hoping to build a coalition that would bring the latter in as vice-president of an independent Katanga. Sendwe rejected the idea, rupturing relations between them. The Senate initially rejected all of Lumumba's nominees for state commissioner. However, on 22 July the body, in a move meant to convey its wish that central government authority be reestablished in Katanga, voted to confirm Sendwe's appointment, 42 to 4 with 7 abstentions. After assuming the role of State Commissioner of Katanga, Sendwe vainly attempted restoring central government control over the province. His attempts to do so as well as his aim of brokering an understanding between BALUBAKAT and CONAKAT at the national level were frustrated by the Belgian government, which perceived Sendwe as an instrument of the Lumumba Government, with whom they had tense relations.
Sendwe was chosen to lead part of the army into northern Katanga to reestablish the central government's authority, but this plan dissolved following Lumumba's dismissal by President Joseph Kasa-Vubu in September. Lumumba's demise caused political turmoil, and Sendwe was appointed by the Chamber to as rapporteur on a reconciliation commission tasked with brokering a political agreement between Kasa-Vubu and Lumumba. Meanwhile, northern Katangese rejected Tshombe's leadership and the secession in favour of Sendwe, who they saw as a proponent of nationalism and a protector of the Baluba. Sendwe also enjoyed a substantial amount of popularity around Élisabethville, posing a significant political threat to Tshombe. However, many in the central government saw him as having been too close with the deposed prime minister.
On 19 October, three days after Tshombe concluded a deal with Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to—in Mobutu's words—"neutralise" Lumumba, Sendwe was incarcerated by central government officials. The United Nations (UN) secured his release on the basis of parliamentary immunity. With its sponsorship, Sendwe toured northern Katanga to promote peace, and received an ecstatic welcome from the Baluba. He encouraged the Baluba to maintain public order and place their confidence in the UN. For the most part, his tour improved security in the region, but his presence in Manono from 2–3 November heightened tensions in the area. Tshombe denounced him as a "public danger". While the central government was negotiating the transfer of Lumumba to Katanga (where he would be executed upon arrival), Tshombe repeatedly asked to receive Sendwe. Though initially agreeing to the plan, central government officials later backed away from their commitment to hand him over.