I am providing some history, so that when the book about Dr. Jerry Galloway is published, readers will have some context for the political environment and its affect on the people.
Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960 and the Congo Crisis began. In 1965, Laurent Kabila set up a cross-border rebel operation based in Tanzania. In 1967, Kabila moved his remnant of supporters to the mountainous area of South Kivu in the Congo. He founded the People’s Revolutionary Party (PRP). With the support of China the PRP created a secessionist Marxist state in the South Kivu province.
In 1988 the PRP state came to an end and Kabila disappeared. He was widely believed to have been dead. However, Kabila had gone to Kampala, Uganda and met with Yoweri Museveni, the future president of Uganda. Museveni introduced Kabila to Paul Kagame, the future president of Rwanda. These personal contacts would become vital in the mid-1990’s, when Uganda and Rwanda would seek a Congolese to assist with their intervention into Zaire.
Kabila returned in October, 1996 and led the ethnic Tutsis from South Kivu against the Hutu forces. This was the beginning of the First Congo War.
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