ASAUK Panel proposal 8 (of 12)
Panel Title: An Imperial Hangover? Rethinking Katangan Nationalism, 1960-1969
This panel will be presented at the biannual conference of the ASAUK (African Studies Association in the UK) in September 2012 (Leeds, Sept 6-8). The organizers have invited the Congo Research Network to participate in this. 12 Congo related panels have been accepted.
If you wish to participate, you can join already accepted panels or you can submit a stand-alone paper. Participants should submit their paper abstracts via the ASAUK website. First, they should register as authors, then select the panel in which they want to participate, and then enter their abstract.
The following link gives you more information about registration: http://www.asauk.net/conferences/asauk12.shtml
The deadline for the submission of paper abstracts is 27 April 2012.
To attend the event without presenting a paper, contact the conference organizer David Kerr (conference@asauk.net, +44 (0)121 414 5124)
Panel Convenor: Dr. Reuben Loffman
Panel Description:
Soon after Belgium withdrew its formal administration from the Congo, the country’s richest province seceded under the leadership of Moïse Tshombe and his party, the Confédération des Tribales du Katanga (Conakat). The Katangan secession posed a number of problems; to the province itself, to the Congolese state, and to the broader continental and global community. Consequently, a good deal of literature has been produced in attempts to understand the events that played out in Katanga during this turbulent period.
However, many authors have privileged European and North American power in shaping the course of politics in the south-eastern Congo during the 1960s. Moreover, the Katanga ‘question’ has typically been viewed of solely as a problem for international organisations, such as the United Nations. While Katanga did become the biggest UN operation in the history of the organisation until that point, and while there was undoubtedly imperial meddling in the province, this panel challenges the dominant literature by focusing on how Africans contributed to Katangan politics during the secession.
Among other issues, this panel examines the reasons why some Congolese chose to side with the remnants of the colonial administration while others, notably the Luba-Katanga, vehemently opposed retaining such ties. To challenge the dominant Euro-centric perspectives, this panel draws from evidence collected on the ground in Katanga and, in some cases, the province’s international neighbours, such as Zambia.
Panel Participants:
Dr. Miles Larmer (Sheffield University) m.larmer@sheffield.ac.uk
Dr. Reuben Loffman (Keele University) reuben.a.loffman@gmail.com
Catherine Lee Porter (Cambridge University) catherinelee.porter@gmail.com
congo research network 
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