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Noting his reliance on whites, a U.S. newsman nicknamed him "Uncle Tshombe." The advisers soon became a cause of controversy at the parley. Yelled Patrice Lumumba, a skinny,young firebrand from Stanleyville whose histrionics were already grabbing headlines: "I demand the immediate withdrawal from this conference room of all white advisers! Tshombe doesn't dare open his mouth until he has received a slip of paper from the European behind him!"
The "unitarians" won at the conference, and Tshombe lost; but even as he packed for the trip home, the stubborn Katangese was muttering a word that later would echo far: Secession.
Tribal Traditions. In his policy of secession, no one could say with accuracy that Tshombe spoke for all Katanga, or even half. But Tshombe's supporters, including the Lunda, make up no more than one-third of the population; he would risk his life by traveling in some regions of the Baluba north, where he is hated for his tribal affiliation and for the murderous, plundering raids of his Lunda army units against opposition Baluba villages last summer.
But Katanga's President—the title he took after formal declaration of the Republic last July—was widely admired by most southern Katangese not only for his stout resistance to the onusiens but for his gracious, smiling manner and for the dignity of his somber grey suits. He is never late for an appointment, often arrives five minutes early, then waits outside, homburg in hand, until the hour. He is no playboy; often, at a conference of African bigwigs. Tshombe will retire to his room with a book while the rest of the boys go out nightclubbing.
Secession swelled his ego. Elisabethville is plastered with Tshombe portraits distributed by his aides; they are usually emblazoned with a slogan: "II sotiffre pour vous; soyez digne de lui [He is suffering for you; be worthy of him]."
Mining Money. In his five months of "independence," Tshombe was rightly credited with heading the slickest, tidiest and best policed of all the fragments of the old Congo. He paid the police, paved the streets and repaired the waterworks from a source of cash no other province enjoys. It is the cut Tshombe gets from Katanga's Union Minière, the firm that produces 8% of the world's copper, 60% of its cobalt, as well as cadmium, zinc, silver, etc. Union Minière this year is due to hand Tshombe's regime some $52 million in dividends, mineral export taxes and other fees, enough to cover at least 80% of his entire budget. More than that, Union Minière is the Congo's biggest employer, paying salaries to more than 30,000 Katangese workers, who enjoy free hospitals, model homes and many other welfare benefits. It also produces the electric power for all of Katanga.
When the Congo got its independence last year, the portfolio of 18% of Union Minière stock, once "held in trust for the Congolese people" by the Congo's Belgian colonial administration, was supposed to be handed over to the new central government; somehow the transfer never occurred. Once Katanga declared itself independent, all the payments flowed into the National Bank of Katanga; Union Minière shrugs and says it was forced by Tshombe's government to hand over the money.