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Feeney and Littleton replacements?
Passion
Member Posts: 4,622
Accepting that few people outside the program get to actually observe practice, does anyone know how any of these guys have performed during their redshirt years:
- Potoa'e
- DJ Beavers (great name, by the way)
- Manu
- Justiss Warren
Let me know where to send my $10.95.
- Potoa'e
- DJ Beavers (great name, by the way)
- Manu
- Justiss Warren
Let me know where to send my $10.95.
Comments
The Republic of the Congo (French: République du Congo), also known as Congo Republic,[5] West Congo, or Congo-Brazzaville, is a country located in Central Africa. It is bordered by five countries: Gabon to the west; Cameroon to the northwest; the Central African Republic to the northeast; the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the east and south; and the Angolan exclave of Cabinda to the southwest.
The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. Congo-Brazzaville was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa.[1] Upon independence in 1960, the former colony of French Congo became the Republic of the Congo. The People's Republic of the Congo was a Marxist–Leninist single-party state from 1970 to 1991. Multi-party elections have been held since 1992, although a democratically elected government was ousted in the 1997 Republic of the Congo Civil War and President Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled for 26 of the past 36 years.
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Pre-colonial
1.2 French colonial era
1.3 Post-independence era
2 Government and politics
2.1 Media
2.2 Human rights
2.3 Administrative divisions
3 Geography and climate
4 Economy
5 Transportation
6 Demographics
6.1 Health
7 Culture
7.1 Education
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of the Republic of the Congo
Pre-colonial[edit]
Bantu-speaking peoples who founded tribes during the Bantu expansions largely displaced and absorbed the earliest inhabitants of the region, the Pygmy people, about 1500 BC. The Bakongo, a Bantu ethnicity that also occupied parts of present-day Angola, Gabon and Democratic Republic of the Congo, formed the basis for ethnic affinities and rivalries among those countries. Several Bantu kingdoms—notably those of the Kongo, the Loango, and the Teke—built trade links leading into the Congo River basin.[6]
The court of N'Gangue M'voumbe Niambi, from the book Description of Africa (1668)
The Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484.[7] Commercial relationships quickly grew up between the inland Bantu kingdoms and European merchants who traded various commodities, manufactured goods, and people captured from the hinterlands. For centuries the Congo river delta served as a major commercial hub for transatlantic trade. However, direct European colonization of the area began in the late 19th century and eroded the power of the Bantu societies in the region.[8]
French colonial era[edit]
The area north of the Congo River came under French sovereignty in 1880 as a result of Pierre de Brazza's treaty with Makoko of the Bateke.[7] This Congo Colony became known first as French Congo, then as Middle Congo in 1903. In 1908, France organized French Equatorial Africa (AEF), comprising Middle Congo, Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari (the modern Central African Republic). The French designated Brazzaville as the federal capital. Economic development during the first 50 years of colonial rule in Congo centered on natural-resource extraction. The methods were often brutal: establishment of the Congo–Ocean Railroad following World War I has been estimated to have cost at least 14,000 lives.[7]
During the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, Brazzaville functioned as the symbolic capital of Free France between 1940 and 1943.[9] The Brazzaville Conference of 1944 heralded a period of major reform in French colonial policy. Congo benefited from the postwar expansion of colonial administrative and infrastructure spending as a result of its central geographic location within AEF and the federal capital at Brazzaville.[6] It also received a local legislature after the adoption of the 1946 constitution that established the Fourth Republic.
Following the revision of the French constitution that established the Fifth Republic in 1958, the AEF dissolved into its constituent parts, each of which became an autonomous colony within the French Community. During these reforms, Middle Congo became known as the Republic of the Congo in 1958[10] and published its first constitution in 1959.[11] Antagonism between the pro-Opangault Mbochis and the pro-Youlou Balalis resulted in a series of riots in Brazzaville in February 1959, which the French Army subdued.[12]
Post-independence era[edit]
Alphonse Massamba-Débat's one-party rule (1963-1968) attempted to implement a political economic strategy of "scientific socialism."
The Republic of the Congo received full independence from France on August 15, 1960. Fulbert Youlou ruled as the country's first president until labour elements and rival political parties instigated a three-day uprising that ousted him. The Congolese military took charge of the country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government headed by Alphonse Massamba-Débat.
Under the 1963 constitution, Massamba-Débat was elected President for a five-year term.[6] During Massamba-Débat's term in office the regime adopted "scientific socialism" as the country's constitutional ideology.[13] In 1965, Congo established relations with the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, North Korea and North Vietnam.[13] Massamba-Débat's regime also invited several hundred Cuban army troops into the country to train his party's militia units and these troops helped his government survive a coup in 1966 led by paratroopers loyal to future President Marien Ngouabi. Nevertheless, Massamba-Débat was unable to reconcile various institutional, tribal and ideological factions within the country[13] and his regime ended abruptly with a bloodless coup d'état in September 1968.
Marien Ngouabi changed the country's name to the People's Republic of the Congo, declaring it to be Africa's first Marxist–Leninist state and was assassinated in 1977.
Marien Ngouabi, who had participated in the coup, assumed the presidency on December 31, 1968. One year later, President Ngouabi proclaimed Congo Africa's first "people's republic", the People's Republic of the Congo, and announced the decision of the National Revolutionary Movement to change its name to the Congolese Labour Party (PCT). Ngouabi survived an attempted coup in 1972 but was assassinated on March 16, 1977. An 11-member Military Committee of the Party (CMP) was then named to head an interim government with Joachim Yhombi-Opango to serve as President of the Republic. Two years later, Yhombi-Opango was forced from power and Denis Sassou Nguesso become the new president.[6]
Sassou Nguesso aligned the country with the Eastern Bloc and signed a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union. Over the years, Sassou had to rely more on political repression and less on patronage to maintain his dictatorship.[14]
Pascal Lissouba, who became Congo's first elected president (1992–1997) during the period of multi-party democracy, attempted to implement economic reforms with IMF backing to liberalise the economy. In June 1996 the IMF approved a three-year SDR69.5m (US$100m) enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF) and was on the verge of announcing a renewed annual agreement when civil war broke out in Congo in mid-1997.[15]
Congo's democratic progress was derailed in 1997 when Lissouba and Sassou started to fight for power in the civil war. As presidential elections scheduled for July 1997 approached, tensions between the Lissouba and Sassou camps mounted. On June 5, President Lissouba's government forces surrounded Sassou's compound in Brazzaville and Sassou ordered members of his private militia (known as "Cobras") to resist. Thus began a four-month conflict that destroyed or damaged much of Brazzaville and caused tens of thousands of civilian deaths. In early October, the Angolan socialist régime began an invasion of Congo to install Sassou in power. In mid-October, the Lissouba government fell. Soon thereafter, Sassou declared himself president.[6]
In the controversial elections in 2002, Sassou won with almost 90% of the vote cast. His two main rivals, Lissouba and Bernard Kolelas, were prevented from competing and the only remaining credible rival, Andre Milongo, advised his supporters to boycott the elections and then withdrew from the race.[16] A new constitution, agreed upon by referendum in January 2002, granted the president new powers, extended his term to seven years, and introduced a new bicameral assembly. International observers took issue with the organization of the presidential election and the constitutional referendum, both of which were reminiscent in their organization of Congo's era of the single-party state.[17] Following the presidential elections, fighting restarted in the Pool region between government forces and rebels led by Pastor Ntumi; a peace treaty to end the conflict was signed in April 2003.[18]
Sassou also won the following presidential election in July 2009.[19] According to the Congolese Observatory of Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, the election was marked by "very low" turnout and "fraud and irregularities".[20]
Government and politics[edit]
Denis Sassou Nguesso served as President from 1979 to 1992 and has remained in power ever since his rebel forces ousted President Pascal Lissouba during the 1997 Civil War.
Main article: Politics of the Republic of the Congo
See also: Foreign relations of the Republic of the Congo and Military of the Republic of the Congo
Congo-Brazzaville has had a multi-party political system since the early 1990s, although the system is heavily dominated by President Denis Sassou Nguesso; he has lacked serious competition in the presidential elections held under his rule. Sassou Nguesso is backed by his own Congolese Labour Party (French: Parti Congolais du Travail) as well as a range of smaller parties.
Internationally, Sassou's regime has been hit by corruption revelations despite attempts to censor them. One French investigation found over 110 bank accounts and dozens of lavish properties in France; Sassou denounced embezzlement investigations as "racist" and "colonial".[21][22][23]
On 27 March 2015 Sassou Nguesso announced that his government would hold a referendum to change the country's 2002 constitution and allow him to run for a third consecutive term in office.[24] On 25 October the government held a referendum to allow Sassou Nguesso to run in the next election. The government claimed that the proposal as approved by 92 percent of voters with 72 percent of eligible voters participating. The opposition, who had boycotted the referendum claimed that the government's statistics were false and that the vote was a sham.[25]
Media[edit]
3T QUALLS/McCoy
5T DISSLY/Bowman/Johnson
BUCK POTATO/Mathis
MIK VICTOR/Warren
WIL BIERRIA/Burr-Kirven
SAM BARTLETT/Eifler/Beavers