Joseph Kiwele

Joseph Kiwele (August 1912 — 14 November 1961) was a Congolese and Katangese musician and politician. He was Katanga's Minister of National Education and author of the state's national anthem, La katangaise.

Joseph Kiwele
PresidentMoïse Tshombe
Minister of National Education of the State of Katanga
Personal details
BornAugust 1912
Mpala, territory of Baudouinville, Belgian Congo
Died14 November 1961
Élisabethville, Katanga
Political partyUnion congolaise, CONAKAT

Early life
Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in current-day Lubumbashi, where Kiwele was an organist.

Kiwele was born in Mpala, near Baudouinville at the shores of Lake Tanganyika on the side of the Belgian Congo. The son of a catechist of the Mpala mission,[1] he went to primary school in his native town, before going to the small seminary of Lusaka in 1926, then to the major seminary of Baudouinville for his philosophy and theology studies.[2][3] In Lusaka, he was first introduced to Western-style composing and in 1934, he authored his first compositions.[4] In Élisabethville, he replaced an organist who fell ill. Struck by his musical gifts, Benedictine father Anschaire Lamoral gave Kiwele the permanent position of organist at the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral of Élisabethville, and as a maths, sciences and music instructor at the St. Boniface school.[5][6] Kiwele conducted Lamoral's boys' choir Croix de cuivre (Copper cross).[7] At that time, he was considered one of the greatest African composers.[8] In 1956, Monseigneur Jean-Félix de Hemptinne sent Kiwele to the Royal Conservatory of Liège in Belgium. When he returned to Élisabethville, he founded, with the help of the city's music school, another music school, but for Congolese people.[9]

Political career

Before independence from Belgium, Kiwele was a member of the UMHK-backed Union congolaise.[10] With his party's delegation, he participated at the Luluabourg conference in 1959.[11] When Congo gained its independence from Belgium, Kiwele was elected as a provincial MP for the Baudouinville territory, now on a list of CONAKAT, political party of Moïse Tshombe and Godefroid Munongo. Eleven days after Congo's independence, Tshombe declared the independence of Katanga from the Congo. Kiwele became the Minister of National Education in the government of the new State of Katanga.[12] Like all Katangese government Ministers, he had a Belgian chef de cabinet, in his case Marcel Petit.[13] Kiwele composed the national anthem for the state, called La katangaise ("The Katangan"), in 1960.[14] When Tshombe and Minister of Foreign Affairs Évariste Kimba were arrested at the Conference of Coquilhatville at the end of August 1961, Kiwele formed a triumvirate with Munongo and Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Kibwe to temporarily replace Tshombe at the country.[15]

Joseph Kiwele died in Élisabethville on 14 November 1961 of a brain thrombosis, days before the death of his colleague, Minister of Information Lucas Samalenge.[16]

Legacy
  • Kiwele is mostly remembered for his career as a musician and composer. Besides his mastering of works of the European composers such as Beethoven, Händel, and Mozart, he authored many works in a more African tradition, such as his Missa Katanga. Te Deum Bantou is Kiwele's own arrangement of Händel's Messiah, for organ and African instruments. On the occasion of the Belgian king Baudouin's visit to the Belgian colony in 1955, he wrote the Hymne à la Belgique.[17]
  • Congolese artist Sammy Baloji used choir arrangements in his video Tales of the Copper Cross Garden: Episode 1.[18]
  • The Royal Atheneum of Élisabethville was renamed Lycée Joseph Kiwele in his honour.[19]

Further reading
  • Le Lay, Maëline (2018). "Essay: Joseph Kiwele in Élisabethville (1946—1961) and the Birth of an Urban Culture in the Colonial Era". A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes : A solo exhibition by Sammy Baloji (PDF).
  • Tracey, Hugh (1961). "Obituary". African Music. 2 (4). doi:10.21504/amj.v2i4.711. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  • w'Itunga, Kishilo (1987). "Une analyse de la "Messe katangaise" de Joseph Kiwele" (PDF). African Music. 6 (4): 108–125. JSTOR 30249793. Retrieved 14 January 2021.

References
  1. Benoît Verhaegen; Jules Gérard-Libois (1960). Congo 1960: annexes et biographies. Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques. p. 101.
  2. Benoît Verhaegen; Jules Gérard-Libois (1960). Congo 1960: annexes et biographies. Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques. p. 101.
  3. Rubbens, Antoine (October 1975). "KIWELE (Joseph)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French). VII–B. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. p. 227. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  4. Rubbens, Antoine (October 1975). "KIWELE (Joseph)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French). VII–B. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. p. 227. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  5. Benoît Verhaegen; Jules Gérard-Libois (1960). Congo 1960: annexes et biographies. Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques. p. 101.
  6. Rubbens, Antoine (8 May 1989). "LAMORAL (Anschaire Charles Pierre)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in Dutch). VIII. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. pp. 224–6. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  7. "Les petits à la Croix de Cuivre & Joseph Kiwele". Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  8. Tshibangu, Kabet Musas. "Kiwele, Joseph". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  9. Rubbens, Antoine (October 1975). "KIWELE (Joseph)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French). VII–B. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. p. 227. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  10. Laporte, Jeroen (2016). "De politieke strategie van Union Minière du Haut-Katanga tussen 1945 en 1960" (PDF) (in Dutch). University of Ghent. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  11. Benoît Verhaegen; Jules Gérard-Libois (1960). Congo 1960: annexes et biographies. Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques. p. 101.
  12. Rubbens, Antoine (October 1975). "KIWELE (Joseph)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French). VII–B. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. p. 227. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  13. Weber, Guy (1983). Le Katanga de Moïse Tshombe ou le drame de la loyauté. Brussels: Éditions Louis Musin. p. 201. ISBN 2-87083-013-0.
  14. "Katanga". nationalanthems.info. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  15. Rubbens, Antoine (October 1975). "KIWELE (Joseph)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French). VII–B. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. p. 227. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  16. Rubbens, Antoine (October 1975). "KIWELE (Joseph)". Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French). VII–B. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. p. 227. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  17. Tshibangu, Kabet Musas. "Kiwele, Joseph". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  18. Philippe Van den Bossche. "Lubumbashi Rules". <H>art Magazine. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  19. Lagae, Johan; De Raedt, Kim; Sabakinu Kivulu, Jacob (2014). "Pour les écoles : tant mieux qu'elles sont là. Patrimoine scolaire, pratiques mémorielles et politiques de sauvegarde en République démocratique du Congo". Politique africaine. 135 (3). doi:10.3917/polaf.135.0047. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
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