Congolese Round Table Conference

The Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference (French: Table ronde belgo-congolaise) was a meeting organized in two parts in 1960 in Brussels (January 20 – February 20 and April 26 – May 16 ) between on the one side representatives of the Congolese political class and chiefs (French: chefs coutumiers) and on the other side Belgian political and business leaders. The round table meetings led to the adoption of sixteen resolutions on the future of Belgian Congo and its institutional reforms. With a broad consensus, the date for independence was set on June 30, 1960.

The idea for a round table conference was first formulated in 1959 by the Congolese Labour Party (PTC, French: Parti Travailliste Congolais). It gathered support from the Bakongo Alliance (ABAKO) and the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB). The idea of a bilateral conference aimed at organizing the independence of the Belgian colony was in turn adopted by the minister of Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, August de Schryver, who was also the leader of the Christian Social Party, Belgium's largest political party at the time. Several factors contributed to this idea taking shape, including:

The creation of a large scale Belgian-Congolese dialogue was also compatible with a speech from Belgian King Baudouin broadcast on January 13, 1959. Where he expressed the desire to "lead the Congolese populations, without harmful procrastination, but also without thoughtless haste, toward independence, in prosperity, and in peace."

On January 3, 1960 the Belgian government announced it was convening a round table conference with the goal of helping the Congolese transition from colonial rule to independence.

A number of traditional chiefs (chefs coutumiers) were invited to the Round Table Conference to reduce the proportion of key independence figures in the delegations. The complete list of the Congolese delegates and their Belgian advisers to the first conference:

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