Moise Tshombe and The Wild Geese

“Sad are the eyes, yet no tears…” Image of Moise Tshombe in the opening titles of "The Wild Geese" (1978). The opening sequence of "The Wild Geese" was designed by Maurice Bindman.

The name Moise Tshombe is one which is written in infamy.

It was Tshombe who led the resource-rich province of Katanga to secede from the Congo and whose gendarmes executed Congo’s charismatic Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba on Katangan soil. Both actions, accomplished at the behest of the old colonial power Belgium, have left Tshombe with the unfortunate legacy of being the archetypal colonial stooge. 

Photograph of Tshombe the former leader of the Katangan secession from Congo (1960-1963) and former Prime Minister of Congo (1964-1965) while he was being held in detention in Algeria following the hijacking of a plane on which he had been travelling while it was above the Mediterranean Sea. Credits: The original photograph of Tshombe in captivity appeared in the German news magazine Stern in 1969.

The turmoil which accompanied Tshombe’s period as a political figure was marked by the activities of white mercenaries who actively aided Tshombe’s bid for secession and who later revolted against the central government led by General Joseph Mobutu who dismissed Tshombe from his role as Congolese Prime Minister after the secession was revoked.

It was no surprise that elements of the Tshombe story and of mercenary behaviour were portrayed in the Hollywood movie The Wild Geese.

Released in 1978, the film includes scenes depicting the hijacking of an aeroplane carrying an African political leader, as well as one in which the mercenaries react to “betrayal”. Quite interestingly, the image of Tshombe in Algerian captivity appears for a number of seconds in the opening titles. His face appears sullen as his eyes gaze wistfully at the camera of his West German visitor. They speak of a man who although stoic is ill-at-ease and contemplative of his impending doom.

It is an image that serves well as a metaphor for the continuing state of his country.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.