BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Lumumba
Anefo 910-9740 De Congolese2.jpg
Prime Minister of Congo-Léopoldville
In office
24 June 1960 – 14 September 1960
President Joseph Kasa-Vubu
Preceded by position established
Succeeded by Joseph Iléo
Personal details
Born Élias Okit'Asombo[1][2][3]
2 July 1925
Katakokombe, Belgian Congo
(Now Congo-Kinshasa)
Died 17 January 1961 (aged 35)
Near Élisabethville, Katanga
(Now Lubumbashi, Congo-Kinshasa)
Political party Congolese National Movement
[show] v t e
Independence of
Congo-Léopoldville
[show] v t e
Conflicts in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo as prime minister. As founder and leader of the mainstream Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) party, Lumumba played an important role in campaigning for independence from Belgium.
Shortly after Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the Congo Crisis. Lumumba attempted to solicit support from the Soviet Union against Katangan secessionists. This led to growing differences with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and chief-of-staff Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as well as to foreign opposition from the United States and Belgium. Lumumba was subsequently imprisoned by state authorities under Mobutu and executed by firing squad under the command of Katangan authorities. The United Nations, which he had asked to come to the Congo, did not intervene to save him. Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all been accused of involvement in Lumumba's death, the latter as part of Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, a country the Americans were determined should not gain access to Congo's uranium riches used to make nuclear bombs.[4][5][6][7]
Contents
1 Early life and career
2 Leader of MNC
3 Independence, and election as Prime Minister
4 Actions as Prime Minister
5 Deposition
5.1 UN response
5.2 Final days and execution
5.3 Announcement of death
6 Foreign involvement in his death
6.1 Belgian involvement
6.2 United States involvement
6.2.1 Church Committee
6.2.2 U.S. government documents
6.3 British involvement
7 Legacy
7.1 Political
7.2 2006 Congolese elections
7.3 Family and politics
8 Tributes
9 Bibliography
9.1 Writings by Lumumba
9.2 Writings about Lumumba
9.3 Films
9.4 Archive video and audio
9.5 Other
Early life and career
Lumumba was born to a farmer, François Tolenga Otetshima, and his wife, Julienne Wamato Lomendja, in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo.[8] He was a member of the Tetela ethnic group and was born with the name Élias Okit'Asombo. His original surname means "heir of the cursed" and is derived from the Tetela words okitá/okitɔ́ ('heir, successor')[9] and asombó ('cursed or bewitched people who will die quickly').[10] He had three brothers (Ian Clark, Émile Kalema, and Louis Onema Pene Lumumba) and one half-brother (Tolenga Jean).[8] Raised in a Catholic family, he was educated at a Protestant primary school, a Catholic missionary school, and finally the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. Lumumba spoke Tetela, French, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba.[8]
He worked in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as a postal clerk and as a travelling beer salesman. In 1951, he married Pauline Opangu. In 1955, Lumumba became regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he worked on editing and distributing party literature. After traveling on a three-week study tour in Belgium, he was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzlement. His two-year sentence was commuted to twelve months after it was confirmed by Belgian lawyer Jules Chrome that Lumumba had returned the funds, and he was released in July 1956.
Leader of MNC
After his release, he helped found the broad-based MNC in 1958, later becoming the organization's president. Lumumba and his team represented the MNC at the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by Pan-African President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Lumumba further solidified his Pan-Africanist beliefs.
Lumumba raises his arms, injured by shackles, after his release from prison in January 1960
In late October 1959, Lumumba, as leader of the organization, was arrested for inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville where thirty people were killed; he was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The trial's start date of 18 January 1960 was also the first day of the Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels to finalize the future of the Congo.
Despite Lumumba's imprisonment at the time, the MNC won a convincing majority in the December local elections in the Congo. As a result of strong pressure from delegates upset with Lumumba's trial, he was released and allowed to attend the Brussels conference.
Independence, and election as Prime Minister[edit]
The conference culminated on 27 January with a declaration of Congolese independence, setting 30 June 1960, as the independence date with national elections from 11–25 May 1960. Lumumba and the MNC won this election and the right to form a government, with the announcement on 23 June 1960 of 34-year-old Lumumba as Congo's first prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu as its president. In accordance with the constitution, on 24 June the new government passed a vote of confidence and was ratified by the Congolese Chamber and Senate.
Independence Day was celebrated on 30 June in a ceremony attended by many dignitaries, including the king of Belgium, Baudouin and the foreign press.[11] Baudouin's speech praised developments under colonialism, his reference to the "genius" of his great-granduncle Leopold II of Belgium, glossing over atrocities with a death toll estimated at 10 million[12] committed during the Congo Free State.[5] The King continued, "Don't compromise the future with hasty reforms, and don't replace the structures that Belgium hands over to you until you are sure you can do better... Don't be afraid to come to us. We will remain by your side, give you advice."[13] While President Kasa-Vubu thanked the King, Lumumba, who was not scheduled to speak, delivered an impromptu speech which reminded the audience that the independence of the Congo was not granted magnanimously by Belgium:[11]
For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood. We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.[14]
The King spoke of his father's great work in the country and asked its new leaders to measure up to their example. The speech of President Kasa-Vubu assured the King that they would try hard. Lumumba spoke of the suffering of the Congolese under Belgian colonialism, of "injustice, oppression and exploitation".[15] Neither the audience nor the King and his entourage were accustomed to hearing of the negatives that lay behind the pageantry and paternalism; it stirred the crowd while simultaneously humiliating and alienating the King. Lumumba was later harshly criticised for what many in the Western world—but virtually none in Africa—described as the inappropriate nature of his speech.[16] Some media claimed at the time that he ended his speech by ad-libbing, Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques! (We are no longer your monkeys!)—referring to a common slur used against Africans by Belgians, however, these words are neither in his written text nor in radio tapes of his speech.[13][17]
Actions as Prime Minister
Lumumba in Brussels (1960)
A few days after Congo gained its independence, Lumumba made the fateful decision to raise the pay of all government employees except for the army. Many units of the army also had strong objections toward the uniformly Belgian officers; General Émile Janssens, the army head, told them their lot would not change after independence, and they rebelled in protest. The rebellions quickly spread throughout the country, leading to a general breakdown in law and order. Although the trouble was highly localized, the country seemed to be overrun by gangs of soldiers and looters, causing a media sensation, particularly over Europeans fleeing the country.[18]
The province of Katanga declared independence under regional premier Moïse Tshombe on 11 July 1960 with support from the Belgian government and mining companies such as Union Minière.[19] Despite the arrival of UN troops, unrest continued. Since the United Nations refused to help suppress the rebellion in Katanga, Lumumba sought Soviet aid in the form of arms, food, medical supplies, trucks, and planes to help move troops to Katanga. Lumumba's decisive actions to turn to the Soviet Union alarmed western countries such as the USA, who were still in the midst of the Cold War. The USA saw Patrice Lumumba as a communist, and there is speculation that the CIA assassinated him as a result.[20]
Deposition
In September, the President dismissed Lumumba from government. Lumumba immediately protested the legality of the President's actions. In retaliation, Lumumba declared Kasa-Vubu deposed and won a vote of confidence in the Senate, while the newly appointed prime minister failed to gain parliament's confidence. The country was torn by two political groups claiming legal power over the country.
On 14 September, a coup d'état organised by Colonel Joseph Mobutu incapacitated both Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu.[18] Lumumba was placed under house arrest at the Prime Minister's residence, with UN troops positioned around the house. Nevertheless, Lumumba decided to rouse his supporters in Haut-Congo. Smuggled out of his residence at night, he escaped to Stanleyville, where his intention apparently was to set up his own government and army.[21]
Pursued by troops loyal to Mobutu he was finally captured in Port Francqui on 1 December 1960 and flown to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in ropes, not handcuffs. Mobutu claimed Lumumba would be tried for inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes.
UN response
Protests in Slovenia against the assassination of Lumumba, 1961.
Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld made an appeal to Kasa-Vubu asking that Lumumba be treated according to due process. The Soviet Union denounced Hammarskjöld and the First World as responsible for Lumumba's arrest and demanded his release.
The United Nations Security Council was called into session on 7 December 1960 to consider Soviet demands that the UN seek Lumumba's immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo. Hammarskjöld, answering Soviet criticism of his Congo operations, said that if the UN forces were withdrawn from the Congo "I fear everything will crumble."
The threat to the UN cause was intensified by the announcement of the withdrawal of their contingents by Yugoslavia, the United Arab Republic, Ceylon, Indonesia, Morocco, and Guinea. The pro-Lumumba resolution was defeated on 14 December 1960 by a vote of 8–2. On the same day, a Western resolution that would have given Hammarskjöld increased powers to deal with the Congo situation was vetoed by the Soviet Union.
Final days and execution
Lumumba was sent first on 3 December, to Thysville military barracks Camp Hardy, 150 km (about 100 miles) from Léopoldville. However, when security and disciplinary breaches threatened his safety, it was decided that he should be transferred to the State of Katanga, which had recently declared independence from Congo.
Lumumba was forcibly restrained on the flight to Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi) on 17 January 1961.[22] On arrival, he was conducted under arrest to Brouwez House where he was brutally beaten and tortured by Katangan and Belgian officers,[23] while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.[24][25][26]
Later that night, Lumumba was driven to an isolated spot where three firing squads had been assembled. The Belgian Commission (see below) has found that the execution was carried out by Katanga's authorities. However, declassified documents revealed that the CIA had plotted to assassinate Lumumba, and may have carried out those actions with the help of the Katanga authorities.
It reported that President Tshombe and two other ministers were present with four Belgian officers under the command of Katangan authorities. Lumumba and two ministers from his newly formed independent government (who had also been tortured), Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, were lined up against a tree and shot one at a time. The execution is thought to have taken place on 17 January 1961, between 21:40 and 21:43 (according to the Belgian report.) The Belgians and their counterparts wished to get rid of the bodies, and did so by digging up and dismembering the bodies, then having them dissolved in sulphuric acid while the bones were ground and scattered.[27]
Announcement of death
No statement was released until three weeks later despite rumours that Lumumba was dead. His death was formally announced on Katangan radio, when it was alleged that he escaped and was killed by enraged villagers.
After the announcement of Lumumba's death, street protests were organized in several European countries; in Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia, protesters sacked the Belgian embassy and confronted the police, and in London a crowd marched from Trafalgar Square to the Belgian embassy, where a letter of protest was delivered and where protesters clashed with police.[28] A demonstration at the United Nations Security Council turned violent and spilled over into the streets of New York City.[29][30]
Foreign involvement in his death
According to Democracy Now!, "Lumumba's pan-Africanism and his vision of a united Congo gained him many enemies. Both Belgium and the United States actively sought to have him killed. The CIA ordered his assassination but could not complete the job. Instead, the United States and Belgium covertly funneled cash and aid to rival politicians who seized power and arrested Lumumba."[31]
Both Belgium and the US were clearly influenced in their unfavourable stance towards Lumumba by the Cold War. He seemed to gravitate towards the Soviet Union, although according to Sean Kelly, who covered the events as a correspondent for the Voice of America, this was not because he was a communist, but the USSR was the only place he could find support for his country's effort to rid itself of colonial rule, although this opinion is strongly denied by US government officials.[32] The US was the first country from which Lumumba requested help.[33] Lumumba, for his part, not only denied being a communist, but said he found colonialism and communism to be equally deplorable, and professed his personal preference for neutrality between the East and West.[34]
Belgian involvement
According to David Akerman, Ludo De Witte and Kris Hollington,[35] the firing squads were commanded by a Belgian, Captain Julien Gat; another Belgian, Police Commissioner Verscheure, had overall command of the execution site.[36] De Witte found written orders from the Belgian government requesting Lumumba's execution and documents on various arrangements, such as death squads.
On 18 January, panicked by reports that the burial of the three bodies had been observed, members of the execution team went to dig up the bodies and move them to a place near the border with Northern Rhodesia for reburial. Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete later admitted in several accounts that he and his brother led the exhumation (and also a second exhumation, below.) Police Commissioner Frans Verscheure also took part. According to Adam Hochschild, author of a book on the Congo rubber terror, Lumumba's body was later cut up and dissolved in acid by two Belgian agents.[37] On the afternoon and evening of 21 January, Commissioner Soete and his brother dug up Lumumba's corpse for the second time, cut it up with a hacksaw, and dissolved it in concentrated sulfuric acid.[38][39] In an interview on Belgian television in a program on the assassination of Lumumba in 1999, Soete displayed a bullet and two teeth that he boasted he had saved from Lumumba's body.[39]
The Belgian Commission investigating Lumumba's assassination concluded that: (1) Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested, (2) Belgium was not particularly concerned with Lumumba's physical well being, and (3) although informed of the danger to Lumumba's life, Belgium did not take any action to avert his death, but the report also specifically denied that Belgium ordered Lumumba's assassination.[40]
It has been argued that Belgium was legally culpable for failing to prevent the assassination from taking place due to its own 'Good Samaritan' laws. Belgium has also been accused of breaching its obligation (under U.N. Resolution 290 of 1949) to refrain from acts or threats "aimed at impairing the freedom, independence or integrity of another state."[41] In February 2002, the Belgian government apologized to the Congolese people, and admitted to a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba".[42]
United States involvement
The report of 2001 by the Belgian Commission mentions that there had been previous U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Among them was a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored attempt to poison him, which may have come on orders from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[43] CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was a key person in this by devising a poison resembling toothpaste. In September 1960, Gottlieb brought a vial of the poison to the Congo with plans to place it on Lumumba's toothbrush.[44][45][46][47] However, the plot was later abandoned; the plan is said to have been scrapped because the local CIA Station Chief, Larry Devlin, refused permission.[45][46][48]
However, as Kalb points out in her book, Congo Cables, the record shows that many communications by Devlin at the time urged elimination of Lumumba.[49] Also, the CIA station chief helped to direct the search to capture Lumumba for his transfer to his enemies in Katanga; was involved in arranging his transfer to Katanga;[50] and the CIA base chief in Elizabethville was in direct touch with the killers the night Lumumba was killed. Furthermore, John Stockwell indicates that a CIA agent had the body in the trunk of his car in order to try to get rid of it.[51] Stockwell, who knew Devlin well, felt Devlin knew more than anyone else about the murder.[52]
The inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in January 1961 caused fear among Mobutu's faction and within the CIA that the incoming administration would shift its favor to the imprisoned Lumumba.[53] Lumumba was killed three days before Kennedy's inauguration on 20 January, though Kennedy would not learn of the killing until 13 February.[54]
Church Committee
In 1975, the Church Committee went on record with the finding that CIA chief Allen Dulles had ordered Lumumba's assassination as "an urgent and prime objective".[55] Furthermore, declassified CIA cables quoted or mentioned in the Church report and in Kalb (1972) mention two specific CIA plots to murder Lumumba: the poison plot and a shooting plot. Although some sources claim that CIA plots ended when Lumumba was captured, that is not stated or shown in the CIA records.
Rather, those records show two still-partly-censored CIA cables from Elizabethville on days significant in the murder: 17 January, the day Lumumba died, and 18 January, the day of the first exhumation. The former, after a long censored section, talks about where they need to go from there. The latter expresses thanks for Lumumba being sent to them and then says that, had Elizabethville base known he was coming, they would have "baked a snake".[56] This cable goes on to state that the writer's sources (not yet declassified) said that after being taken from the airport Lumumba was imprisoned by "all white guards".[57]
The Committee later found that while the CIA had conspired to kill Lumumba, it was not directly involved in the actual murder.[58]
U.S. government documents
Declassified documents revealed that the CIA had plotted to assassinate Lumumba. These documents indicate that the Congolese leaders who killed Lumumba, including Mobutu Sese Seko and Joseph Kasa-Vubu, received money and weapons directly from the CIA.[45][59] This same disclosure showed that at that time the U.S. government believed that Lumumba was a communist.[60]
A recently declassified interview with then-US National Security Council minutekeeper Robert Johnson revealed that U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had said "something [to CIA chief Allen Dulles] to the effect that Lumumba should be eliminated".[58] The interview from the Senate Intelligence Committee's inquiry on covert action was released in August 2000.[61]
In December 2013, the U.S. State Department admitted that President Eisenhower authorized the murder of Lumumba. The CIA Chief, Allan Dulles, allocated $100,000 to accomplish the act, but this plan was not carried out.[62]
British involvement
In April 2013, in a letter to the London Review of Books, a British parliamentarian, Lord Lea of Crondall reported having discussed Lumumba's death with Baroness Park of Monmouth shortly before she died in March 2010. Park had been an MI6 officer posted to Leopoldville at the time of Lumumba's death, and was later a semi-official spokesperson for MI6 in the House of Lords.[63]
According to Lea, when he mentioned "the uproar" surrounding Lumumba's abduction and murder, and recalled the theory that MI6 might have had "something to do with it", she replied, "We did. I organised it."[64] BBC reported that, subsequently, "Whitehall sources" described the claims of MI6 involvement as "speculative".[65]
Legacy
Statue of Lumumba in Kinshasa.
We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba's murder should be a lesson for all of us.
— Che Guevara, 1964[66]
Political
Patrice Lumumba was Prime Minister of The Congo for 81 days, from 23 June to 14 September 1960. To his supporters, Lumumba was an altruistic man of strong character. He favoured a unitary Congo and opposed division of the country along ethnic or regional lines.[67][68] Like many other African leaders, he supported pan-Africanism and liberation for colonial territories.[69] He proclaimed his regime one of "positive neutralism,"[70] defined as a return to African values and rejection of any imported ideology, including that of the Soviet Union: "We are not Communists or Catholics. We are African nationalists."[71]
2006 Congolese elections
The image of Patrice Lumumba continues to serve as an inspiration in contemporary Congolese politics. In the 2006 elections, several parties claimed to be motivated by his ideas, including the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the political party initiated by the incumbent President Joseph Kabila.[72] Antoine Gizenga, who served as Lumumba's Deputy Prime Minister in the post-independence period, was a 2006 Presidential candidate under the Unified Lumumbist Party (Parti Lumumbiste Unifié (PALU))[73] and was named prime minister at the end of the year. Other political parties that directly utilise his name include the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L) and the Mouvement Lumumbiste (MLP).
Family and politics
Patrice Lumumba's family is actively involved in contemporary Congolese politics. Patrice Lumumba was married to Pauline Lumumba and had five children; François was the eldest followed by Patrice Junior, Julienne, Roland and Guy-Patrice Lumumba. François was 10 years old when Patrice died. Before his imprisonment, Patrice arranged for his wife and children to move into exile in Egypt, where François spent his childhood, then went to Hungary for education (he holds a doctorate in political economics).
Lumumba's youngest son, Guy-Patrice, born six months after his father's death, was an independent presidential candidate in the 2006 elections,[74] but received less than 10% of the vote.
Tributes
USSR commemorative stamp, 1961
In 1966 Patrice Lumumba's image was rehabilitated by the Mobutu regime and he was proclaimed a national hero and martyr in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By a presidential decree, the Brouwez House, site of Lumumba's brutal torture on the night of his murder, became a place of pilgrimage in the Congo.[75]
A major transportation artery in Kinshasa, the Lumumba Boulevard, is named in his honour. The boulevard goes past an interchange with a giant tower, the Tour de l'Echangeur (the main landmark of Kinshasa) commemorating him. On the tower's plaza, the first Kabila regime erected a tall statue of Lumumba with a raised hand, greeting people coming from N'djili Airport.
In Bamako, Mali, Patrice Lumumba Square is a large central plaza with a life-size statue of Lumumba, a park with fountains, and a flag display. Around Lumumba Square are various businesses, embassies and Bamako's largest bank.
Streets were also named after him in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in Budapest, Hungary (between 1961 and 1990); Jakarta; Gaborone, Botswana; Belgrade and Niš, Serbia; Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria (until 1991-2); Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; Bata and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea; Tehran, Iran; Algiers, Algeria (Rue Patrice Lumumba);[76] Santiago de Cuba, Cuba (since 1960, formerly Avenida de Bélgica); Łódź, Poznań, Warsaw (1961–1993), Poland; Kiev, Donetsk, Ukraine; Perm, Russia; Rabat, Morocco; Maputo, Mozambique; Enugu, Nigeria; Leipzig, Germany; Lusaka, Zambia ("Lumumba Street"); Kampala, Uganda and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ("Lumumba Avenue"); Tunis, Tunisia; Fort-de-France, Martinique; Montpellier, France; Accra, Ghana; Antananarivo, Madagascar; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Alexandria, Egypt and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Koper, Nabrežje Patricea Lumumbe now renamed to Belveder, Slovenia.
The Peoples' Friendship University of the USSR was renamed "Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University" in 1961, but it was later renamed "The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia" in the post-Soviet landscape in 1992.[77]
In Kampala, Uganda, "Lumumba Hall" of Residence at Makerere University continues to carry his name.
"Lumumba" is a popular choice for children's names throughout Africa.[78]
In 1964 Malcolm X declared Patrice Lumumba "the greatest black man who ever walked the African continent".[79]
Comedian Patrice O'Neal was named after Lumumba.[citation needed]
A Lumumba is a popular name for hot or cold long drink of chocolate with rum.
Lumumba named in Frank O'Hara's 1961 poem "For the Chinese New Year & for Bill Berkson"
Bibliography[edit]
Writings by Lumumba
Congo, My Country (1962) London: Pall Mall Press. ISBN 0-269-16092-2. Foreword and notes by Colin Legum; translated by Graham Heath.
Lumumba Speaks: The Speeches and Writings of Patrice Lumumba, 1958–1961 (1972) Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-53650-4. Editor, Jean Van Lierde; translated by Helen R. Lane.
Writings about Lumumba[edit]
Aimé Césaire, Une Saison au Congo (1966); Eng. trans. by Ralph Manheim, A Season in the Congo (1969). A poetic drama about the career and death of Lumumba.
W. A. E. Skurnik, African Political Thought: Lumumba, Nkrumah, Touré (Social Science Foundation and Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. Monograph series in world affairs, v. 5, no. 3-4), 1968, Denver: University of Denver, ASIN B0006CNYSW.
Ludo De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba, trans. by Ann Wright and Renée Fenby, 2002 (orig. 2001), London; New York: Verso, ISBN 1859844103.
Thomas R. Kanza, Conflict in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Lumumba (Penguin African library), 1972, New York: Penguin, ISBN 0140410309.
Robin McKown, Lumumba: A Biography, 1969, London: Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-07776-9.
G. Heinz and H. Donnay (pseudonyms for J. Brassine and J. Gerard-Libois), Lumumba: The Last Fifty Days, 1980, New York: Grove Press, ASIN B0006C07TQ.
Panaf, Patrice Lumumba (Panaf Great Lives), 1973, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-901787-31-0.
Kwame Nkrumah, Challenge of the Congo, 1967, New York: International Publishers.
Bogumil Jewsiewicki, ed., A Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art, 1999, New York: Museum for African Art, ISBN 0-945802-25-0. The catalogue of a travelling exhibition of contemporary Congolese artists who were inspired by the legacy of Lumumba.
Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible is a fictional account of an American missionary family in the Congo during the election and assassination of Lumumba. The book is critical of Western governments and their interference in Africa.
David W. Doyle, Inside Espionage: A Memoir of True Men and Traitors (2000), tells the story of Lumumba's assassination from the point of view of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, Third Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, "Chapter Six: Congo in The 1960s: The Bleeding Heart of Africa", pp. 147–205, ISBN 978-0980253412; Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa and America in The 1960s: A Decade That Changed The Nation and The Destiny of A Continent, First Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, ISBN 9780980253429.
Films[edit]
El Congo 1961 – As himself in a documentary.
Seduto alla sua destra (1968) – A fictional film by writer-director Valerio Zurlini starring Woody Strode as a thinly disguised Lumumba. It was released in the US as Black Jesus.
Lumumba (2000). Dramatized biography directed by Raoul Peck with Eriq Ebouaney as Lumumba.
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet (1992). Documentary distributed by California Newsreel.
Lumumba: Un crime d'Etat (in English Lumumba: A state crime)
Independence Cha-Cha – The Story of Patrice Lumumba (2009). Documentary produced by Kadi Kabeya.
Archive video and audio[edit]
BBC On This Day – 14 September 1960: Violence Follows Army Coup in Congo
BBC On This Day – 13 February 1961: EX-Congo PM Declared Dead
Anti-Belgium Demonstrations Over Congo Crisis 1961
BBC On This Day – 19 February 1961: Lumumba Rally Clashes with UK Police
Other
In 1969 students from the Black Student Council and Mexican-American Youth Association of the University of California, San Diego proposed the name Lumumba-Zapata College, for what is now known as Thurgood Marshall College.[citation needed]
In Viennese coffee houses, Lumumba is a cocoa with rum, Lumumba Coffee a black coffee with rum and whipped cream. Both beverages originate from northern Germany, where they are called Tote Tante (dead aunt, with cocoa) and Pharisäer (Pharisee, with coffee; see Nordstrand, Germany) respectively.[80]
The rapper Nas dedicates his song "My Country" to Lumumba at the end of the song.[citation needed]
An Argentinian reggae band was named Lumumba.[original research?]
Colombian salsa musician Yuri Buenaventura composed a song, "Patrice Lumumba", in his honor.[citation needed]
American songwriter Neil Diamond lists Patrice Lumumba in his song "Done Too Soon".[81]
In the 1961 song "Top Forty, News, Weather and Sports" by Mark Dinning, the verse "I had Lumumba doing the rumba..." was removed after his death a few weeks after the release of the record. Records in stores were recalled, and new ones without the verse were distributed. Some of the original records survive. The verse can be heard in versions of the song available today.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
Portal icon Democratic Republic of the Congo portal
Patrice Lumumba
Anefo 910-9740 De Congolese2.jpg
Prime Minister of Congo-Léopoldville
In office
24 June 1960 – 14 September 1960
President Joseph Kasa-Vubu
Preceded by position established
Succeeded by Joseph Iléo
Personal details
Born Élias Okit'Asombo[1][2][3]
2 July 1925
Katakokombe, Belgian Congo
(Now Congo-Kinshasa)
Died 17 January 1961 (aged 35)
Near Élisabethville, Katanga
(Now Lubumbashi, Congo-Kinshasa)
Political party Congolese National Movement
[show] v t e
Independence of
Congo-Léopoldville
[show] v t e
Conflicts in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo as prime minister. As founder and leader of the mainstream Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) party, Lumumba played an important role in campaigning for independence from Belgium.
Shortly after Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the Congo Crisis. Lumumba attempted to solicit support from the Soviet Union against Katangan secessionists. This led to growing differences with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and chief-of-staff Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as well as to foreign opposition from the United States and Belgium. Lumumba was subsequently imprisoned by state authorities under Mobutu and executed by firing squad under the command of Katangan authorities. The United Nations, which he had asked to come to the Congo, did not intervene to save him. Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all been accused of involvement in Lumumba's death, the latter as part of Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, a country the Americans were determined should not gain access to Congo's uranium riches used to make nuclear bombs.[4][5][6][7]
Contents
1 Early life and career
2 Leader of MNC
3 Independence, and election as Prime Minister
4 Actions as Prime Minister
5 Deposition
5.1 UN response
5.2 Final days and execution
5.3 Announcement of death
6 Foreign involvement in his death
6.1 Belgian involvement
6.2 United States involvement
6.2.1 Church Committee
6.2.2 U.S. government documents
6.3 British involvement
7 Legacy
7.1 Political
7.2 2006 Congolese elections
7.3 Family and politics
8 Tributes
9 Bibliography
9.1 Writings by Lumumba
9.2 Writings about Lumumba
9.3 Films
9.4 Archive video and audio
9.5 Other
Early life and career
Lumumba was born to a farmer, François Tolenga Otetshima, and his wife, Julienne Wamato Lomendja, in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo.[8] He was a member of the Tetela ethnic group and was born with the name Élias Okit'Asombo. His original surname means "heir of the cursed" and is derived from the Tetela words okitá/okitɔ́ ('heir, successor')[9] and asombó ('cursed or bewitched people who will die quickly').[10] He had three brothers (Ian Clark, Émile Kalema, and Louis Onema Pene Lumumba) and one half-brother (Tolenga Jean).[8] Raised in a Catholic family, he was educated at a Protestant primary school, a Catholic missionary school, and finally the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. Lumumba spoke Tetela, French, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba.[8]
He worked in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as a postal clerk and as a travelling beer salesman. In 1951, he married Pauline Opangu. In 1955, Lumumba became regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he worked on editing and distributing party literature. After traveling on a three-week study tour in Belgium, he was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzlement. His two-year sentence was commuted to twelve months after it was confirmed by Belgian lawyer Jules Chrome that Lumumba had returned the funds, and he was released in July 1956.
Leader of MNC
After his release, he helped found the broad-based MNC in 1958, later becoming the organization's president. Lumumba and his team represented the MNC at the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by Pan-African President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Lumumba further solidified his Pan-Africanist beliefs.
Lumumba raises his arms, injured by shackles, after his release from prison in January 1960
In late October 1959, Lumumba, as leader of the organization, was arrested for inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville where thirty people were killed; he was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The trial's start date of 18 January 1960 was also the first day of the Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels to finalize the future of the Congo.
Despite Lumumba's imprisonment at the time, the MNC won a convincing majority in the December local elections in the Congo. As a result of strong pressure from delegates upset with Lumumba's trial, he was released and allowed to attend the Brussels conference.
Independence, and election as Prime Minister[edit]
The conference culminated on 27 January with a declaration of Congolese independence, setting 30 June 1960, as the independence date with national elections from 11–25 May 1960. Lumumba and the MNC won this election and the right to form a government, with the announcement on 23 June 1960 of 34-year-old Lumumba as Congo's first prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu as its president. In accordance with the constitution, on 24 June the new government passed a vote of confidence and was ratified by the Congolese Chamber and Senate.
Independence Day was celebrated on 30 June in a ceremony attended by many dignitaries, including the king of Belgium, Baudouin and the foreign press.[11] Baudouin's speech praised developments under colonialism, his reference to the "genius" of his great-granduncle Leopold II of Belgium, glossing over atrocities with a death toll estimated at 10 million[12] committed during the Congo Free State.[5] The King continued, "Don't compromise the future with hasty reforms, and don't replace the structures that Belgium hands over to you until you are sure you can do better... Don't be afraid to come to us. We will remain by your side, give you advice."[13] While President Kasa-Vubu thanked the King, Lumumba, who was not scheduled to speak, delivered an impromptu speech which reminded the audience that the independence of the Congo was not granted magnanimously by Belgium:[11]
For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood. We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.[14]
The King spoke of his father's great work in the country and asked its new leaders to measure up to their example. The speech of President Kasa-Vubu assured the King that they would try hard. Lumumba spoke of the suffering of the Congolese under Belgian colonialism, of "injustice, oppression and exploitation".[15] Neither the audience nor the King and his entourage were accustomed to hearing of the negatives that lay behind the pageantry and paternalism; it stirred the crowd while simultaneously humiliating and alienating the King. Lumumba was later harshly criticised for what many in the Western world—but virtually none in Africa—described as the inappropriate nature of his speech.[16] Some media claimed at the time that he ended his speech by ad-libbing, Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques! (We are no longer your monkeys!)—referring to a common slur used against Africans by Belgians, however, these words are neither in his written text nor in radio tapes of his speech.[13][17]
Actions as Prime Minister
Lumumba in Brussels (1960)
A few days after Congo gained its independence, Lumumba made the fateful decision to raise the pay of all government employees except for the army. Many units of the army also had strong objections toward the uniformly Belgian officers; General Émile Janssens, the army head, told them their lot would not change after independence, and they rebelled in protest. The rebellions quickly spread throughout the country, leading to a general breakdown in law and order. Although the trouble was highly localized, the country seemed to be overrun by gangs of soldiers and looters, causing a media sensation, particularly over Europeans fleeing the country.[18]
The province of Katanga declared independence under regional premier Moïse Tshombe on 11 July 1960 with support from the Belgian government and mining companies such as Union Minière.[19] Despite the arrival of UN troops, unrest continued. Since the United Nations refused to help suppress the rebellion in Katanga, Lumumba sought Soviet aid in the form of arms, food, medical supplies, trucks, and planes to help move troops to Katanga. Lumumba's decisive actions to turn to the Soviet Union alarmed western countries such as the USA, who were still in the midst of the Cold War. The USA saw Patrice Lumumba as a communist, and there is speculation that the CIA assassinated him as a result.[20]
Deposition
In September, the President dismissed Lumumba from government. Lumumba immediately protested the legality of the President's actions. In retaliation, Lumumba declared Kasa-Vubu deposed and won a vote of confidence in the Senate, while the newly appointed prime minister failed to gain parliament's confidence. The country was torn by two political groups claiming legal power over the country.
On 14 September, a coup d'état organised by Colonel Joseph Mobutu incapacitated both Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu.[18] Lumumba was placed under house arrest at the Prime Minister's residence, with UN troops positioned around the house. Nevertheless, Lumumba decided to rouse his supporters in Haut-Congo. Smuggled out of his residence at night, he escaped to Stanleyville, where his intention apparently was to set up his own government and army.[21]
Pursued by troops loyal to Mobutu he was finally captured in Port Francqui on 1 December 1960 and flown to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in ropes, not handcuffs. Mobutu claimed Lumumba would be tried for inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes.
UN response
Protests in Slovenia against the assassination of Lumumba, 1961.
Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld made an appeal to Kasa-Vubu asking that Lumumba be treated according to due process. The Soviet Union denounced Hammarskjöld and the First World as responsible for Lumumba's arrest and demanded his release.
The United Nations Security Council was called into session on 7 December 1960 to consider Soviet demands that the UN seek Lumumba's immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo. Hammarskjöld, answering Soviet criticism of his Congo operations, said that if the UN forces were withdrawn from the Congo "I fear everything will crumble."
The threat to the UN cause was intensified by the announcement of the withdrawal of their contingents by Yugoslavia, the United Arab Republic, Ceylon, Indonesia, Morocco, and Guinea. The pro-Lumumba resolution was defeated on 14 December 1960 by a vote of 8–2. On the same day, a Western resolution that would have given Hammarskjöld increased powers to deal with the Congo situation was vetoed by the Soviet Union.
Final days and execution
Lumumba was sent first on 3 December, to Thysville military barracks Camp Hardy, 150 km (about 100 miles) from Léopoldville. However, when security and disciplinary breaches threatened his safety, it was decided that he should be transferred to the State of Katanga, which had recently declared independence from Congo.
Lumumba was forcibly restrained on the flight to Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi) on 17 January 1961.[22] On arrival, he was conducted under arrest to Brouwez House where he was brutally beaten and tortured by Katangan and Belgian officers,[23] while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.[24][25][26]
Later that night, Lumumba was driven to an isolated spot where three firing squads had been assembled. The Belgian Commission (see below) has found that the execution was carried out by Katanga's authorities. However, declassified documents revealed that the CIA had plotted to assassinate Lumumba, and may have carried out those actions with the help of the Katanga authorities.
It reported that President Tshombe and two other ministers were present with four Belgian officers under the command of Katangan authorities. Lumumba and two ministers from his newly formed independent government (who had also been tortured), Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, were lined up against a tree and shot one at a time. The execution is thought to have taken place on 17 January 1961, between 21:40 and 21:43 (according to the Belgian report.) The Belgians and their counterparts wished to get rid of the bodies, and did so by digging up and dismembering the bodies, then having them dissolved in sulphuric acid while the bones were ground and scattered.[27]
Announcement of death
No statement was released until three weeks later despite rumours that Lumumba was dead. His death was formally announced on Katangan radio, when it was alleged that he escaped and was killed by enraged villagers.
After the announcement of Lumumba's death, street protests were organized in several European countries; in Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia, protesters sacked the Belgian embassy and confronted the police, and in London a crowd marched from Trafalgar Square to the Belgian embassy, where a letter of protest was delivered and where protesters clashed with police.[28] A demonstration at the United Nations Security Council turned violent and spilled over into the streets of New York City.[29][30]
Foreign involvement in his death
According to Democracy Now!, "Lumumba's pan-Africanism and his vision of a united Congo gained him many enemies. Both Belgium and the United States actively sought to have him killed. The CIA ordered his assassination but could not complete the job. Instead, the United States and Belgium covertly funneled cash and aid to rival politicians who seized power and arrested Lumumba."[31]
Both Belgium and the US were clearly influenced in their unfavourable stance towards Lumumba by the Cold War. He seemed to gravitate towards the Soviet Union, although according to Sean Kelly, who covered the events as a correspondent for the Voice of America, this was not because he was a communist, but the USSR was the only place he could find support for his country's effort to rid itself of colonial rule, although this opinion is strongly denied by US government officials.[32] The US was the first country from which Lumumba requested help.[33] Lumumba, for his part, not only denied being a communist, but said he found colonialism and communism to be equally deplorable, and professed his personal preference for neutrality between the East and West.[34]
Belgian involvement
According to David Akerman, Ludo De Witte and Kris Hollington,[35] the firing squads were commanded by a Belgian, Captain Julien Gat; another Belgian, Police Commissioner Verscheure, had overall command of the execution site.[36] De Witte found written orders from the Belgian government requesting Lumumba's execution and documents on various arrangements, such as death squads.
On 18 January, panicked by reports that the burial of the three bodies had been observed, members of the execution team went to dig up the bodies and move them to a place near the border with Northern Rhodesia for reburial. Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete later admitted in several accounts that he and his brother led the exhumation (and also a second exhumation, below.) Police Commissioner Frans Verscheure also took part. According to Adam Hochschild, author of a book on the Congo rubber terror, Lumumba's body was later cut up and dissolved in acid by two Belgian agents.[37] On the afternoon and evening of 21 January, Commissioner Soete and his brother dug up Lumumba's corpse for the second time, cut it up with a hacksaw, and dissolved it in concentrated sulfuric acid.[38][39] In an interview on Belgian television in a program on the assassination of Lumumba in 1999, Soete displayed a bullet and two teeth that he boasted he had saved from Lumumba's body.[39]
The Belgian Commission investigating Lumumba's assassination concluded that: (1) Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested, (2) Belgium was not particularly concerned with Lumumba's physical well being, and (3) although informed of the danger to Lumumba's life, Belgium did not take any action to avert his death, but the report also specifically denied that Belgium ordered Lumumba's assassination.[40]
It has been argued that Belgium was legally culpable for failing to prevent the assassination from taking place due to its own 'Good Samaritan' laws. Belgium has also been accused of breaching its obligation (under U.N. Resolution 290 of 1949) to refrain from acts or threats "aimed at impairing the freedom, independence or integrity of another state."[41] In February 2002, the Belgian government apologized to the Congolese people, and admitted to a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba".[42]
United States involvement
The report of 2001 by the Belgian Commission mentions that there had been previous U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Among them was a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored attempt to poison him, which may have come on orders from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[43] CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was a key person in this by devising a poison resembling toothpaste. In September 1960, Gottlieb brought a vial of the poison to the Congo with plans to place it on Lumumba's toothbrush.[44][45][46][47] However, the plot was later abandoned; the plan is said to have been scrapped because the local CIA Station Chief, Larry Devlin, refused permission.[45][46][48]
However, as Kalb points out in her book, Congo Cables, the record shows that many communications by Devlin at the time urged elimination of Lumumba.[49] Also, the CIA station chief helped to direct the search to capture Lumumba for his transfer to his enemies in Katanga; was involved in arranging his transfer to Katanga;[50] and the CIA base chief in Elizabethville was in direct touch with the killers the night Lumumba was killed. Furthermore, John Stockwell indicates that a CIA agent had the body in the trunk of his car in order to try to get rid of it.[51] Stockwell, who knew Devlin well, felt Devlin knew more than anyone else about the murder.[52]
The inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in January 1961 caused fear among Mobutu's faction and within the CIA that the incoming administration would shift its favor to the imprisoned Lumumba.[53] Lumumba was killed three days before Kennedy's inauguration on 20 January, though Kennedy would not learn of the killing until 13 February.[54]
Church Committee
In 1975, the Church Committee went on record with the finding that CIA chief Allen Dulles had ordered Lumumba's assassination as "an urgent and prime objective".[55] Furthermore, declassified CIA cables quoted or mentioned in the Church report and in Kalb (1972) mention two specific CIA plots to murder Lumumba: the poison plot and a shooting plot. Although some sources claim that CIA plots ended when Lumumba was captured, that is not stated or shown in the CIA records.
Rather, those records show two still-partly-censored CIA cables from Elizabethville on days significant in the murder: 17 January, the day Lumumba died, and 18 January, the day of the first exhumation. The former, after a long censored section, talks about where they need to go from there. The latter expresses thanks for Lumumba being sent to them and then says that, had Elizabethville base known he was coming, they would have "baked a snake".[56] This cable goes on to state that the writer's sources (not yet declassified) said that after being taken from the airport Lumumba was imprisoned by "all white guards".[57]
The Committee later found that while the CIA had conspired to kill Lumumba, it was not directly involved in the actual murder.[58]
U.S. government documents
Declassified documents revealed that the CIA had plotted to assassinate Lumumba. These documents indicate that the Congolese leaders who killed Lumumba, including Mobutu Sese Seko and Joseph Kasa-Vubu, received money and weapons directly from the CIA.[45][59] This same disclosure showed that at that time the U.S. government believed that Lumumba was a communist.[60]
A recently declassified interview with then-US National Security Council minutekeeper Robert Johnson revealed that U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had said "something [to CIA chief Allen Dulles] to the effect that Lumumba should be eliminated".[58] The interview from the Senate Intelligence Committee's inquiry on covert action was released in August 2000.[61]
In December 2013, the U.S. State Department admitted that President Eisenhower authorized the murder of Lumumba. The CIA Chief, Allan Dulles, allocated $100,000 to accomplish the act, but this plan was not carried out.[62]
British involvement
In April 2013, in a letter to the London Review of Books, a British parliamentarian, Lord Lea of Crondall reported having discussed Lumumba's death with Baroness Park of Monmouth shortly before she died in March 2010. Park had been an MI6 officer posted to Leopoldville at the time of Lumumba's death, and was later a semi-official spokesperson for MI6 in the House of Lords.[63]
According to Lea, when he mentioned "the uproar" surrounding Lumumba's abduction and murder, and recalled the theory that MI6 might have had "something to do with it", she replied, "We did. I organised it."[64] BBC reported that, subsequently, "Whitehall sources" described the claims of MI6 involvement as "speculative".[65]
Legacy
Statue of Lumumba in Kinshasa.
We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba's murder should be a lesson for all of us.
— Che Guevara, 1964[66]
Political
Patrice Lumumba was Prime Minister of The Congo for 81 days, from 23 June to 14 September 1960. To his supporters, Lumumba was an altruistic man of strong character. He favoured a unitary Congo and opposed division of the country along ethnic or regional lines.[67][68] Like many other African leaders, he supported pan-Africanism and liberation for colonial territories.[69] He proclaimed his regime one of "positive neutralism,"[70] defined as a return to African values and rejection of any imported ideology, including that of the Soviet Union: "We are not Communists or Catholics. We are African nationalists."[71]
2006 Congolese elections
The image of Patrice Lumumba continues to serve as an inspiration in contemporary Congolese politics. In the 2006 elections, several parties claimed to be motivated by his ideas, including the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), the political party initiated by the incumbent President Joseph Kabila.[72] Antoine Gizenga, who served as Lumumba's Deputy Prime Minister in the post-independence period, was a 2006 Presidential candidate under the Unified Lumumbist Party (Parti Lumumbiste Unifié (PALU))[73] and was named prime minister at the end of the year. Other political parties that directly utilise his name include the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L) and the Mouvement Lumumbiste (MLP).
Family and politics
Patrice Lumumba's family is actively involved in contemporary Congolese politics. Patrice Lumumba was married to Pauline Lumumba and had five children; François was the eldest followed by Patrice Junior, Julienne, Roland and Guy-Patrice Lumumba. François was 10 years old when Patrice died. Before his imprisonment, Patrice arranged for his wife and children to move into exile in Egypt, where François spent his childhood, then went to Hungary for education (he holds a doctorate in political economics).
Lumumba's youngest son, Guy-Patrice, born six months after his father's death, was an independent presidential candidate in the 2006 elections,[74] but received less than 10% of the vote.
Tributes
USSR commemorative stamp, 1961
In 1966 Patrice Lumumba's image was rehabilitated by the Mobutu regime and he was proclaimed a national hero and martyr in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By a presidential decree, the Brouwez House, site of Lumumba's brutal torture on the night of his murder, became a place of pilgrimage in the Congo.[75]
A major transportation artery in Kinshasa, the Lumumba Boulevard, is named in his honour. The boulevard goes past an interchange with a giant tower, the Tour de l'Echangeur (the main landmark of Kinshasa) commemorating him. On the tower's plaza, the first Kabila regime erected a tall statue of Lumumba with a raised hand, greeting people coming from N'djili Airport.
In Bamako, Mali, Patrice Lumumba Square is a large central plaza with a life-size statue of Lumumba, a park with fountains, and a flag display. Around Lumumba Square are various businesses, embassies and Bamako's largest bank.
Streets were also named after him in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in Budapest, Hungary (between 1961 and 1990); Jakarta; Gaborone, Botswana; Belgrade and Niš, Serbia; Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria (until 1991-2); Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; Bata and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea; Tehran, Iran; Algiers, Algeria (Rue Patrice Lumumba);[76] Santiago de Cuba, Cuba (since 1960, formerly Avenida de Bélgica); Łódź, Poznań, Warsaw (1961–1993), Poland; Kiev, Donetsk, Ukraine; Perm, Russia; Rabat, Morocco; Maputo, Mozambique; Enugu, Nigeria; Leipzig, Germany; Lusaka, Zambia ("Lumumba Street"); Kampala, Uganda and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ("Lumumba Avenue"); Tunis, Tunisia; Fort-de-France, Martinique; Montpellier, France; Accra, Ghana; Antananarivo, Madagascar; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Alexandria, Egypt and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Koper, Nabrežje Patricea Lumumbe now renamed to Belveder, Slovenia.
The Peoples' Friendship University of the USSR was renamed "Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University" in 1961, but it was later renamed "The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia" in the post-Soviet landscape in 1992.[77]
In Kampala, Uganda, "Lumumba Hall" of Residence at Makerere University continues to carry his name.
"Lumumba" is a popular choice for children's names throughout Africa.[78]
In 1964 Malcolm X declared Patrice Lumumba "the greatest black man who ever walked the African continent".[79]
Comedian Patrice O'Neal was named after Lumumba.[citation needed]
A Lumumba is a popular name for hot or cold long drink of chocolate with rum.
Lumumba named in Frank O'Hara's 1961 poem "For the Chinese New Year & for Bill Berkson"
Bibliography[edit]
Writings by Lumumba
Congo, My Country (1962) London: Pall Mall Press. ISBN 0-269-16092-2. Foreword and notes by Colin Legum; translated by Graham Heath.
Lumumba Speaks: The Speeches and Writings of Patrice Lumumba, 1958–1961 (1972) Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-53650-4. Editor, Jean Van Lierde; translated by Helen R. Lane.
Writings about Lumumba[edit]
Aimé Césaire, Une Saison au Congo (1966); Eng. trans. by Ralph Manheim, A Season in the Congo (1969). A poetic drama about the career and death of Lumumba.
W. A. E. Skurnik, African Political Thought: Lumumba, Nkrumah, Touré (Social Science Foundation and Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. Monograph series in world affairs, v. 5, no. 3-4), 1968, Denver: University of Denver, ASIN B0006CNYSW.
Ludo De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba, trans. by Ann Wright and Renée Fenby, 2002 (orig. 2001), London; New York: Verso, ISBN 1859844103.
Thomas R. Kanza, Conflict in the Congo: The Rise and Fall of Lumumba (Penguin African library), 1972, New York: Penguin, ISBN 0140410309.
Robin McKown, Lumumba: A Biography, 1969, London: Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-07776-9.
G. Heinz and H. Donnay (pseudonyms for J. Brassine and J. Gerard-Libois), Lumumba: The Last Fifty Days, 1980, New York: Grove Press, ASIN B0006C07TQ.
Panaf, Patrice Lumumba (Panaf Great Lives), 1973, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-901787-31-0.
Kwame Nkrumah, Challenge of the Congo, 1967, New York: International Publishers.
Bogumil Jewsiewicki, ed., A Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art, 1999, New York: Museum for African Art, ISBN 0-945802-25-0. The catalogue of a travelling exhibition of contemporary Congolese artists who were inspired by the legacy of Lumumba.
Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible is a fictional account of an American missionary family in the Congo during the election and assassination of Lumumba. The book is critical of Western governments and their interference in Africa.
David W. Doyle, Inside Espionage: A Memoir of True Men and Traitors (2000), tells the story of Lumumba's assassination from the point of view of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, Third Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, "Chapter Six: Congo in The 1960s: The Bleeding Heart of Africa", pp. 147–205, ISBN 978-0980253412; Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa and America in The 1960s: A Decade That Changed The Nation and The Destiny of A Continent, First Edition, New Africa Press, 2006, ISBN 9780980253429.
Films[edit]
El Congo 1961 – As himself in a documentary.
Seduto alla sua destra (1968) – A fictional film by writer-director Valerio Zurlini starring Woody Strode as a thinly disguised Lumumba. It was released in the US as Black Jesus.
Lumumba (2000). Dramatized biography directed by Raoul Peck with Eriq Ebouaney as Lumumba.
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet (1992). Documentary distributed by California Newsreel.
Lumumba: Un crime d'Etat (in English Lumumba: A state crime)
Independence Cha-Cha – The Story of Patrice Lumumba (2009). Documentary produced by Kadi Kabeya.
Archive video and audio[edit]
BBC On This Day – 14 September 1960: Violence Follows Army Coup in Congo
BBC On This Day – 13 February 1961: EX-Congo PM Declared Dead
Anti-Belgium Demonstrations Over Congo Crisis 1961
BBC On This Day – 19 February 1961: Lumumba Rally Clashes with UK Police
Other
In 1969 students from the Black Student Council and Mexican-American Youth Association of the University of California, San Diego proposed the name Lumumba-Zapata College, for what is now known as Thurgood Marshall College.[citation needed]
In Viennese coffee houses, Lumumba is a cocoa with rum, Lumumba Coffee a black coffee with rum and whipped cream. Both beverages originate from northern Germany, where they are called Tote Tante (dead aunt, with cocoa) and Pharisäer (Pharisee, with coffee; see Nordstrand, Germany) respectively.[80]
The rapper Nas dedicates his song "My Country" to Lumumba at the end of the song.[citation needed]
An Argentinian reggae band was named Lumumba.[original research?]
Colombian salsa musician Yuri Buenaventura composed a song, "Patrice Lumumba", in his honor.[citation needed]
American songwriter Neil Diamond lists Patrice Lumumba in his song "Done Too Soon".[81]
In the 1961 song "Top Forty, News, Weather and Sports" by Mark Dinning, the verse "I had Lumumba doing the rumba..." was removed after his death a few weeks after the release of the record. Records in stores were recalled, and new ones without the verse were distributed. Some of the original records survive. The verse can be heard in versions of the song available today.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
Portal icon Democratic Republic of the Congo portal
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