ABAGOND
Fri 3 Jul 2015
Lumumba
by abagond
Patrice Lumumba(1925-1961), a Congolese freedom fighter, was the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (known as Zaire from 1971 to 1997). He was only in office a few months: the CIA and Belgium, with the help of Mobutu, had him killed. Mobutu went on to become a puppet dictator for the US.
Killing Lumumba was not enough: the Belgians, who had ruled the Congo, cut up his body and dissolved it in sulfuric acid.
On June 30th 1960, the day of independence, King Baudouin of Belgium spoke:
“The independence of the Congo is the crowning of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II undertaken by him with firm courage, and continued by Belgium with perseverance. … It is your job, gentlemen, to show that we were right in trusting you.”
Lumumba, when he spoke, had a somewhat different view of White rule:
“We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones.
“Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were “Negroes”. Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as “tu”, not because he was a friend, but because the polite “vous” was reserved for the white man?
“We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might.
“We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others.”
But now it was a new day:
“We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.
“We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.”
That last sentence sealed his fate.
The head of the American CIA said:
“The removal of Lumumba must be an urgent objective.”
The British foreign secretary said;
“Now is the time to get rid of Lumumba.”
The Belgian minister of African affairs said:
“Lumumba must be eliminated once and for all.”
What America, Britain and Belgium all had in common: mining companiesthat were carting off Congo’s wealth of diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt and uranium.
King Leopold II’s rule left some 10 million Congolese dead – and many with their hand cut off.
Western imperialism in one picture.
Within weeks after independence, the south-eastern province of Katanga broke away with the backing of the Belgian army. Katanga had most of the country’s mines.
The CIA tried to poison or shoot Lumumba – but could not get close enough.
Enter Mobutu: Unable to buy off Lumumba, the US did the next best thing: it bought off Mobutu, whom Lumumba had made the head of the army. Mobutu had Lumumba arrested and sent to Katanga. In the woods of Mwandingusha, a firing squad under Belgian command shot him dead on January 17th 1961.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- Read his independence day speech – and The Guardian’s White paternalistic reaction
- White paternalism
- Du Bois: The Souls of White Folk
- American Empire
- CIA Project Wizard
- banana republic
- DR Congo:
- also born in 1925:
- Che Guevara
- Nelson Mandela