In fact, we wanted to continue imperialism in the Congo, to replace a colonial system with a neocolonial system.”
In memory of Patrice Lumumba murdered on January 17, 1961
After a resounding victory in the first true elections in which the Congolese participated, Patrice Lumumba became Prime Minister of the Congo from June 24, 1960 until his overthrow and imprisonment on September 14 of the same year by the military man Joseph -Désiré Mobutu and his supporters. The latter ruled the country, first by hand and then directly from 1965 until his overthrow in 1997.
On January 17, 1961, Lumumba, the great fighter for Congo’s independence, social justice and internationalism, was tortured and then executed, along with several of his comrades, by Congolese leaders complicit with Western powers, as well as by the Belgian police and military. Lumumba was only 35 years old and could have continued to play a very important role, both in his country, in Africa and globally.
As journalist Colette Braeckman wrote: “Patrice Lumumba, Congolese Prime Minister dismissed in September, placed under house arrest and then detained in Thysville, was brought to Katanga on January 17, 1961. Five hours after his arrival on Katanga soil, He was executed along with his two companions Maurice M’Polo and Robert Okito
Among the Congolese leaders who directly participated in the assassination of Lumumba was Moisés Tshombé, proclaimed president of the Congolese province of Katanga, which split on July 11, 1960, just two weeks after the beginning of the independence that the Congo obtained on the 30th. June 1960. The secession of Katanga proclaimed by Moisés Tshombe was supported by Belgium and large private Belgian mining companies very present in this part of the Congo (see below) in order to destabilize the government of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
At least five Belgian police and military personnel were also present at the time of the murder. Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, one of the main Congolese perpetrators in the murder of Lumumba, was not present at the scene on the day of the murder which took place in the East while he was in the west of the country, in the capital.
Belgium’s responsibility for the assassination of Lumumba in January 1961 was established by several authors, in particular by Ludo De Witte in The Assassination of Lumumba, and was the subject of the work of a committee of the Belgian parliament in 2001-2002. Read also the interview given by Ludo De Witte to CADTM in 2018, https://www.cadtm.org/Ludo-de-Witte-Il-faut-changer-les-mentalites-et-decoloniser-completement-l .
In this interview, Ludo De Witte simply summarized the causes of Lumumba’s murder: «Lumumba was a victim of imperialism. In fact, we wanted to continue imperialism in the Congo, to replace a colonial system with a neocolonial system.
A system where there would be black people, Congolese, who would be politicians and ministers but, behind the scenes, it would continue to be the Western powers and their large societies that would dominate the country.
This is the neocolonialism that Lumumba wanted to fight against and that is why he was murdered.
It is worth reading the speech of the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, before Baudouin, king of the Belgians.
Baldwin had declared in his speech: “The independence of the Congo is the culmination of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II, carried out by him with tenacious courage and continued with perseverance by Belgium.”
It is worth reading the speech of the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, before Baudouin, king of the Belgians.
Baldwin had declared in his speech: “The independence of the Congo is the culmination of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II, carried out by him with tenacious courage and continued with perseverance by Belgium.”
During the proclamation of Congo’s independence on June 30, 1960, the Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Emery Lumumba, gave a memorable speech (can be heard here ). The written version of it is the following:
Speech delivered at the Parliament headquarters after those of King Baudouin and President Joseph Kasa-vubu, on the day of the proclamation of the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Congolese men and women,
Fighters for independence today victorious.
I greet you on behalf of the Congolese government. To all of you, dear friends, who have fought tirelessly at our side, I ask you to make this June 30, 1960, an illustrious date that you will have indelibly engraved in your hearts, a date that you will proudly show to your children. so that they, in turn, make their children and grandchildren aware of the glorious history of our fight for freedom.
Well, this independence of the Congo, although it is proclaimed today with the agreement of Belgium, a friendly country with which we treat each other as equals, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was won by struggle, a struggle of all. days, an ardent and idealistic struggle, a struggle in which we spare neither our strength, nor our deprivations nor our sufferings, nor our blood.
Of this fight, which was of tears, fire and blood, we are proud to the depths of our being, since it was a noble and just fight, an indispensable fight to put an end to the humiliating slavery that had been imposed on us by the force. And that was our destiny during 80 years of colonialist rule, so our wounds are still too recent and too painful for us to erase them from our memory. We have known exhausting work, demanded in exchange for wages that did not allow us to eat, clothe ourselves, stay decently, or educate our children as loved ones.
We knew the mockery, the insults, the beatings that we had to suffer morning, afternoon and night, because we were black. Who will forget that a black man was called “you” not because he was a friend but because the honorable “you” was reserved only for white people?
We have seen that our lands were plundered in the name of supposedly legal texts that only recognized the right of the strongest. We have seen that the law was never the same depending on whether it was a White or a Black: accommodating for some, cruel for others. We have seen the atrocious sufferings of those who were marginalized for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own homeland, with a fate truly worse than death itself.
We have seen that in the cities there were magnificent mansions for whites and ruined huts for blacks, that a black was not admitted to cinemas, restaurants, or so-called European stores; that a black man even traveled in the hull of the barges, at the feet of a white man in his luxury cabin.
Who will forget, finally, the shootings in which so many of our brothers perished, the dungeons into which those who did not want to continue being subjected to the regime of a justice of oppression and exploitation were brutally thrown?
All of this, brothers, we suffer deeply. But all of that too, we who were mandated by the vote of your elected representatives to lead our country, we who suffered colonialist oppression in our bodies and in our hearts, we tell you very loudly that all of that, from now on, is over.
The Republic of the Congo was proclaimed and our country is now in the hands of its own children.
Together, brothers, sisters, we will begin a new fight, a sublime fight that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness.
Together we will establish social justice and ensure that everyone receives fair remuneration for their work. We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom and we will make the Congo the center that illuminates all of Africa.
We will ensure that the lands of our homeland truly benefit its children. We will review all the old laws and make new ones that will be just and noble.
We will end the oppression of free thought and ensure that all citizens fully enjoy the fundamental freedoms provided for in the Declaration of Human Rights.
We will effectively suppress any discrimination and give each person the right place that their human dignity, their work and their dedication to the country will deserve. We will make reign not of the peace of rifles and bayonets but of the peace of our hearts and good wills.
And to do this, dear compatriots, be sure that we will not only be able to count on our enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of numerous foreign countries whose collaboration we will accept whenever it is loyal and does not seek to impose a policy of any kind on us. to be. In this area, Belgium, which, finally understanding the meaning of history, did not try to oppose our independence, is prepared to grant us its help and friendship, and a treaty to that effect has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. .
This cooperation, I am sure, will be beneficial for both countries. For our part, even if we remain alert, we will know how to respect freely agreed commitments.
Thus, both at home and abroad, the new Congo, our beloved Republic, that my government will create, will be a rich, free and prosperous country.
But so that we can reach that goal without delay, I ask all of you, Congolese legislators and citizens, to help me with all your might. I ask you all to forget the tribal quarrels that wear us down and that may probably cause us to be looked down upon abroad.
I ask the parliamentary minority to help my government through constructive opposition and to remain strictly within legal and democratic channels. I ask you all not to back down from any sacrifice to ensure the success of our great project.
Finally, I ask you to unconditionally respect the life and property of your fellow citizens and foreigners established in our country.
If the conduct of these foreigners leaves something to be desired, our justice system will quickly expel them from the territory of the Republic: if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, we must leave them alone, since they also work for the prosperity of our country. The independence of the Congo marks a decisive step towards the liberation of the entire African continent.
This is, Sire, your excellencies, ladies, gentlemen, my dear compatriots, my brothers in race, my brothers in struggle, what I wanted to tell you on behalf of the government on this magnificent day of our complete and sovereign independence. Our strong, national, popular government will be the salvation of this country.
I invite all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to put themselves resolutely to work in order to create a prosperous national economy that enshrines our economic independence.
Tribute to the fighters of national freedom!
Long live independence and African Unity!
Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!)
Lumumba, internationalist fighter
Before becoming Prime Minister, Lumumba established strong links with a number of anti-imperialist, pan-Africanist and internationalist movements and personalities. In December 1958, he was present at the African People’s Conference in Accra.
He met, among others, the Antillean-Algerian Frantz Fanon , the Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah and the Cameroonian Félix-Roland Moumié .
He gave a speech in which he stated: «The fundamental objective of our movement is the liberation of the Congolese people from the colonialist regime and their independence.
We base our action on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – rights guaranteed to all citizens of humanity by the Charter of the United Nations – and we believe that the Congo, as a human society, is entitled to the rank of free peoples. He concluded by saying:
«That is why we shout loudly with all the delegates:
Down with colonialism and imperialism. Down with racism and tribalism. And long live the Congolese nation, long live independent Africa. »
The sequence of events that led to the coup against Lumumba and his assassination
After Lumumba’s speech on June 30, the Belgian government, the monarchy and the heads of the main Belgian companies present in the Congo decided to overthrow Lumumba and cause the secession of Katanga, the richest province in raw materials.
Immediately the Congolese accomplices appeared in the person of Moisés Tshombé, proclaimed President of Katanga on July 11, 1960 and then in the person of President Joseph Kasa-Vubu, who dismissed Lumumba in September 1960 without having the constitutional power to do so, and on Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, who led a coup a few days later and arrested Lumumba when his ministers had confirmed their confidence in him and his party was the main party in Parliament.
Mobutu, who had a military career during colonial times and was a former journalist in the pro-colonial Congolese press, managed to obtain a position as a colonel in the new army and quickly turned against the Congolese government.
Meanwhile, Belgium had sent 11,000 troops to the Congo in July 1960 (an enormous number), including 9,000 to Katanga.
These 11,000 Belgian soldiers were transported to the Congo in ten days, preceded by special parachute troops. This military intervention constitutes a true aggression against an already independent State. It should be noted that Belgium, a member of NATO , had until the 1980s, in West Germany, an over-equipped military zone that extended from the Belgian border to the Iron Curtain.
The Belgian General Staff had at its disposal a considerable military arsenal, partly of American origin, and NATO allowed it to deploy aircraft, troop transports and even navy ships that bombarded Congolese positions in the Congo River estuary.
The United States government and the CIA also maneuvered together with Belgium, with whom they decided to assassinate Lumumba [ 7 ] . France did the same. In a telegram dated August 26, 1960, CIA Director Allen Dulles told his agents in Leopoldville about Lumumba: “We have decided that his removal is our most important objective and that, under present circumstances, he deserves a high priority in our secret action”
It should be noted that on August 12, 1960, Belgium signed an agreement with Tshombé, de facto recognizing the independence of Katanga.
The Lumumba government’s attempts to confront this secession were completely legitimate, but they were opposed by the great Western powers.
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