Lumumba, Patrice Emergy
[key], 1925–61, prime minister (1960) of the Republic of the Congo
(now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). A member of the Batatele tribe,
he was educated in mission schools and later worked as a postal clerk. He
became a member of the permanent committee of the All-African Peoples
Conference (founded in Accra, 1958) and president of the Congolese National
Movement, an influential political party. After the uprising (Jan., 1959) in
the Congo, he fled the country to escape arrest but soon returned. Late in
1959, accused of instigating public violence, he was jailed by the Belgians
but was released (1960) to participate in the Brussels Congo conference,
where he emerged as a leading negotiator. When the Republic of the Congo
came into existence (June, 1960) Lumumba was its first premier and minister
of defense.
Shortly after independence, the army mutinied, the Belgian government flew in
troops to protect Belgian citizens, and Katanga province declared its
independence. A coup in September, covertly aided by the UN, overthrew
Lumumba's government. President Kasavubu, Lumumba's rival for power,
dismissed him as prime minister and he, in turn, dismissed Kasavubu as
president. Shortly afterward, Lumumba was put under house arrest by Colonel
Mobutu.
Lumumba escaped but was recaptured and then flown, on orders from Mobutu and
Kasavubu, to Katanga. On January 17 1961, armed men drove Lumumba to a
concealed area of the Katanga bush, shot him, and buried him in a hurriedly
dug grave. In February it was announced that he had been killed. Riots of
protest took place in many parts of the world. Lumumba's murder is
considered, by some historians, to be one of the defining events in
postcolonial African history. He was Africa's first democratically elected
leader and his rule lasted less than three months. Lumumba became an symbol
for anti-imperialist activists.
See his Congo: My Country (1962); Lumumba Speaks (ed. by J. van
Lierde, tr. 1972). See also T. R. Kanza (1972); L. De Witte, The
Assassination of Lumumba (1999); E. J. Keller and R. A. Hill,
eds., Trustee for the Human Community: Ralph J. Bunche, the United
Nations, and the Decolonization of Africa (2010); G.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Patrice Lumumba (2014); E. Gerard and B.
Kuklick, Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba
(2015); P. Monaville, Students of the World Global: 1968 and
Decolonization in the Congo (2022).
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