The assassination of Lumumba

224 pages

English language

Published April 14, 2001 by Verso.

ISBN:: 978-1-85984-618-6

(1 review)

Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was murdered on January 17, 1961

Democratically elected to lead the Mouvement National Congolais, the party he founded in 1958, Lumumba was at the centre of the country’s growing popular defiance of the colonial rule of oppression imposed by Belgium. When, in June 1960, independence was finally won, his unscheduled speech at the official ceremonies in Kinshasa received a standing ovation and made him a hero to millions. Always a threat to those who sought to maintain a covert imperialist hand over the country, however, he became within months the victim of an insidious plot and was arrested and subsequently tortured and executed.

This book unravels the appalling mass of lies, hypocrisy and betrayals that have surrounded accounts of the assassination since it perpetration. Making use of a huge array of official sources as …

Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was murdered on January 17, 1961

Democratically elected to lead the Mouvement National Congolais, the party he founded in 1958, Lumumba was at the centre of the country’s growing popular defiance of the colonial rule of oppression imposed by Belgium. When, in June 1960, independence was finally won, his unscheduled speech at the official ceremonies in Kinshasa received a standing ovation and made him a hero to millions. Always a threat to those who sought to maintain a covert imperialist hand over the country, however, he became within months the victim of an insidious plot and was arrested and subsequently tortured and executed.

This book unravels the appalling mass of lies, hypocrisy and betrayals that have surrounded accounts of the assassination since it perpetration. Making use of a huge array of official sources as well as personal testimony from many of those in the Congo at the time, Ludo De Witte reveals a network of complicity ranging from the Belgian government to the CIA. Chilling official memos which detail ‘liquidation’ and ‘threats to national interests’ are analysed alongside macabre tales of the destruction of evidence, putting Patrice Lumumba’s personal strength and his dignified quest for African unity in stark contrast with one of the murkiest episodes in twentieth-century politics.

1 edition

ekes reviewed The assassination of Lumumba by Ludo de Witte

Meticulous case against Western powers putting their interests first

4 stars

The book originally published (1999) before Belgium's Parliament had an inquiry (2001) into their role in the assassination of Lumumba. It is carefully researched, focusing on the people in power: Belgian, but also in the UN, and to a lesser extent the US and UK. Their decisions, to act and not act, that very deliberately lead to the death of Lumumba, and the undermining of the potential democratic nationalist movement that he could lead. As such, despite De Witte's own analysis, contained toward the end of the book, it is more of history of the actions of those individuals and less the larger powers that they are part of. Even so it does make a compelling case about the Western states interests overriding those of the people of DRC itself.

Subjects

Lumumba, Patrice, 1925-1961 -- Assassination.
Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- Civil War, 1960-1965.