Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity.
- Patrice Lumumba
Today, 17 January, marks 55 years since the assassination of Patrice Lumumba.
Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo. He played a vital role in the country’s fight for independence from Belgium, but within weeks of Congolese independence, in 1960, his government was deposed in a coup, and he was killed at the age of just 35. Belgium, the CIA, the UN and the United Kingdom have all been implicated in his death.
Although Lumumba led the Congo for just a few months, he is remembered as one of Africa’s most charismatic and insightful leaders of all time.
Take a look at six recent books to learn more about this fascinating figure:
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EAN: 9781431421138
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Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the country’s first democratically elected prime minister. After a meteoric rise in the colonial civil service and the African political elite, he became a major figure in the decolonisation movement of the 1950s.
Lumumba’s short tenure as prime minister (1960-1) was marked by an uncompromising defence of Congolese national interests against pressure from international mining companies and the Western governments that orchestrated his eventual demise. Cold war geopolitical manoeuvring and well-coordinated efforts by Lumumba’s domestic adversaries culminated in his assassination at the age of 35, with the support or at least the tacit complicity of the US and Belgian governments, the CIA, and the UN Secretariat.
Even decades after Lumumba’s death, his personal integrity and unyielding dedication to the ideals of self-determination, self-reliance, and pan-African solidarity assure him a prominent place among the heroes of the twentieth-century African independence movement and the worldwide African diaspora. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja’s short and concise book provides a contemporary analysis of Lumumba’s life and work, examining both his strengths and his weaknesses as a political leader. It also surveys the national, continental, and international contexts of Lumumba’s political ascent and his swift elimination by the interests threatened by his ideas and practical reforms.
Voices of Liberation: Patrice Lumumba by Leo Zeilig
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EAN: 9780796924254
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US documents released in August 2011 reveal that President Eisenhower directly ordered the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo. But the Americans were not alone ..
Six months after achieving independence from Belgium, Congo’s first legally elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated on 17 January 1961. The effects of that attempt at annihilation, sanctioned by the United States and carried out by the Belgians, continue to reverberate throughout the continent today as the “scramble for Africa” continues. Patrice Lumumba was an icon of African liberation, a hero who represents a short but realistic ray of hope for true African democracy. In this important book, readers are able to engage with Lumumba’s original voice through carefully selected writings and speeches. The critical section on Lumumba’s legacy reflects that his voice is crucial for the current re-imagining of the continent, the African Renaissance and questions of nation-building and identity.
African Leaders of the Twentieth Century: Biko, Selassie, Lumumba, Sankara by Lindy Wilson, Bereket Habte Selassie, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Ernest Harsch
EAN: 9780821421611
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This omnibus edition brings together concise and up-to-date biographies of Steve Biko, Emperor Haile Selassie, Patrice Lumumba, and Thomas Sankara.
African Leaders of the Twentieth Century will complement courses in history and political science and serve as a useful collection for the general reader.
Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades after his assassination, Lumumba remains one of the heroes of the twentieth-century Africanindependence movement.
Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba by Emmanuel Gerard
EAN: 9780674725270
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Death in the Congo is a gripping account of a murder that became one of the defining events in postcolonial African history. It is no less the story of the untimely death of a national dream, a hope-filled vision very different from what the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo became in the second half of the twentieth century.
When Belgium relinquished colonial control in June 1960, a charismatic 35-year-old African nationalist, Patrice Lumumba, became prime minister of the new republic. Yet stability immediately broke down. A mutinous Congolese Army spread havoc, while Katanga Province in southeast Congo seceded altogether. Belgium dispatched its military to protect its citizens, and the United Nations soon intervened with its own peacekeeping troops. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, both the Soviet Union and the United States maneuvered to turn the crisis to their Cold War advantage. A coup in September secretly aided by the UN toppled Lumumba’s government. In January 1961, armed men drove Lumumba to a secluded corner of the Katanga bush, stood him up beside a hastily dug grave, and shot him. His rule as Africa’s first democratically elected leader had lasted ten weeks.
Over 50 years later, the murky circumstances and tragic symbolism of Lumumba’s assassination still trouble many people around the world. Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick pursue events through a web of international politics, revealing a tangled history in which many people black and white, well-meaning and ruthless, African, European, and American bear responsibility for this crime.
Lumumba: Africa’s Lost Leader by Leo Zeilig
EAN: 9781908323941
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Patrice Lumumba (1925-61) is perhaps the most famous leader of the African independence movement. After his execution in 1961, when he had been prime minister of the newly-liberated Congo for only seven months, he became an icon of anti-imperialist struggle. As the news came out, his picture was brandished in demonstrations in capitals around the world, along with Che Guevara and Mao Zedong. His life and the independence that he sought for the Congo made him a pivotal figure of the 20th century, highlighting ongoing Western colonialism and the problematic nature of the independence granted to huge swathes of the globe after 1945.
In this book, revised and updated to include new thinking on the Congo crisis and incorporating material recently released from British intelligence archives, Leo Zeilig tells the story of the Congo in the dying days of colonialism, and of Lumumba’s transition from nationalist to revolutionary to international symbol of African liberation.
The Assassination of Lumumba by Ludo de Witte
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EAN: 9781919931159
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Patrice Lumumba, First Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was murdered on 17 January 1961. This book unravels the appaling mass of lies, hypocrisy and betrayals that have surrounded accounts of the assasination of Lumumba since its perpetration. Making use of a huge array of official sources as well as personal testimony from mnay 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 interest” are analysed alongside macabre tales of the destruction of evedence, putting Patrice Lumumba’s personal strength and his dignified quest for African unity in stark contrast with one of the murkiest episodes of twentieth-century politics.
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