Patrice Lumumba

thumb|We who suffered in our bodies and hearts from colonialist oppression, we say to you out loud: from now on, all that is over. thumb|I have never doubted for a single instant that the sacred cause to which my comrades and I have dedicated our entire lives would triumph in the end. But what we wanted for our country—its right to an honorable life, to perfect dignity, to independence with no restrictions—was never wanted by Belgian colonialism and its Western allies. thumb|No amount of brutality, atrocity or torture have ever led me to ask for pity, for I would rather die with my head high, wth my faith undaunted and with profound confidence in the destiny of my country, than live in submission and in the contempt of sacred principles. History will one day judge, but it will not be the history taught in Brussels, Paris or Washington or in the United Nations, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history and it will be, both north and south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity. thumb|No one is perfect in this imperfect world. thumb|220px|Statue of Lumumba in Kinshasa. thumb|Patrice Lumumba signs the document granting independence to the Congo next to Belgian Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens thumb|Lumumba monument in Leipzig, Germany thumb|Patrice Lumumba in Brussel thumb|Lumumba in Brussels, 1960. Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo. As founder and leader of the mainstream Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) party, Lumumba played an important role in campaigning for independence from the Belgian Colonial Empire. Quotes We who suffered in our bodies and hearts from colonialist oppression, we say to you out loud: from now on, all that is over. 30 June 1960, as quoted in The Real Story Behind Patrice Lumumba’s Assassination, Isaac Chotiner, 2023, The New Yorker I have never doubted for a single instant that the sacred cause to which my comrades and I have dedicated our entire lives would triumph in the end. But what we wanted for our country—its right to an honorable life, to perfect dignity, to independence with no restrictions—was never wanted by Belgian colonialism and its Western allies. As quoted by Stuart A Reid in The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination (2023) No Congolese worthy of the name will ever to be able to forget that this independence has been won through a struggle in which we did not spare our energy and our blood... We have known ironies, insults, and blows which we had to undergo morning, noon and night because we were Negroes. We have seen our lands spoiled in the name of laws which only recognized the right of the strongest. We have known laws which differed according to whether it dealt with a black man or a white. We have known the atrocious sufferings of those who were imprisoned for their political opinions or religious beliefs, and of those exiled in their own country. Their fate was worse than death itself. Who will forget the rifle-fire from which so many of our brothers perished, or the jails in to which were brutally thrown those who did not want to submit to a regime of justice, oppression and exploitation which were the means the colonialists employed to dominate us? The new leaders of Africa Rolf Italiaander, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1690, p 159. Patrice Lumumba at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo's Independence in Leopoldville on June 30, 1960. No one is perfect in this imperfect world. Congo, My Country Without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men. Letter to his wife (Congo, My Country) A minimum of comfort is necessary for the practice of virtue. Congo, My Country No amount of brutality, atrocity or torture have ever led me to ask for pity, for I would rather die with my head high, wth my faith undaunted and with profound confidence in the destiny of my country, than live in submission and in the contempt of sacred principles. History will one day judge, but it will not be the history taught in Brussels, Paris or Washington or in the United Nations, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history and it will be, both north and south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity. Attributed to Lumumba by Doudou Thiam in a statement to the United Nations General Assembly, 967th Plenary Meeting, 1961. Said to be written by Lumumba to his wife while imprisoned. The Soviet Union is the only great power whose position has reflected the will and wishes of our people. Therefore the Soviet Union proves to be the only great power that has supported the Congolese people in their struggle from the beginning. Quoted in Il Congo di Lumumba e di Mulele. I took the money not for myself, but for my political activities, I hurt no private individual, only the Belgian state, which at the time was my worst enemy, it had plunderd us, now i plunderd it. The new leaders of Africa Rolf Italiaander, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1690, p 152. Patrice Lumumba explains why he stole 126.000 Belgian Colonial Franks from the post office where he worked as a clerck. While our brothers in Kenya, Nyasa-land, Rhodesia, South Africa and Angola are still fighting for their freedom, look at the wonderful future that smiles at us. The new leaders of Africa Rolf Italiaander, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1690, p 155. Patrice Lumumba at the round table conference in Brussels. We are no longer your monkeys. The new leaders of Africa Rolf Italiaander, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1690, p 158. Patrice Lumumba shouted during the Speech of King Baudouin at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo's Independence in Leopoldville on June 30, 1960. At the moment when Congo reaches independence, the whole government wishes to pay solemn homage to the King of the Belgians, and to the noble people he represents for the work done here over three quarters of a century. I would not wish my feelings to be wrongly interpreted... Long live King Baudouin, Long live Belgium, Long live the independent Congo. The new leaders of Africa Rolf Italiaander, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1690, p 159. Patrice Lumumba in a speech at a luncheon following the Independence Ceremony on June 30, 1960 in Leopoldville. (In the book it is described that this moment had shown that Patrice Lumumba had two faces, he was anti-European when he had to win votes, but quickly became pro-European when it could help his party, the MNC.) Our dearest wish perhaps, some may find it utopian is to found in the Congo a Nation in which differences of race and religion will melt away, a homogeneous society composed of Belgians and Congolese who with a single impulse will link their hearts to the destinies of the country. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 138. Patrice Lumumba in a 1957 letter. The aspirations of the peoples of colonial countries, are identical, their destinies are similar and the goals they pursue in their national development are the same: liberation of Africa from the yoke of colonialism. Africa will never be free and independent if any part of it remains under foreign domination. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 139. Lumumba at the 1958 intemational seminar of cultural workers in Ibadan, Nigeria, in a speech on African Unity and National Independence. We protest against any attempts to split our national territory. The Congo’s greatness is based on the maintenance of its political and economic unity. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 139. Lumumba at the Round table conference in Brussels 1960. All together, dear brothers and sisters, workers and government employees, workers by brain and by hand, rich and poor, Africans and Europeans, Catholics and Protestants, Kimbanguists and Kitawalists, let us unite and create a great nation. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 140. We know, that some Congolese are well off, but they are in the minority; meanwhile we are concerned with the majority of the population. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 140. Lumumba in 1956. The European powers, want to enlist the sympathies of those African leaders who follow their lead and deceive their own people. Some of these powers see the meaning of their presence in the Congo and in Africa in exploiting their riches as much as possible, availing themselves of the services of the corrupt leaders. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 141. Lumumba in 1959. I know that an overwhelming majority of the Belgian people are against the oppression of Africans. They disapprove of a colonial status for the Congo under which 14 million Congolese are exposed to the diktat of a tiny economic oligarchy. If the Belgian people were to have their say, the Congo would never have experienced the misfortunes which are affecting it now. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 141. Lumumba in October 1959. Tensions in the relations between the Congo and Belgium are being exacerbated only by the groups interested in exploiting the Congo’s wealth and who egg the authorities on to extend the colonial regime, as well as by some officials who are pursuing their private interests. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 141. Lumumba on September 6 in Luluabourg 1959. History attests, that independence is never brought to you on a silver platter. It must be won. To that end we must organise ourselves and mobilise all the healthy forces in the country. The Congolese have responded to our appeal and thanks to this united strength we have dealt a mortal blow to rotten colonialism. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 141. Lumumba in a lecture in Brussels, April 1959. Kamina, is the first enterprise we are going to nationalise in Congo. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 143. Lumumba referring to the Belgian military base in Kamina, in the lower Congo on February I960. We became the target of attacks because we no longer want to submit ... and reject corruption. They tried to bribe us and millions were promised to me, but I refused, I did not take a single centime. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 144. Lumumba in August 1960 from the United States. My dear countrymen! In joy and in sorrow I will always be with you. It is together with you that I fought to free my country from foreign rule. Together with you I am fighting to strengthen our national independence. Together with you, I will fight to preserve the integrity and national unity of the Republic of the Congo. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 145. Lumumba in his last appeal to the people from a prison in Thysville. Neither cruelty, nor violence, nor torture will make me beg for mercy, because I prefer to die with my head raised high, with unshakeable faith... In my country’s predestination rather than live in submission forsaking my sacred principles. Fighters for National Liberation: Political Profiles V.G. Khorosebal , Central Books Ltd, 1984, 0714720542, p 145. Lumumba On January 17 in Elizabethville right before his assassination by Katangese separatists. Our wounds are too fresh and too smarting for us to be able to have known ironies, insults, and blows which we had to undergo morning, noon and night because we were Negroes. We have seen our lands spoiled in the name of laws which only recognised the right of the strongest. We have known laws which differed according to whether it dealt with a black man or a white. Marred M. Lumumba's offensive speech in King's presence We have known the atrocious sufferings of those who were imprisoned for their political opinions or religious beliefs and of those exiled in their own country. Their fate was worse than death itself. Who will forget the rifle-fire from which so many of our brothers perished, or the gaols in to which were brutally thrown those who did not want to submit to a regime of justice, oppression and exploitation which were the means the colonialists employed to dominate us? Marred M. Lumumba's offensive speech in King's presence in this sphere even Belgium who, understanding in the end the sense of history, did not try any harder to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us her help and friendship. Marred M. Lumumba's offensive speech in King's presence Quotes about Patrice Lumumba We had then made our views felt to the world. We had stopped Adlai Stevenson from speaking at the United Nations while protesting about the death of Lumumba. New York was seething. Everyone who had any consciousness was out in the streets. Rosa Guy 1988 interview in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989) Those who expect from it an exposition of the dynamic nationalism for which he is now the symbol will be disappointed. Lumumba at that time was a self-conscious évolué and an exponent of gradualism, much more concerned to mediate between the Belgian colonial system and the mass of Congolese peasants than to demand immediate independence. Hoskyns, 1963, p. 130, Quoted in The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics by Bruce Gilley, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy. Like the murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, the murder of Malcolm X deprived the world of a potentially great leader. I could not agree with either of these men, but I could see in them a capacity for leadership which I could respect and which was only beginning to mature in judgment and statesmanship. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. What we’ve been hearing from the panelists is how the global food system works right now... It’s based on large multinational companies, private profits, and very low international transfers to help poor people (sometimes no transfers at all). It’s based on the extreme irresponsibility of powerful countries with regard to the environment. And it’s based on a radical denial of the economic rights of poor people... We’ve just heard from the Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many point a finger of blame at the DRC and other poor countries for their poverty. Yet we don’t seem to remember, or want to remember, that starting around 1870, King Leopold of Belgium created a slave colony in the Congo that lasted for around 40 years; and then the government of Belgium ran the colony for another 50 years. In 1961, after independence of the DRC, the CIA then assassinated the DRC’s first popular leader, Patrice Lumumba, and installed a US-backed dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, for roughly the next 30 years. And in recent years, Glencore and other multinational companies suck out the DRC’s cobalt without paying a level of royalties and taxes. We simply don’t reflect on the real history of the DRC and other poor countries struggling to escape from poverty. Instead, we point fingers at these countries and say, “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you govern yourselves properly?” Jeffrey Sachs', Speech at the UN Food Systems Pre-summit, Speech transcript (October 2021) To remember Patrice Lumumba and other fallen pan-African leaders is to challenge the narratives that frame African underdevelopment as inevitable, rather than engineered. You Can Kill the Man, Not the Movement: Remembering Patrice Lumumba and Africa’s Fallen Pan-African Leaders Uncovering the truth about Lumumba’s downfall and murder – and assigning blame – matter not just in the name of Lumumba’s memory. For the Congo, the episode marked a turning point, the definitive end of a short-lived democratic experiment and the beginning of decades of poverty, dictatorship, and war. But the crisis reverberated far beyond the Congo. Contrary to a common Western belief at the time, Lumumba was not pro-Communist in any sense of the term, nor was he, as a slightly more sophisticated critique had it, particularly vulnerable to Soviet influence. The life and cruel death of Patrice Lumumba Lumumba’s scathing remarks of June 1960 were not only “fundamental to his reputation, but also marked him out in the United States’ mind. “Because, bear in mind, the Cold War was happening, so they were particularly paranoid and thinking, ‘You’re a communist.’ Loffman ‘I am a living statue’: How DR Congo’s most famous soccer fan is keeping Patrice Lumumba’s legacy alive External links Patrice Lumumba Speeches and writings by and about Patrice Lumumba, at the Marxists Internet Archive. Virtual Memorial to Patrice Lumumba, at Find-A-grave. Patrice Lumumba: 50 Years Later, Remembering the U.S.-Backed Assassination – video report SpyCast – 1 December 2007: On Assignment to Congo-Peter chats with Larry Devlin, the CIA's legendary station chief in Congo during the 1960s. Africa Within. A rich source of information on Lumumba, including a reprint of Stephen R. Weissman's 21 July 2002 article from the Washington Post. BBC Lumumba apology: Congo's mixed feelings. Mysteries of History Lumumba assassination. Lumumba and the Congo Documentary of Lumumba's life and work in the Congo. BBC An "On this day" text. It features an audio clip of a BBC correspondent on Lumumba's death. Belgian Parliament The findings of the Belgian Commission of 2001 investigating Belgian involvement in the death of Lumumba. Documents at the bottom of the page are in English. Beat Knowledge tribute to Lumumba Tribute to Lumumba on 50th anniversary of his assassination (17 January 2011). Belgian Commission's Conclusion A particular document from the previous link. D'Lynn Waldron Dr. D'Lynn Waldron's extensive archive of articles, photographs, and documents from her days as a foreign press correspondent in Lumumba's 1960 Congo. CIA plans included the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, report from the Washington Post by Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus. Patrice Emery Lumumba: Memory of Congolese Leader Lives on 50 Years Later. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/974745.stm Who Killed Lumumba? David Akerman BBC 21 October 2000 1 December 2007 http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/600701lumumba.html Lumumba Assails Colonialism as Congo Is Freed New York Times Harry Gilroy 1 July 1960 1 December 2007 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871970,00.html The Bad Dream Time Magazine 20 January 1961 1 December 2007 Lumumba children get gifts from Germany 13 February 1961 http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19610213.2.26.aspx The Straits Times 8 October 2010 ( Picture of Lumumba's children in Egypt, visited by the wife of East Germany's leading foreign politician Heinrich Rau. ) Category:Heads of government Category:Nationalists Category:Revolutionaries Category:Political activists Category:Prisoners Category:Executed people Category:1925 births Category:1961 deaths Category:People from Belgian Congo Category:People from the Democratic Republic of the Congo Category:People of the Cold War Category:African and Black nationalists