Feature DRCongo
to a road, and then hacking it to piec- es, and shoving the pieces into a barrel filled with sulphuric acid, to dissolve it. And would Joseph Conrad have been able to picture the murderer making sure to break off two front teeth from Lumumba’s jaw, to keep as a memento to show off to the grandchildren in Brussels in years to come? As well as one of the bullets that killed him? If Shakespeare could write black com-
edy, we might have got dialogue like this: “Grandpa, what didst thou do in the Congo?” “I exterminated Lumumba – and mark thee, that’s why I live in comfortable retirement and, never ye forget this – that’s wherefore ye went to such expensive schools. Here – see? Two of his very teeth that I broke off and brought home! And this – the bullet that finished the job!!” A Belgian, nearly 60 years after Con-
rad published his Heart of Darkness – and 57 years after Roger Casement and E. D. Morel had made what they hoped was a definitive exposure of the crimes King Leopold II of Belgium had committed against the Congolese people – could still engage in such barbarities against a leader elected on the basis of a constitution signed into law by Leopold II’s own grandson, King Baudoin I. Tat sordid crime in the bush near
Elizabethville 50 years ago was the logi- cal conclusion of a bitter and vigorous campaign that Belgium, aided by the US, waged in Congo in 1960 to ensure that Lumumba would never get a chance to rule the country that elected him to be its leader. Because of the action of Belgium
and the USA, we actually do not know whether Lumumba would have made a good ruler or not. Which makes him even more important to history: for he was not assassinated merely as a per- son, but as an idea. What was that idea? It was the idea of a Congo that was fully independent, non-aligned, and committed to African unity. Lumumba’s party, the Mouvement
National Congolais (MNC-L – L for Lumumba), was the only one in Congo to organise itself successfully as a party that saw the country as one and indivis- ible, not as a conglomeration of ethnic groups. Tus, it gained 33 out of the 137 seats in the Congolese Parliament. From this relatively strong base, Lumumba
44 | April 2011 New African “ We can see in the
history of the African people’s struggle in the 20th century, Mandela and Lumumba represented the two ends of the spectrum.”
was able to inspire others with his vi- sion and thereby to hatch alliances that enabled the MNC to command an over- all majority of seats in the parliament. When he was appointed prime minister by Brussels, many of the Belgians in Congo and in Belgium itself thought the heavens had fallen in. For he was not the Belgians’ first choice! Tey tried other Congolese “leaders” (such as Joseph Kasavubu) and it was only when these failed to garner adequate support that they unwillingly called on Lumumba. Te magnitude of the achievement
of the MNC in organising itself as a na- tionwide party, and managing to hatch viable alliances is not often appreci- ated, because few people realise that Congo is as big in size as all the coun- tries of Western Europe put together! As for Belgium itself, it is outrageous that it should have wanted to run Congo in the first place – Congo is 905,563 square miles in size, compared to Belgium’s puny 11,780 square miles. In other words, Belgium arrogated to
itself the task of ruling a country almost 77 times its size! Not only is Congo huge, but think of a country the size of Western Europe that does not have good roads, rail- way systems, telecom facilities or modern airports. And a Western Europe in which political parties are legalised only one year before vital elections – say, elections to put into power the parties that would decide whether there should be a European Union at all, or not! Te only thing to add is that in Congo,
the first nationwide local elections held in 1959, which saw the emergence of the MNC, were even more crucial, for it was those elections that were to assess the strength of the various “parties” (in ef- fect, ethnic movements) that would take part in deciding the future constitutional
The life and times of Patrice Lumumba, up to June 1960
1925
Born Patrice Emery Lumumba on 2 July in Onalua, Katakokombe, Belgian Congo. After schooling, works in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as a postal clerk and as a travelling beer salesman
1951 1955 Marries Pauline Opangu
Joins the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he works on editing and distributing party literature
1955
Arrested on false charges of embezzlement of post office funds. Released in 1956
1958
Helps found the broad-based Mouvement National Congolais (MNC).Lumumba and his team represent the MNC at the All- African Peoples’ Conference in Accra, Ghana. His pan-Africanist beliefs are further strengthened at the conference, hosted by President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana
1959
Arrested on charges of inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville, for a speech delivered at an MNC conference
1960
Attends a Round Table Conference in Brussels to finalise the future of the Congo. The MNC win the national elections. A coalition government is formed, with Lumumba as prime minister, and Joseph Kasavabu, leader of the ABAKU party, as president
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