Mobutu, a Belgian agent who became Lumumba’s army
Chief of Staff and worked to undermine him in power
have we heard that before? Tose who know African history can immediately see the parallels with what happened in Gha- na, Kenya and Malawi: it was precisely the same colonial criminal code that had put Nkrumah in prison in Ghana in 1950, and in a slightly more tortuous manner, Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya in 1953, and Kamuzu Banda in the then Nyasaland (Malawi) in 1959. Again, like Nkrumah in Ghana, Lumumba’s party, the MNC contested local (provincial) council elections in 1959 while its leader was still in jail, and sur- prise, surprise, it too won a sweeping vic- tory, as the electorate made no mistake in recognising why the leader had been jailed. In its main stronghold of Stanley- ville (today’s Kisangani), Lumumba’s party obtained no less than 90% of the votes. So, when in January 1960, the Bel-
gian government invited all the Congolese parties to a Round Table Conference in Brussels to discuss political change, i.e. write a new constitution for the country, and the MNC refused to participate un- less Lumumba was released and put at its head, the Belgian government had no choice but to release him and fly him to Brussels. It was at this conference that Lumumba
arrangements under which the country would be governed. Who knew – perhaps the independ-
ence that Ghana (1957) and Guinea (1958) had achieved, might even come Congo’s way and those elected might become ministers, who would form the first government of a new, independ- ent Congo, after nearly 100 years of the most brutal colonial rule inflicted on an African country by a European ruler. By the time the Belgians felt the need to call a constitutional conference in Brus-
sels to decide how the new Congo was to be ruled, Lumumba was in prison. Again! He had earlier been imprisoned on a charge of embezzlement while he was a postal clerk. It needs to be pointed out that the charge was brought against him while he was away in Brussels, touring the country at the invitation of the Belgian government. Was someone trying to blight a future political career? Te charge on which he went to prison
a second time was more in line with colo- nial practice. “Inciting a riot”! Ha – where
showed his mettle – rising above the divi- sive politics that the Belgians wanted to promote among the various ethnic group- ings, and uniting them on one central ob- jective – independence. And he managed to get a date agreed for independence – 30 June 1960. Lumumba returned from Brussels to
contest the national elections that were held in May 1960: a mere one month to independence. I draw your attention again to the huge size of Congo and the absence of anything in the country that resem- bled adequate infrastructure. Tis made it well-nigh impossible to campaign for elections on a national scale and of the 50 parties that put up candidates only two – Lumumba’s MNC-L and the Parti National du Progrès or PNP – fielded candidates in provinces other than where
New African April 2011 | 45
Far left: King Leopold II of Belgium; left: Joseph
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