IT is sobering to revisit the life of Patrice Lumumba, a revolutionary par-excellence who led the Democratic Republic of the Congo to independence on June 30 1960.
He was ruthlessly deposed by his former special aide and CIA-sponsored Mobutu Sese Seko three months later.
Months later, Mobutu had Lumumba murdered on January 17 1961 at the behest of the US, the UK and Belgium.
What he stood and died for is summarised in a letter he wrote from Camp Hardy Military Prison in Mbango-Ngungu.
“I am writing these words not knowing whether they will reach you, when they will reach you and whether I shall still be alive when you read them.
What we wished for our country, its right to an honourable life, to unstained dignity, to independence without restrictions, was never desired by the Belgian imperialists and the Western allies, who found direct and indirect support, both deliberate and unintentional, among certain high officials of the United Nations (UN), that organisation in which we placed all our trust when we called on its assistance.”
For the Americans who had benefitted immensely from Congo’s wealth, particularly uranium which they used to make the first atomic bomb which they used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was unthinkable that anyone else other than them and their Western allies would control the wealth of the Congo.
Lumumba became the biggest stumbling block they had ever faced in the years of Belgian colonialism of the Congo and could not be tolerated.
“Neither brutal assaults, nor cruel mistreatment, nor torture have ever led me to beg for mercy, for I prefer to die with my head held high, unshakable faith and the greatest confidence in the destiny of my country rather than live in slavery and contempt for sacred principles,” the letter continues.
A patriot, who wished the best for his country was murdered because he protected the welfare of his people.
They had to castigate and denigrate him, cast him as a demon to justify eliminating him, thus wrote the head of the UN mission in the country, a certain Andrew Cordier, who was subsequently heavily involved in Lumumba being deposed and murdered:
“Mr Lumumba, the Prime Minister is completely irresponsible — if not a mad man.
He is wildly ambitious, lusting for power and strikes fear into anyone who crosses his path.
There is really no such thing as a Congolese Government.
There is a Cabinet, but Lumumba uses it as his tool.
Some members of the Cabinet share his vision and lust for power.
The only real solution to the problem is a change of leadership. It will not be easy, however, to remove Lumumba from his position.
In various ways the secretary-general has given encouragement to the moderates and they are also receiving encouragement from other powerful political sources.” (Cordier in a letter to Professor Emeritus V.F. Schwalm at Manchester College, in Indiana, August 18 1960).
After almost a century of looting the wealth of the Congo, unquantifiable amounts of ivory, coffee, rubber, gold, diamonds, skins of animals such as crocodiles, hippopotami, rare species of trees and millions of slaves, the independence of Congo in 1960, with Lumumba at the helm, was their worst nightmare.
They ‘intervened’ militarily, using their forces to back a secessionist rebel, Moises Tshombe, in the Katanga region.
In turn, Lumumba appealed to the UN for assistance.
The UN came, but instead, assisted Lumumba’s enemies to remove him and later on murder him.
He had been in office barely months and the West had already decided Lumumba should be deposed and eliminated.
The West killed him to satisfy capitalist greed.
The vilification of Lumumba by the West was to create grounds for removing him — a patriot beloved by his people.
But they wanted the wealth, so the US, through its CIA, the Belgians and Western Allies, such as the UK, sponsored ‘moderates’, a euphemistic term for sellouts — and Mobutu fitted the part like a glove.
They backed Mobutu to depose and arrest Lumumba.
Count d’Aspremont ordered he be taken to Katanga Province.
On the flight there, he and two loyalists – Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okite – were beaten so badly the pilot complained the plane was in danger of crashing.
All three were shot by a firing squad commanded by Belgian officers while Tshombe watched.
The Belgian commander of the Katanga Police Force, Gerard Soete, was given the grisly job of destroying the bodies. Enlisting the support of a friend, they chopped up the corpses before dissolving them in acid.
Soete recalls that they were drunk for the two days because: “We did things an animal wouldn’t do.”
Lumumba’s demise was discussed in Washington, London, Brussels and New York, but he was an African involved in the affairs of his country, an African country, but that did not matter. Those accustomed to prosper on African wealth made the decisions about the destiny of Africans and implemented them as if on objects and not human beings.
It is a catastrophe for us as Africans that this happens over and over again.
Whenever an African leader stands for his people against Western imperialism, the West repeats the same formula.
The African leader is described as ‘evil’, ‘undemocratic’, ‘brutal’, ‘despotic’ and ‘anti-people’.
At first, It was Lumumba, 57 years ago, then Kwame Nkrumah, 51 years ago, Herbert Chitepo, 43 years ago, and Muammar Gaddafi, seven years ago.
The story is always the same.
The West has permanent interests in Africa’s wealth and they (the West) are prepared to kill for it.
Lumumba’s last letter to his wife is quite revealing.
Said Lumumba:
“History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or in the UN, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed from imperialism and its puppets.
Love live the Congo!
Long live Africa!”
Zimbabwe is one of those countries freed from imperialism and yet for decades we have been teaching the history taught in London, Washington and the UN and not the history of our struggles, the struggles of the African.
As we celebrate the life of this great son of Africa, Lumumba, let us teach our children well so that they will forever understand and never forget what Che Guevara said in his address to the UN General Assembly on December 11 1964:
“I would like to refer specifically to the painful case of the Congo, unique in the history of the modern world, which shows how, with absolute impunity, with the most insolent cynicism, the rights of peoples can be flouted.
The direct reason for all this is the enormous wealth of the Congo, which the imperialist countries want to keep under their control.
How can we forget the betrayal of the hope that Patrice Lumumba placed in the UN?
How can we forget the machinations and maneuvers that followed in the wake of the occupation of that country by UN troops, under whose auspices the assassins of this great African patriot acted with impunity?”