What do the Congolese know about him? Why was he never tried for Lumumba’s assassination? What did he really do to deserve desecration and humiliation? Is he really a hero?
Is there a legendary concept that one should be proud of for belonging to one’s nation? It is the DRC’s greatest legacy. A touching word that signifies love of one’s homeland to the point of supreme sacrifice. He was the first politician to demystify the UN by breaking with Dag Hammarskjöld. On American soil, he refused to bow to Yankee diktat, because during the Cold War, the man wanted the DRC not to be a satellite of any power. The author of political neutralism. He symbolizes the people’s struggle for their independence, as well as a man of freedom and dignity. His assassination was no accident, as it fit with the Western plan to recolonize the Congo and Africa.
He is a source of inspiration for all political parties that aspire to lead the nation for the well-being of the people. Lumumba’s courage is a political lesson for the African political class. He is the compass and the light of theories focused on human emancipation. He was the hope of free Africa; he embodies hope yesterday, today, and tomorrow. A beacon of Black struggle against racial discrimination. He is a political light that illuminates the darkness and the mediocre. His light will never be extinguished.
A symbol of the struggle of young African leaders for the decolonization of the continent, he embodied the hope for a free Africa. Lumumba remains a question mark for all the puppets of the West who cannot find a correct answer regarding his political thinking. He did not like independence as a gift; it was the fruit of struggle. A visionary, he knew how to read the signs of the times and anticipate events.
Patrice Emery Lumumba’s character can be explained by his lack of vanity, firmness in principles, love of country, rectitude, vitality of spirit, passion for Africa, generosity, faith in man and nation, hence his greatness. He was not afraid of death; he simply wanted the happiness of Congo and Africa. He is an ideal man with a generous heart. He is a conscience that acts. He was endowed with a brilliant intelligence. He was the first Congolese to hold the position of commercial director under the colonial regime. He was the first Black person to live in the residential area of Gombe with white people.
He was the first Congolese to write a political essay, the first to advocate for the education of Congolese girls and the emancipation of black women. He was the first Congolese to create a trans-ethnic party, the first Congolese politician to think of the Congo as a unitary nation, and the first Congolese leader to popularize the concept of “independence.”
He is also the first Congolese to have successfully organized a political rally in the annals of the Congo. He is the first Congolese leader to demand the holding of a Belgian-Congolese round table to accelerate the political independence of the Congo. He is the first Congolese politician to have called the Congolese people to civil disobedience against the colonial order. He is also the first Third World leader to have stayed at Blair House.
Lumumba enters history through the front door, that of bravery and heroism. An incorruptible man, he did not become a national hero because of his death, but thanks to his exemplary life, his honorable struggle, and his assassination, which only reinforced his myth.
Why is Lumumba’s political history not taught in our schools?
Lumumba’s heroism is a crime for the West, because knowledge of his struggle allows Congolese youth to fight imperialism to regain political and ideological independence, and rebuild our national sovereignty. Lumumba’s political history is linked to the founding of the United States of Africa. Lumumba’s story must be hidden to keep Africans enslaved by the West.
Thus, the mystery surrounding his assassination and the place of his torture became a state secret for Belgium and its local lackeys. There was no trial for Lumumba, so that Africans would not discover the West’s modus operandi against Africa’s happiness.
The High Council of the Republic, the transitional parliament under the leadership of Cardinal Mosengwo, had taken three decisions on the Lumumba case:
1. A parliamentary commission must go to Lubumbashi to exhume and identify the tomb of Lumumba, Lumbala and Okito;
2. Parliament instructs the government to organize a proper funeral for Lumumba and his companions, and then to compensate their families.
3. Demand the return to the Lumumba family of all the deceased’s property seized from the ITB Bogaert boat.
To date, the Lumumba family has never received the end-of-career allowance as Prime Minister or Minister of Defense. This problem must also be resolved.
Why is the Congolese government silent on Lumumba’s rights?
Lumumba does not have a tomb; the DRC, with the economic independence advocated by Lumumba, should be a great power. Moreover, 1 FCFA was equivalent to 2 US dollars. Canadians and people from other African countries came to the DRC for treatment. Unemployed Europeans came to this country to look for work. The Lumumba case is a state secret. It takes great courage to open this page in Congo’s history. Lumumba’s tomb bothers the West, which therefore cannot honor him in his own country.
Gérard Soete, one of Lumumba’s assassins, showed on Belgian television the two teeth removed from Lumumba’s mouth after his assassination. This crime against humanity left the Belgian justice system blind and unable to open a judicial investigation against this individual. No statement has been made by the Congolese government demanding the return of the two teeth.
An assassin presents the remains of the prime minister who paved the way for Congo’s independence, but the Belgian and Congolese governments remain silent. No summons has been issued. François and Roland Lumumba filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, but the latter refused to open this Pandora’s box.
Juliana Lumumba recently left the court system, but she wrote to the Belgian king asking for the return of her father’s remains so that she could grieve and organize a dignified funeral for her late father. The Belgian king accepted her request. The Belgian and Congolese governments agreed to organize Lumumba’s funeral.
President Félix Tshisekedi receives the Lumumba children several times. The Belgian king also receives the Lumumba children. Gérard Soete presented two teeth. Curiously, Belgium will return only one tooth, without any explanation, but we have videos of Gérard Soete on Lumumba’s remains. Where is Lumumba’s other tooth? The Congolese parliament, under the presidency of Bishop Mosengwo, had recommended compensation for the Lumumba family.
Why did the Belgian and Congolese governments not plan to compensate the Lumumba children? This is another enigma. An equation to be solved. Even Lumumba remains shrouded in mystery. Today, the desecration of the Lumumba mausoleum is a heavy burden for the Congolese government.
Unfortunately, the culture of honoring symbols does not yet exist in the DRC. Another equation to solve. The Congolese and Belgian governments are civilly and criminally liable for organizing the funeral, and therefore for the desecration of the Lumumba mausoleum. Add to that the desecration, which is also a case against the Congolese government.
Some gestures not to forget
1. In 1966, Mobutu publicly proclaimed Lumumba a national hero.
2. In 1997, President Laurent Kabila appointed Juliana Lumumba Minister of Culture.
In 2002, a monument to Lumumba was erected in Kinshasa by President Joseph Kabila.
In 2018, President Félix Tshisekedi erected a mausoleum in Shilatembo in honor of Lumumba. President Félix Tshisekedi held a proper funeral for Lumumba and erected a mausoleum in his honor in Kinshasa, in recognition of his role in winning the country’s independence.
In 2002, the Belgian king apologized to the Congolese people and the Lumumba family for Belgium’s role in Lumumba’s assassination.
Why the hatred against Lumumba?
The West wants the DRC to be ruled from the outside. Congo’s independence must remain empty. However, in his speech of June 30, 1960, Lumumba demanded that the Congolese people teach the glorious history of their struggle for independence.
To speak of Lumumba is to agree to take up the torch of his struggle to regain the independence and sovereignty of the DRC, which explains why his political history remained secret for so long. For the West, the Congo must remain under the yoke of the 1885 regime, established after the Berlin Conference. The Congo’s minerals remain the property of the West.
In 2007, Congo dared to sign a mining agreement with China worth nine billion US dollars. Curiously, the IMF, the World Bank, the British NGOs Global Witness and Witness, the United States, and France demanded that China disengage from the Congo. President Joseph Kabila was warned by Louis Michel and Karel De Gucht for his rapprochement with China. These people believe that the DRC is their private boutique and that other continents have no right to the Congo’s riches. Today, Rwanda is supported by the West to occupy and plunder the Congo’s wealth. This is the tragic story of the DRC after Lumumba’s assassination.
A mental revolution is needed to escape this situation. Nothing is free; colonization continues in another form. To escape poverty and misery, one must work, which is why the Lumumba government’s program is a great lesson. Congo’s minerals have elevated several Western countries to the ranks of powers, but have left the country prey to wars of aggression, the proliferation of foreign armed groups, and genocide. The richest country in the world, yet its people live in poverty. With 34 categories of minerals, the DRC holds all the cards to become a great power. The country must be equipped with better policies to achieve a flourishing economy. By marrying the political class and the scientific world, Congo will easily take off.
Lumumba, Africa and the Free World: A Glorious History.
On June 30, 1960, Lumumba declared that the independence of the Congo marked a decisive step toward the total liberation of an entire African continent. From the collapse of apartheid, youth across Africa rose; the AES space is the true image of Lumumba’s struggle.
Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo, had two types of cabinet. Kandolo was chief of staff, Mobutu, secretary for the DRC, but Comrade Moumié, leader of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, and Andrée Blouin, head of public relations for the Cabinet of African States, were also part of the cabinet.
It must be understood that Kandolo, Mobutu, and Holden Roberto were bribed by the CIA to extract state secrets. The CIA concluded that Lumumba was a Congolese political figure hostile to Western interests. He could not be manipulated; his body had to be made to disappear. After his assassination, and during the Cold War period, the Congolese were forbidden to discuss the history of the Congo and Lumumba. Lumumba is an African hero, and the founding of the United States of Africa was a major provocation for Westerners. This country will not be the West’s flagship.
Lumumba, an international hero
Lumumba University in Moscow (Russia); a Lumumba Boulevard in an upscale neighborhood in Tehran; in Windhoek, Dar es Salaam, and Dakar. A Lumumba Street in kyiv (Ukraine), a Lumumba Square in Beijing, a Lumumba monument in Leipzig (Germany), a Lumumba Square in Algiers, a stone dedicated to Lumumba in Catania (Italy), a Lumumba Avenue in Lusaka, Luanda, Bucharest, and Rabat (France), a Lumumba monument in Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Sfax (Tunisia). Lumumba High School in Brazzaville, a monument in Havana (Cuba), and Lumumba Square in Nairobi.
Many countries around the world, including Egypt, Russia, Bulgaria, Guinea, and Sri Lanka, have issued stamps featuring Lumumba. Students at major universities around the world demonstrate with photos or banners featuring Lumumba’s image.
Lumumba’s ideas circulate globally, with people defending their doctoral theses at major universities around the world, notably in France, at the Sorbonne. Lumumba entered the political science teaching programs at the Free University of Brussels between 1962 and 1964, thanks to the study of his essay “Congo, Land of the Future, Is It Threatened?”
It should be noted that many countries, in several continents, proclaimed Lumumba a national hero, such as Ghana in 1961, Guinea in 1961, Egypt in 1961, Mali in 1961, Morocco in 1961, Sudan in 1961, Algeria in 1962, and honored on a large scale in Congo-Brazzaville.
In Europe, the USSR under Khrushchev, Yugoslavia in 1961, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Albania and Romania.
Asia: China by Mao himself, India by Nehru himself in July 1961.
Latin America: Argentina by René Barrientos, Mexico by national opinion and Cuba.
United States: Civil Rights Movement in 1961; Martin Luther King in 1962; Malcolm X in 1964. The CIA will assassinate this great Black American revolutionary who had mobilized Black Americans to create an army and come avenge Lumumba in the Congo.
The entire world recognizes Lumumba’s worth, except in the DRC, because the country is prey to international imperialism. The West loves the Congo’s riches, but not the Congolese. Lumumba is a political figure of historic stature, a universal hero, a great spirit who must be respected and honored. Lumumba is a school, a political religion, a doctrine, a political movement, a fighting philosophy. We will explain all of this in another column.
Homeland or death, we will win!
Boswa Isekombe Sylvere
Secretary General of the Congolese Communist Party
The Lion with the Red Heart