Patrice Lumumba was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Lumumba assumed the premiership of independent Congo in 1960, a position he only held for a few months - from June to September.

Lumumba, elected by popular support in May 1960, was assassinated in January 1961 under the orders of Western powers that wanted to continue plundering Congolese resources.

 

Lumumba was a brave politician.  He struggled to end Belgian colonial rule which plundered the natural resources of Congo and killed millions of citizens.

 

He was an African nationalist who envisaged a united Congo without discrimination. He advocated for the resources of Congo to benefit Congolese people rather than being siphoned by foreign countries; a sad situation that has not changed until today. Lumumba advocated for a united Africa to fight evils of colonialism.

 

His participation in the All-African Peoples’ Conference in Ghana, in 1958, invited by Kwame Nkrumah, strengthened his Pan-Africanist ideas while Belgian colonialists marked him as a dangerous person who antagonized their interests.

Why was Lumumba killed?

After independence, in June 1960, the Belgians influenced a mutiny in the army which is believed to be the genesis of the Congo crisis. Lumumba appealed for help from the UN and the United states to deal with the mutiny that was created by the Belgians but little did he know that the conspiracy to eliminate him was widely shared by those from who he sought help.

According to history books, the UN and U.S refused to help Lumumba since “the Belgian government had convinced them that Lumumba was a communist, anti-white and anti-Western.

These suspicions deepened when Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union for assistance, which the CIA described as a “classic communist takeover.”

The Belgians further plotted and created conflict between Joseph Kasavubu who was President and Joseph Mobutu who was the army chief of staff. Western interests led by the Belgians supported Mobutu to carry out a military coup and oust Lumumba. Lumumba was later captured, imprisoned and executed in the presence of Belgian officials.

First, his body was buried in a shallow grave. But the Belgians ordered that the body be exhumed and dissolved in acid. That’s how cruel Western powers – that are fond of lecturing African countries on human rights – killed Lumumba.

His inhumane execution marked the beginning of a dysfunctional DRC that persists today.

Lumumba’s vision for Congo

On June 23, 1960, before the chamber of Deputies, Lumumba delivered a strong speech promising to uphold national unity and abide by the will of the people, describing his foreign policy as neutral.

His government was inclusive; with members from different classes, tribes and diverse political beliefs.

Lumumba thought and believed that independence would bring about improvement in the quality of life for the Congolese people and unify the country by eliminating tribalism and regionalism.

Role of international community

The death of Lumumba was planned and executed by Western powers to stop DRC from getting a patriotic organized leader, whose vision was to eliminate tribalism, and improve the quality of life for the Congolese people.

The two principles threatened the interests of Western powers who divided Africans in order to loot and plunder their natural resources.

The Western powers replaced Lumumba with Mobutu who acted as their cadre in sinking DRC into poverty.  

The current DRC situation

Today, under Felix Tshisekedi, DRC is more than a failed state.

The country is among the five poorest nations in the world. According to the World Bank figures, in 2022, nearly 62 percent of Congolese, around 60 million people, lived on less than $2.15 a day and about one out of six people living in extreme poverty in Sub Saharan Africa lives in DRC. 

However, DRC's untapped mineral deposits are estimated at $24 trillion, and those that are exploited benefit a few cronies of Tshisekedi and foreign companies.

The security situation instead of improving only gets worse.

On August 30, at least 48 people were killed by government forces in Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, while thousands of militias and the Rwandan genocidal force, FDLR, have been supported and supplied with arms to cause chaos under Tshisekedi’s orders. Foreign mercenaries have left the government treasury empty on false promises of solving the security crisis especially in the vast country’s volatile east.

Lumumba’s assassination left a void in DRC governance that has never been filed.

More than 60 years after Lumumba’s death, his vision for DRC still remains a dream.

The country has not yet produced any other leader who is capable of realizing his great vision of a united country, with its vast natural resource wealth benefiting all Congolese people.