Patrice Lumumba

Congolese politician and independence leader (1925–1961)

Patrice Émery Lumumba (July 2, 1925January 17, 1961) was the only elected leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (called the Republic of the Congo at the time, but this should not be confused with today's Republic of the Congo). The official position of the US government, as seen in the U.S. News & World Report, associated Lumumba's ideas of African socialist democracy as an African brand of communism. Thus, the Americans had plans to kill him.[4] He was murdered by the Katangans on January 17, 1961, just months after independence.

Patrice Lumumba
Prime Minister of Congo-Léopoldville
In office
24 June 1960 – 14 September 1960
PresidentJoseph Kasa-Vubu
Preceded byposition established
Succeeded byJoseph Iléo
Personal details
Born
Élias Okit'Asombo[1][2][3]

2 July 1925
Katakokombe, Belgian Congo
(Now Congo-Kinshasa)
Died17 January 1961 (aged 35)
Near Élisabethville, Katanga
(Now Lubumbashi, Congo-Kinshasa)
Political partyCongolese National Movement

Lumumba's son, François is now a political figure in the Congo. He has created a small Lumumbist group.

References change

  1. Fabian, Johannes (1996). Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0520203761.
  2. Willame, Jean-Claude (1990). Patrice Lumumba: La crise congolaise revisitée. Paris: Karthala. pp. 22, 23, 25. ISBN 978-2-86537-270-6.
  3. Kanyarwunga, Jean I N (2006). République démocratique du Congo : Les générations condamnées : Déliquescence d'une société précapitaliste. Paris: Publibook. pp. 76, 502. ISBN 9782748333435.
  4. The Congo Story: From Lumumba to Mzee Kabila. By Alfred N. Mutua, Editorial, The Nation (Nairobi), 22 April 2001

Sources change

Other websites change

Political offices
Preceded by
Position created on independence from Belgium
Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
24 June 1960 – 5 September 1960
Succeeded by
Joseph Ileo