lumumba presentation

Patrice Lumumba2 July 1925 - 17 January

1961

1908 - Leopold II sold the Congo to the Belgium parliament. The monarchy, however, maintained investments in the Congolese mining industry. The government introduced ‘chefferie’ in order to reconstitute the traditional kinship. c.1930 - 40s - Congo was responsible for the production of at least half of the world’s industrial diamonds. Congo produced 73% of the world’s cobalt and 15% of the world’s copper supply.

1950 - 1959 - Under international pressure to modernize its administration the Belgium parliament devised a ten-year plan to raise the standards of living.

1959 - Leopoldville riots - by the late 1950s Congolese ‘evolues’ began to demand independence.

30 June 1960 - Belgium government set the date for Congolese independence. They, however, expected to maintain inform control (economically)

2 July 1925 - Patrice Lumumba (originally Isaie Tasumba Tawosa) was born in the village of Onalua in the territory of Katako-Kombe in the Kasai province. He was born to the Batetela people.c.1942 - Lumumba left Onalua for the city of Stanleyville. Before 1945 many Batetelas from the region were recruited by different mining agencies...c.1943 Katako-Kombe saw 12.2% of its male population leave.

November 1944 - 47 - Lumumba started to work as a clerk with the post office. By mid-1947 he obtained permission to pursue a course at the Post Office School of Leopoldville.5 March 1954 - Lumumba was elected president of the Association of Evolues (AES).

1955 - July 1956 - Lumumba was arrested on embezzlement charges. 10 October 1958 - Lumumba was elected president of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC).

30 June 1960 - Congolese independence day. Lumumba entered parliament as the new independent country’s first prime minister.

Mouvement National Congolais

Belgium moved by a very sincere and humanitarian idealism, came to our help and, with the assistance of doughty native fighters,

was able to rout the enemy, to eradicate disease, to teach us and to eliminate certain barbarous practices from our customs, thus

restoring our human dignity and turning us into free, happy, vigorous, civilised men.

Patrice Lumumba, Congo My Country, (1962)We have asked for our independence in order to govern

our country ourselves. We need the cooperation of Europeans in order to do so...we must get along with each other, we must prove to the Europeans that the Congolese are capable of getting along together and making peace and order the rule among the tribes.

Patrice Lumumba, Lumumba Speaks: The Speeches and Writings of Patrice Lumumba, 1958 - 1961, (1972)

We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a

noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the

humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force...We have known harassing work,

exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat

enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house

ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us. We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly legal laws

which in fact recognised only that might is right. The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our country is now in the hands of

its children

Patrice Lumumba

It is inconceivable that Belgian and Congolese government employees should enjoy the same status

after independence of the Congo, when even in Belgium only Belgians can be granted the status of state employees...They have the audacity to demand guarantees in our country! It is inconceivable.


In the Congo the entire administration is really in the hands of Belgian officials. This situation cannot continue.

Throughout the territorial administration the heads of departments must be Congolese, and the Europeans who

stay on with us must be technical advisors.


We are going to put an end to suppression of free thought and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the

full the fundamental liberties foreseen in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. We are going to do away with discrimination of every

variety and assure for each and all the position to which human dignity, work, and dedication entitles him.

We are going to rule not by the peace of guns and bayonets but by

a peace of heart and the will.

Patrice Lumumba, 30 June Independence Day

I suspect that they believed that if they told me of their

true plans for Lumumba, the United States would

demand that he receive humane treatment or even

that he be released.

Larry Devlin, Chief of Station, Congo: A memoir of 1960 - 67,

2007

In Moscow and elsewhere in the Soviet Bloc, Lumumba’s death quickly became a ‘cause celebre’...Friendship University in Moscow, a school that the Soviets had created to

propagandize African and Asian students were renamed Lumumba University.Larry Devlin, Chief of Station, Congo: A memoir of 1960 - 67, 2007

lumumba presentation

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