Patrice Lumumba: biography, activities, family and personal life

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Who is Patrice Lumumba? In order to answer this question, you need to delve into the history of the Congo in the middle of the last century. Shortly after the declaration of Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the crisis in the Congo. Patrice Lumumba has called on the United States and the United Nations to help fight the threat. But they refused to help the Congo, and so Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union. This led to growing tensions with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Chief of Staff Joseph-Desire Mobutu, as well as with the United States and Belgium.

The life of Patrice Lumumba ended very tragically. He was imprisoned by the state authorities led by Mobutu (his former supporter) and executed by firing squad under the command of the Katangan authorities. After his death, he was widely seen as a martyr who fell to the cause of the pan-African movement.

Youth and early career

The biography of Patrice Lumumba began on July 2, 1925. He was born to farmer François Tolengue Otetsime and his wife Julien Wamato Lomenja in Onnal, in the Catakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. He was a member of the Tetela ethnic group and was born with the name Élias Okit'Asombo. His original surname translates to "heir of the damned" and is derived from the Tetela words okitá/okitɔ ("heir, successor") and asombo ("cursed or bewitched people who will soon die"). He had three siblings (Ian Clarke, Emile Kalema and Louis Onema Pene Lumumba) and one half-brother (Tolenga Jean). Growing up in a Catholic family, he was educated at a Protestant elementary school, at a Catholic missionary school, and finally at the public post office school, where he completed a year of study with honors. Lumumba spoke Tetela, French, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.

Outside of his regular school and university studies, the young Patrice Lumumba developed an interest in Enlightenment ideas by reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire. He also loved Molière and Victor Hugo. He wrote poetry, and many of his writings had an anti-imperialist theme. A brief biography of Patrice Lumumba could be summed up in a simple enumeration of the main events: study, work, rise to power and execution.

He worked in Leopoldville and Stanleyville as a postal clerk and as a beer salesman. In 1951 he married Polina Ogangu. In 1955, Lumumba became the regional head of the churches. Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he edited and distributed party literature. After a study tour to Belgium in 1956, he was arrested on charges of embezzlement from the post office. He was sentenced to a year in prison and had to pay a fine.

Congolese nationalist leader

After his release on October 5, 1958, he took part in the founding of the National Congolese Movement Party (MNC) and quickly became the leader of the organization.

MNC, unlike other Congolese parties, did not rely on a specific ethnic basis. This contributed to the creation of a platform that included independence, gradual Africanization of the government, state economic development, and neutrality in foreign affairs. Lumumba himself had great popularity due to his personal charisma, excellent oratory skills and ideological sophistication. This allowed him to gain greater political autonomy than his contemporaries dependent on Belgium.

Patrice Lumumba's country was on the verge of declaring independence. He himself was at that time one of the delegates who represented the INC at the All-Africa Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah, Lumumba further reinforced his pan-African beliefs. Nkrumah was very impressed with the intellect and ability of Patrice Lumumba.

In late October 1959, Lumumba, being the leader of the organization, was arrested for inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville. thirtypeople were killed that day. The young politician was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The start date of the trial, January 18, 1960, was the first day of the Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels, where the future of the Congo was finally decided.

Despite Lumumba's imprisonment at the time, the MNC won a landslide majority in December's Congo local elections. As a result of intense pressure from delegates dissatisfied with Lumumba's trial, he was released and allowed to participate in the Brussels conference.

Congo independence

The conference ended on 27 January with the Declaration of Independence of the Congo and established 30 June 1960 as the date of independence, combined also with the first national elections in Congolese history, which were held from 11 to 25 May 1960. On them, the MNC received the majority of votes. The homeland of Patrice Lumumba gained independence, and his party became the ruling one.

Six weeks before the date of independence, W alter Hanshof van der Meersch was appointed Minister of African Affairs of Belgium. He lived in Leopoldville, effectively becoming a resident of Belgium in the Congo, ruling it jointly with the Governor-General Hendrik Cornelis.

Rise to power

The next day, Patrice Lumumba was appointed by the Belgians as Special Informant and tasked with considering the formation of a government of national unity that included politicians with a wide range of views. June 16 was the deadline for its formation. On the same day that Lumumba was named prime minister, a parliamentary opposition coalition was formed. Lumumba was initially unable to make contact with members of the opposition. In the end, several opposition leaders were delegated to meet with him, but their positions and views did not change in any way. On June 16, Lumumba reported his difficulties to the Belgian viceroy Ganshof, who extended the term for the formation of a government and promised to act as an intermediary between the leader of the MNC and the opposition. However, as soon as he made contact with the opposition leadership, he was impressed by their stubbornness and rejection of Lumumba's figure. By evening, Lumumba's mission showed even less chance of success. Ganshof believed that the informant role in Adul and Kasa Vubu continued to increase, but was facing increasing pressure from Belgian and moderate Congolese advisers to end Lumumba's appointment.

Board

Independence Day and the three days that followed have been declared a national holiday. The Congolese were intoxicated by the celebrations taking place in relative peace and tranquility. Meanwhile, Lumumba's office was seething with activity. Diverse groups of people - both Congolese and Europeans - hurriedly did their work. Some received specific assignments on behalf of Patrice Lumumba, although sometimes without explicit permission from other branches of government. Numerous Congolese citizens came to Lumumba complaining of various problems of a socio-economic nature. Lumumba, in turn, was mainly concerned withschedule of receptions and ceremonies.

Photos of Patrice Lumumba from that time showed his characteristic thoughtfulness and tension on his face. On July 3, he announced a general amnesty for prisoners, which was never carried out. The next morning, he convened the Council of Ministers to discuss the unrest among the troops of the Public Group. Many soldiers hoped that independence would lead to immediate action and material gains, but were frustrated by the slow pace of Lumumba's reforms. The rankings showed that the Congolese political class, especially the ministers in the new government, were enriching themselves without improving the situation in the troops.

Many of the soldiers are also tired of maintaining order during elections and participating in independence celebrations. The ministers decided to set up four committees to study and, as a result, reorganize the administration, the judiciary and the army, as well as enact a new law for civil servants. Everyone had to pay special attention to ending racial discrimination. Parliament met to pass its first formal legislation by vote for the first time since independence, increasing the salaries of its members to 500,000 Congolese francs. Lumumba, fearful of budget implications, was one of the few who objected to the passage of the acts, calling the parliamentarians' act "deadly stupidity."

Attempted military mutiny

On the morning of July 5, General Emil Janssen, commander of the Public Forces, in response to the growing unrest amongCongolese soldiers, gathered all the troops on duty in the camp of Leopold II. He demanded that the army maintain its discipline. That evening, the Congolese government fired a number of officers in protest against Janssen. The latter warned of this the reserve garrison of Camp Hardy, located 95 miles from Teesville. The officers tried to organize a convoy to send help to Leopold II's camp in order to restore order, but the people in the camp rebelled and took over the armory. Such crises were common during the reign of Patrice Lumumba.

August 9, Lumumba declared a state of emergency throughout the Congo. He then issued several controversial decrees in an attempt to consolidate his dominance in the country's political arena. The first decree outlawed all associations and associations that did not receive state approval. The second argued that the government has the right to ban any publication that contains material harmful to the government.

August 11, The African Courier ran an editorial stating that the Congolese do not want to "fall under the second kind of slavery", referring to the activities of Patrice Lumumba. The newspaper's editor was arrested and stopped publishing the daily paper four days later. The press restrictions caused a wave of harsh criticism from the Belgian media. Lumumba also decreed the nationalization of all Belgian property in the country, setting up the Congolese Congress of the Press as a means of information warfare against the opposition and propagating his own ideas. August 16Lumumba announced the formation of a military militia within six months, including the establishment of military tribunals.

Fateful mistake

Lumumba immediately ordered Congolese troops under Mobutu to quell the uprising in South Kasai, where there were strategic rail lines that would be needed for the Katanga campaign. The operation was successful, but the conflict soon escalated into ethnic violence. The army became the perpetrator of the massacres of civilians belonging to the Luba people. The people and politicians of South Kasai placed all responsibility for the army's crimes personally on Prime Minister Lumumba. Kasa-Vubu publicly announced that only a federalist government could bring peace and stability to the Congo, breaking the tenuous political alliance that had guaranteed relative stability in the young African nation. Entire nations rose up against the once adored prime minister, and the Catholic Church openly criticized his government.

Death of Patrice Lumumba

On January 17, 1961, Lumumba was forcibly detained before flying to Elisabethville. Upon arrival, he and his supporters were arrested at the Brauwes home, where they were severely beaten and tortured with katangans along with Belgian officers, while President Tsombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.

The same night, Lumumba was taken to an isolated place where three rifle squads were assembled. The Belgian Commission of Inquiry determined that the execution was carried out by the Katangese authorities. She also reported thatPresident Tsombe and two other ministers were present, and four Belgian officers were under the command of the Katangan authorities. Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito were lined up against a tree and killed with single shots to the head. The execution is believed to have taken place on January 17, 1961, between 21:40 and 21:43 (according to the Belgian report). The Belgians and their colleagues later wanted to dispose of the bodies and did so by digging up and dismembering the corpses, then dissolving them in sulfuric acid while the bones were crushed and scattered around.

Political views

Lumumba did not support any single political or economic platform, be it capitalism or socialism. He was the first Congolese to articulate a national mission for the Congo that ran counter to traditional Belgian views of colonization by emphasizing the suffering of the native population under European rule. He formulated the idea of Congolese national unity, regardless of the numerous ethnic groups inhabiting the state, proposed the basis for a national identity based on replicating the ideas of colonial victimization, national dignity, humanity, strength and unity. This humanism also included the values of egalitarianism, social justice, freedom, and the recognition of basic human rights.

Lumumba viewed the state as a positive source of public welfare and approved of its intervention in the life of the Congolese society, considering it necessary to ensure equality,justice and social harmony.

Private life

Patrice Lumumba's family is actively involved in contemporary Congolese politics. Patrice Lumumba was married to Pauline Lumumba and had five children with her. François was the eldest of them, followed by Patrice Junior, Julien, Roland and Guy-Patrice Lumumba. François was 10 years old when Patrice was killed. Prior to his imprisonment, Patrice arranged for his wife and children to move to Egypt.

Lumumba's youngest son, Guy-Patrice, born six months after his father's death, was an independent presidential candidate in the 2006 election but received less than 10% of the vote. The Patrice Lumumba family is one of the most famous families in the Congo.