[Music]
hello and welcome to msingi africa
television i'm your host
john phillips and we're talking about
patrice
emery lumumba the first prime minister
of the republic of the congo
which is now known as democratic
republic of congo
now patrice grew up
against the backdrop of what leopold ii
had
done to the republic of congo
when the europeans awarded him
that colony and that territory to be
able to
exploit with the express approval
of the united states of america this guy
perpetrated the worst genocide
the worst genocide that the world has
seen
more than 10 million
people from that region were
murdered brutally under his regime
which he had brought into the congo
under the guise of being some kind of a
charity and he was you know busy
spouting
i don't know which verse is from the
bible i mean these are the guys who give
god a bad name
and so he's there and he's raping and
pillaging the country
and the people are being ripped and
pillaged by the people he has sent
and you know i mean i'm told he never
stepped into the land but you know he
was
there basically his presence his
authority his authorization
and they were acting brutally to the
extent that people in the world
raised a protest when he discovered what
was going on and eventually
um countries of the world the united
states started to put pressure
on belgium to take over the
region as a colony as opposed to it
being his own like personal backyard and
mine whatever and so patrice grows up
after belgium has taken over um over the
the area as a as a colony
and things are not that much better
although there's a bit
more discipline so they're still falsely
but they're still childly but there's
still
just harassments of local communities to
produce things so that the belgian
government can have things to take back
to belgium and there's just still all
sorts of madness going on
and there is inequality of education and
he has to go through this personal
struggle
to kind of rise through education but he
was very popular very well liked
earned himself nicknames growing up
lumumba
was actually a nickname patrice was not
his original birth name emery he gave
himself
at some point later in life patrice was
actually born
isaiah tasumbu tawosa and
blumumba was given to him as a nickname
something meaning crowd or
team and then you know he reaches
stanleyville at the time
and he gives himself the name
emery and i can't really trace where
patrice came from but
basically the isaiah identity was faded
off and people were talking about how
this guy was just dynamic and
charismatic and bold and determined and
focused and very articulate and he
basically self-educated himself because
they were in and out of school pretty
much
all their childhood but when he went to
stanleyville he then now started to
study more deliberately and would do
correspondence courses and
you know improved his french and things
like that so that's
where you start to see him rise up and
shift more and more
towards the kind of person he wanted to
be then he got arrested again
and this time he was arrested for
inciting riots
and he was thrown in again and really
badly treated and he got angry
so when he came out this at the time
this time he came out
at the demand of the people with whom he
was in the political party
because now they were actually
negotiating
for independence the belgians had
envisioned
a situation where they would have a
gradual transition over 10 years
they never wanted to let go of the congo
so they were thinking you know we'll
just luxuriously
transition things over to the people
they did not train people
there were no trained doctors there were
no trains there was nothing they had
done to empower the people so that by
the time colonialism came
that the people of congo would be
strengthened and be able to take over
the administration of their own nation
as a united nation as opposed to
the different regions that they had and
so
now there are people pushing for
independence the belgians are trying to
figure out ways to stay in power
lumumba is in prison and now the
belgians have agreed okay fine we're
going to shift to independence
talk so let's go to brussels and let's
have these conversations there and while
they're there the people there agitate
and say no
we're not talking until lumumba joins us
and so he's brought
from prison and then transported to
europe
and then they sit at the table and
finally the belgian government agrees
agrees and says okay go ahead
and roll out your independence plans and
former government and so on and before
you know it
patrice is the prime minister
and casa vubu is the president
and the independence day celebration
is set for 30th june 1960.
and um they come into power and they
have this celebration where
the king of belgium at that time bordwin
is speaking and glorifying the days of
leopold ii
and saying oh what a brilliant man he
was his amazing ideas what he did
and you know how great it was and their
their project has been so successful
it's just
wonderful huh he didn't know what fire
he had set
in lumumba's belly because lumumba got
up and gave
a speech that peeled the paint of
the man's skin he was left pale and
upset
because no one spoke and said the truth
he said no
we were mistreated we were beaten we
were raped we were
we were living undignified lives we were
oppressed
and this independence is a true
independence
for the republic of congo nobody liked
that
and when i say nobody i do not mean the
africans
i mean the belgians didn't like that the
americans didn't like that
france didn't like that and britain
didn't like that
all of those countries i've mentioned
all had interests
in the congo in mining
the us by this time had used uranium
from the congo
to build the two bombs that they dropped
on japan hiroshima and nagasaki
the uranium came from the congo and so
they're thinking to themselves this is
not such a bad deal we can just
kind of linger also in this environment
everybody
wanted a piece of something that came
from this land
because this is like one beautiful
massive rich land but they were not
interested in the people
and by the time independence rolled
around they were actually plotting and
trying to figure out
how do we get rid of this patrice
lumumba he is a problem he's a thorn in
our sides
lumumba had been exposed to kruma's
thinking and
nationalist movements that were going on
across the continent by this time
and he envisioned
a congo that was actually free
much like sankara free
so that they can do what they want to do
yes there was going to be a period of
transition where they are handed over
certain things
like administrative things admin it's
not
you know a big deal type of thing just
like how do we manage these processes
not that they couldn't have created
their own it says this is how they were
thinking at the time
but he saw a future where his country
was free
and he and his people would look at the
belgians
as equals
no difference you're not superior i'm
not inferior we're just people
at the table talking ah
so before independence belgium was like
how we're going to get back full control
over this country
the americans were like how are we going
to get rid of this lumumba person
the belgians were also like that the
british were looking at him like
this person he looks like he's got
soviet leanings remember we're in the
period of the cold war
and then who are the other ones the
french
were also like just trying to balance
things because i guess it's about
territorial
control in different areas and stuff
like that it was just not
nothing was looking like it was in favor
of him now
at the table of the kung the congolese
who went to brussels
who were seated agreeing how the future
of congo was going to be mapped out
were joseph desiree mobutu
and moise chamber among others who are
all figures in the independence movement
for the country
leaving brussels muay said to himself
no i'm not feeling this agreement i
actually want my region
to be on its own and independent he
wasn't for a nationalist
view like one country thing he wanted
regionalism
and so he wanted katanga which is like
the richest area to be free
and there were a few others there who
also had their own aspirations
it wasn't like fully fully meshed but
anyway
they leave they come they set up a
republic
they have their independence day lumumba
offends the king
but his people were absolutely utterly
delighted with his speech
and then a few days later
the army mutinies why because one
belgian
officer or commander goes and says
things about how they're not going to
have
any changes in the army their their
state will remain the same they're going
to remain kind of oppressed no
no improvements in pay no improvements
in rank no improvements in status
that the things that the politicians are
saying are for the
civilians and for the politicians
themselves but the army will state how
the army is and they were not happy
so mutiny
mobutu is promoted so that he can have
more say in the military and stabilize
things and he does that
and chamber moise who had wanted to
secede
takes the opportunity and secedes
this guy wanted katanga under
belgium so that he can have money in his
pocket
and people around him to protect him he
was never
interested in the welfare of the congo
the belgians of course were very happy
to find a guy who wants to break away
because it gives them what they wanted
and most of their mining interests were
in that area anyway
so off he goes and secedes
lumumba and kasabubu are scrambling
trying to figure out what to do then
another region
seeds thinking kasai
and it's just one hot mess so they talk
to the americans
help us we need a solution the americans
say talk to the united nations
they go to the united nations the united
nations says well okay let's see and
after a bit of
bouncing around here and there
eventually they actually agreed to send
some people in to help restore order
but this thing of restore order it
doesn't become clear exactly what it is
because they're not really helping the
president and the prime minister
who are democratically elected to
be able to regain control over the
country
and they run away at the thought of
actually engaging in some kind of
military
assault on the katanga region belgium by
now
is protecting katanga and they threaten
the u.n forces that they are going to
retaliate if they try and come
they prevent casabubu and lumumba from
landing in that area
and lumuma is like to the un
belgians have invaded what are we going
to do so the belgians come in and
they're not really
into the belgian sorry the united
nations comes in and they're not really
helping
things casabuble and lumumba kind of on
their own
and so lumumba says to them see if you
couldn't help us we're going to go and
ask the russians for help
and people are panicking others are
saying you see we told you he's a
communist
and it's just madness eventually he asks
the soviet union to intervene
they send him some help so that he can
move his troops around
he's able to go and reclaim the kasai
region and as they're moving
on the um katanga region there's some
distractions different rebel factions
they're fighting and things don't
exactly go as planned but
in the interim mobutu
descends initiates a coup
and takes over the entire country
also around the same time kasovobu
decides he doesn't
like what lumumba is doing and so he
says
i may have kicked you out of office
you're no longer prime minister but it
turns out the belgians are the ones who
told him that he can do that
that he can kick lumumba out as prime
minister so he follows the instructions
and he kicks him out because him he
wanted a
more moderate approach to independence
and liberty for congo
and so lumumba says no you can't kick me
out he goes to
parliament and they say yeah no we kick
kasabu out
and so there's these you know all these
different things that are happening all
at the same time
all very rapidly all in a period of like
three months from independence
so before we know what's happening
lumumba is under house arrest
then um he runs away from house arrest
the u.n were watching him and the
belgians no
mobutu's forces and the u.n were
watching him so he escaped house arrest
he tries to head to stanleyville
which is kisangani now he tries to head
kisanggani where his supporters
are and from the accounts that i've read
he's stopping along the way and making
impromptu speeches to people
and that delayed his journey because by
the time he gets there
soldiers have come and then now he's
captured
he's captured he's taken unaware beaten
him and his two colleagues he was with
um then they don't it was under more
buddhist forces but they didn't really
want him around and they didn't want to
deal with that mess
and so what mubutu did was he arranged
for
lumumba and his friends to be taken
to katanga under moise
now moisino is the president of
biscatanga secessionist state
and moyes did not like lumumba mobutu
the belgians who were controlling
katanga didn't like mumbai
kosovo didn't like the americans didn't
like lumumba
the british didn't like lumumba the
french didn't like lumumba
i think it's only his family who liked
him at this point there were some
supporters he was trying to reach but
they were just not coordinated in their
efforts
to be able to get the message out and
they were being sabotaged by the u.n who
were cutting off his avenues of
communication and movement
and it was just one hot mess
and so now he's been taken to katanga
and moise is very happy to see him there
and the belgians say to themselves aha
this is our opportunity
and what ended up happening was by
january the following year
they killed him and then they
hid his death him and his friends
were shot to death by a firing squad
and then their bodies were cut into
pieces
no they were thrown into a shallow grave
then they were dug up again by a belgian
officer
cut into pieces thrown into acid the
acid wasn't enough so whatever was not
melted by the acid was burnt by fire
except for a tooth which belonged to
lumumba
which was now taken to belgium a tooth
so um moise
hid the evil deed
for about a month they wanted to kill
all rumors they didn't want to turn him
into a martyr they just didn't want
any glory around you know oh my goodness
this guy has been killed and therefore
there's a popular uprising they hid it
for a month
a month later is when they announced
that he was he was killed by the locals
which was terrible and unfortunate they
caught him and they killed him
but the the story about his death had
already leaked and so moise's own
story was not credible at all it did not
carry any weight
and um you know no one really believed
him
anyway eventually um you know
kasa will be remained in power for a
while and then
mobutu came and took over
and he stayed there for 32 years
so june
end of june was when uh lumumba became
prime minister associate july
august september he was like prime
minister for like three months
three and then after that it was just
drama drama drama and then he was
killed the cia
had planned to poison him but they
couldn't get close enough to him to do
so
and so what they did was this
collaborate and
conspire with the belgians and whoever
else was willing to conspire and
even you know with the un because they
had friendly people in the u.n who
were aligned to what they wanted to do
and they just found a way to just get
rid of this
lumumba mobutu kicked the soviet union
out of
congo and control
and influence from belgium and these are
the nations now increased
because it turns out mubutu was their
puppet
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