Africa - personalities - Patrice Lumumba. The man who didn't want to be a monkey

Patrice Emery Lumumba (Patrice Emery Lumumba) was born on July 2, 1925 in the village of Onalua, Kasai province, which was part of the then Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), into a peasant family.

He studied at a Catholic missionary school. At the age of thirteen, he moved to a Protestant school, where he studied the profession of a paramedic. A year before graduation, he had to leave school. After that, he wandered around the country, took on any job, then got a job in the office of the mining society in the town of Kindu.

He graduated from the school of railway traffic in the city of Albertville (now Kalima), where he studied in absentia. He attended evening courses, where they read philosophy, history and literature.

In 1947, Lumumba entered the school of postal employees in the capital of the colony Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), after which he got a job at the post office in Stanleyville (now Kisangani).

Simultaneously with work, he studied political economy, jurisprudence and the latest history of Africa, entered the correspondence department of one of the higher educational institutions in Europe.

In Stanleyville, Lumumba came to grips with social and political activities, heading the Commonwealth of Postal Workers and the Association of Congolese Staff of the Eastern Province. He appeared with numerous articles in the Congolese press.

In 1955, Patrice Lumumba was introduced to the Belgian King Baudouin, who was on a three-week tour of the Congo.

In 1956, at the invitation of the Belgian Ministry of the Colonies, he visited Belgium with a group of Congolese, but on his return he was arrested on charges of embezzling public money. After leaving prison, in 1957 he worked at a brewery.

In 1958, he founded the National Movement of the Congolese (MNC) patriotic party and was elected its chairman. In December 1958, he led the Congo delegation to the Conference of the Peoples of Africa in Accra (Ghana).

In November 1959 he was arrested by the colonial authorities and sentenced to six months in prison; released under pressure from the masses.

In January-February 1960, he headed the MNC delegation at the Round Table conference in Brussels (Belgium), which decided to declare the independence of the Congo.

On June 30, 1960, the Republic of the Congo gained independence from Belgium, and Patrice Lumumba became prime minister of the country. He promulgated a program that provided for a policy of positive neutrality, limiting the arbitrariness of foreign companies, creating a new state apparatus and army, and so on.

In September 1960, after a military coup, Lumumba was removed from power and was under police surveillance in his government residence.

On the night of November 27, 1960, he secretly left Leopoldville for Stanleyville, but was captured (December 1, 1960) and killed on January 17, 1961 in Katanga.

Patrice Lumumba was married. Five children were born in the family, the youngest daughter died in infancy.

On February 22, 1961, the Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow was named after Patrice Lumumba (February 5, 1992, by decision of the Russian government, it was renamed the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia).

In 1966, Lumumba was officially proclaimed a national hero of the Congo.

His death sparked international outrage. The UN Commission, the US Senate Commission, dozens of journalists and researchers were investigating the circumstances of Lumumba's death. For a long time it was believed that the main perpetrators of the massacre of Lumumba were the Congolese authorities in Leopoldville and Katanga. In 1999, the Belgian journalist Ludo De Witte published the book The Assassination of Lumumba, where, on the basis of archival documents he found, he proved that the Congolese enemies of Lumumba were the executors of the will and plans of the Belgian leadership.

In 2000, by decision of the Belgian parliament, an official commission was created "to investigate the circumstances of the murder of Patrice Lumumba and the possible participation of Belgian politicians in this."

In 2002, the commission concluded that Belgium had a "moral responsibility" for his physical removal, as the Belgian military was training Congolese separatists. Guy Verhofstadt, then Prime Minister of Belgium, issued a formal apology to the Congo.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office accepted a complaint from the widow and sons of Patrice Lumumba, who demanded an investigation into the involvement of Belgian politicians in his murder in 1961. The complaint was filed in June 2011. It took one and a half years to establish whether the complaint met the criteria of the Belgian law on the so-called "universal competence" of justice in relation to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

For a long time, it was believed that foreign intelligence agencies were also behind the murder of Patrice Lumumba. some media reported that the CIA planned to assassinate Lumumba, but the plans were later rejected.

The Telegraph newspaper (Great Britain), citing Lord David Edward Lee, circulated information that the involvement of British intelligence in the murder of Lumumba was confirmed by Baroness Daphne Park, who worked for MI6. From 1959 to 1961 she was consul and first secretary in Leopoldville, which in practice meant (and was later confirmed) head of MI6 there. However, a representative of the British embassy in Moscow said that the British government did not give sanctions on the elimination of Patrice Lumumba.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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 in the name of the ideals of the pan-African movement.

Early life 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 as "heir of the damned" and comes from the Tetela language words okitá / okitɔ ("heir, successor") and asombo ("cursed or bewitched people who soon to 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's course with honors.Lumumba was proficient in 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 expressed 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 Stanleyville churches 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 Movement Congolese Party (MNC) and quickly became the organization's leader.

The MNC, unlike other Congolese parties, did not rely on a specific ethnic background. 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 Belgian dependent contemporaries.

The country of Patrice Lumumba 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.

At the end of October 1959, Lumumba, being the head of the organization, was arrested for inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville. 30 people 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, and at it the future of the Congo was finally decided.

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

Independence of the Congo

The conference ended on 27 January with the Declaration of Congo's independence and fixed 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 independence date, Walter Hanshof van der Meersch was appointed Belgian Minister for African Affairs. He lived in Leopoldville, actually becoming a Belgian resident in the Congo, ruling it jointly with the Governor-General Hendrik Cornelis.

Rise to power

The following day, Patrice Lumumba was appointed by the Belgians as special informant and given the task of 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 role of informer in Adul and Kasa-Vubu continued to increase, but was facing increasing pressure from Belgian and moderate Congolese advisers to end Lumumba's appointment.

Governing body

Independence Day and the three days that followed were 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 preoccupied mainly with a large schedule of receptions and ceremonies.

Photos of Patrice Lumumba of that time recorded on his face a characteristic thoughtfulness and tension. 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 ranking 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, fearing that the consequences would be related to the budget, was one of the few who objected to the adoption of the acts, calling this act of parliamentarians "disastrous stupidity."

Attempted military mutiny

On the morning of July 5, General Emil Janssen, commander of the Public Troops, in response to the growing unrest among the Congolese 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 to restore order, but the men in the camp rebelled and took over the armory. Such crises were frequent during the reign of Patrice Lumumba.

On 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.

On August 11, the African Courier ran an editorial stating that the Congolese did 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 newspaper 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. On August 16, Lumumba announced the formation of a military militia within six months, also implying the creation of military tribunals.

Fatal mistake

Lumumba immediately ordered Congolese troops under Mobutu to put down 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 put Prime Minister Lumumba personally responsible for the army's crimes. Kasa-Vubu publicly declared 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 Brouwes home, where they were brutally beaten and tortured with katangans along with Belgian officers, while President Tsombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.

That 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 that President Tsombe and two other ministers were present, while 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 the area.

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 and approved of its intervention in the life of the Congolese society, considering it necessary to ensure equality, justice and social harmony.

Personal life

The family of Patrice Lumumba 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. Before 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.

The name of Patrice Lumumba is known to many. It was the most famous fighter for the independence of the Congo. He opposed the oppression of his people and the pumping out of resources by Europeans from the country, but was brutally killed. A native of a country that occupies a leading place in the extraction of diamonds and precious metals, he fell victim to the greed of European capitalists.

History of the Congo

To understand the history of Patrice Lumumba, one must understand the environment that had developed in the Congo by the 1960s. By the end of the 19th century, the Congo Free State existed in this territory. The name sounds like an evil mockery, given that this formation was, in fact, the personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium.

The august monarch did not hesitate to pump out resources from the country, especially rubber, forcibly driving local residents to work. Those died in the hundreds of thousands, and those who disagreed were cut off by the hands. During the years of his "management" the population of the country has halved. When Leopold was tired of the genocide, the king of Belgium decided to sell his "hacienda" to his own state. It happened in 1908, and the colony was named the Belgian Congo.

The change of power did not change the situation much: resources continued to be pumped out of the country, especially diamonds and copper, and the natives remained in the position of maximum servants of the white colonialists. All this could not but contribute to the emergence of the independence movement among the locals.

Lumumba's early life

Patrice Lumumba came from the warlike people of Batetela - back in 1895 and 1908 they staged bloody uprisings against their oppressors. The date of birth of the future prime minister is called July 2, 1925. His parents converted to the Catholic faith, and Lumumba himself studied at a Catholic missionary school. The boy had the ability and graduated with honors. Then he got acquainted with the works of Voltaire, from which Rousseau learned the ideas of freethinking.

At that time, Patrice was not yet saturated with radical protest thoughts. He began his career selling beer, and then got a job as a clerk at the post office. In 1951 he married, and four years later became the head of the regional network of Stanleyville Catholic churches and joined the Belgian Liberal Party, where, using his knowledge of languages, he translated and distributed party propaganda.

Success accompanied him, and in 1956 Lumumba was even able to go to Belgium on the party line: in those days he supports the line of Brussels and reflects on the independence of the Congo only in terms of voluntary reforms of the colonialists from above, he was predicted a position in the Belgian Ministry of Colonies. But fortune is changeable: after a while, Patrice was suspected and accused of stealing about two thousand dollars from the post office and sentenced to prison.

The heyday of party activity

The conclusion does not pass for Lumumba without a trace. In prison, his views become radical, and after his release, he leads a left-leaning party, the National Movement of the Congo. And in the very first elections in the country, they receive more than a quarter of the seats in the local parliament, and in 1960 Patrice becomes prime minister. The country is beginning to promote a policy of economic independence and control over extracted resources.

Brussels understands that the independence movement will sooner or later force the Europeans to leave, but is not going to easily part with such a lucrative colony, moreover, the Belgians are afraid of Lumumba's left-wing policy. The Europeans are trying to form an easily manageable puppet government headed by Moise Kapenda Tshombe, which will continue to act in the interests of the mother country.

The turning point is the visit of the Belgian King Baudouin I to the Congo in 1960. Lumumba does not hold back his emotions, therefore, right at the speech, he violates the protocol and issues a fiery speech that his state has been a victim of oppression all the past years and will no longer obey Belgium. He ends his speech with the phrase "We are no longer your monkeys."

Murder

Such a speech could not go unanswered, and soon a military riot broke out in the country, speaking on the side of Patrice. Local oligarch Moiz Tshombe becomes a protege of Western powers. He takes refuge in one of the richest provinces of the state - Katanga, which he declares a sovereign state. A Belgian military contingent lands in the Congo, which begins to destroy the military who spoke on the side of Lumumba.

At a UN meeting, the latter asks to bring peacekeeping troops into the country to prevent a civil war and the collapse of the state. This request was granted, but the arriving forces suddenly take the side of the rebels.
The Soviet Union, which sympathized with Lumumba, responded to his requests for help and sent 10 cargo planes of the USSR Ministry of Defense with military advisers to the Congo.

After this, events begin to develop extremely quickly: President Tshombe removes Patrice from the post of prime minister, after which the local parliament annuls this decision, but UN soldiers block their communications, and soon Lumumba is arrested.

After some time, he and like-minded people are secretly taken by plane to Katanga, where they are tortured and shot. The CIA agents involved in this recall that a few days later they dug up the corpse, dismembered it, and poured the remains with concentrated sulfuric acid and then burned it.

“Lumumba was too dangerous and began to cooperate with the USSR,” recalls Belgian security agent Louis Moliere, “he acted in ways incomprehensible to us, so he had to be eliminated. His death was announced only after 3 days, and we issued a version that he was torn to pieces by the peasants of one of the local tribes.

In Russia, cooperation with Lumumba did not pass without a trace: the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia for more than 30 years, from 1961 to 1992, bore his name.

PATRICE LUMUMBA
Patrice Lumumba, genus. 07/2/1925, died 01/17/1961, statesman and politician, first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo (with its capital in Kinshasa, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Patrice was born on July 2, 1925 in the small village of Onalua in the province of Kasai, which was part of the then Belgian Congo, in the family of a poor peasant of the Batetela people. In 1936, Patrice was sent to a Catholic missionary school. While the father wanted to see his son as a church minister, the boy's uncle, a sergeant in the colonial troops, insisted on a military career. However, young Patrice did not choose either one or the other and at the age of 13 he independently entered the courses of orderlies.

Patrice was among the "evolue" (translated from French - developed, joined to civilization) - as the Belgians called Africans who received primary or secondary education. He participated in encouraged by the Belgians in the 40s. circles of educated citizens, in which the Evolue, together with the Europeans, could discuss the problems of culture, international politics, and questions of the further development of the colony. The atmosphere at these informal meetings was not easy, Lumumba would later write that "at every meeting, during every discussion, racism was felt, ready to break through in the speeches of both Europeans and Congolese."

In 1946, Lumumba arrived in the capital of the colony, Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), and entered the school of postal employees, after which he got a job in the Eastern Province. The work of a postal clerk and a clerk did not interfere with the study of political economy, jurisprudence, the latest history of Africa, and after a few months the opportunity arose to realize a cherished dream - to enter a university. Lumumba became a correspondence student at the Antwerp Law Institute. In Stanleyville, the main administrative center of the Eastern Province, Lumumba launched an active social and political activity, leading the Commonwealth of Postal Workers and the Congolese Staff Association for the Eastern Province.

Had Lumumba chosen a career as an official in the colonial administration, he could have considered June 1955 as his finest hour, when the young journalist and public figure was personally introduced to the Belgian King Baudouin, who was making a three-week trip to the Congo. In a conversation with the monarch, for whom Lumumba, by his own admission, had deep respect at that time, he directly raised the question of the need to legalize the activities of African socio-political organizations in the Belgian Congo, as was already the case in the neighboring colonies of England and France. The interlocutor made an impression on the king and a year later was invited to Belgium. Lumumba brought to Brussels the manuscript of his first book with the characteristic title "Congo: the land of the future under threat?", which contained an analysis of the socio-economic and political situation of the colony and criticism of racial segregation. Upon returning from Brussels, Lumumba was immediately arrested during a customs inspection - on a quickly fabricated charge of embezzlement of public money ("I thought I would die of shame," he would write later).

After leaving prison, Lumumba, whose authority only increased due to repression, led the work to create a national party. Lumumba came to the conclusion that the idea of ​​creating a "Belgian-Congolese community", which he defended in his early articles, was utopian. In October 1958, he was elected leader of a new political party, the National Movement of the Congo (MNC), which soon became the most massive independent social force in the country and declared its goal to grant independence immediately, without any conditions.

Lumumba made great efforts to organize the NDC along the lines of a national front. And he succeeded - the influence of the party grew. As the Belgian Minister for African Affairs Ganshof van der Meersch repeatedly noted on this occasion, "it is appropriate to recall that the party has a dominant position thanks to the personality of its leader, Patrice Lumumba." The popularity of Lumumba scared the Belgians. After the Stanleyville NDC Congress, which was accompanied by massive demonstrations of support in the surrounding villages and ended on October 30, 1959, Lumumba was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison "for inciting public disorder." In prison, Lumumba learned of the Brussels Round Table Conference that began in January 1960, at which the Belgian government, together with the leaders of the main political parties and a group of traditional leaders, wanted to determine the future of the Congo. The NDC delegation, which was joined by the majority of the Congolese representatives, unanimously refused to participate in the conference while the party leader is in prison. The Belgians did not expect such nationwide solidarity and were forced to retreat. When Lumumba was hastily released and taken to Brussels, traces of handcuffs were still visible on his hands. The unanimity of the Congolese forced the Belgian leadership to agree on the exact date of the declaration of independence of the Congo - June 30, 1960. The split among the Congolese occurred on a different issue. The leader of the Konakat regional party (Katanga province), Moise Tshombe, a Lunda by nationality, with the support of the Belgians, advocated a federal structure of the country, while the NDK, led by Lumumba, defended a unitary state structure. The division of the country into a federation of ethnic regions seemed to Lumumba a catastrophe, he considered it "reactionary separatism." In the end, the point of view of Lumumba won at the conference, the unitary principle of the state system was fixed, combined with the broad autonomy of the provinces. However, Belgium reserved the right to coordinate military assistance provided to the Republic of the Congo, as well as to act as an arbiter in conflicts between central and provincial authorities. Thus, a bomb was planted under the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Congo, which was not slow to explode soon after Patrice Lumumba headed the country's coalition government in June 1960. In this government, the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs went to the "man Tshombe" - Bomboko, a representative of the Konakat party. At the same time, at a meeting of both houses of parliament, Joseph Kasavubu, the leader of another ethnic-regional grouping, the Abako party, which expressed the interests of the Bakongo people, was elected president of the Congo. Lumumba, apparently, sincerely believed that on the basis of a coalition leadership it was possible to reach agreement even with the most stubborn opponents of the idea of ​​a unitary state.

The economic development project put forward by Lumumba provided for the creation of a strong public sector, which became another stumbling block in relations with the West and the regional opposition. At the same time, Lumumba cooled the hotheads of supporters of broad nationalization from his entourage.

Opposition to the government immediately manifested itself in the Congolese National Army (KPA), headed by the Belgian General Janssens. The prime minister removed the commander-in-chief, appointing to his post a sergeant from among the Congolese (there were no Congolese officers at that time), who was awarded the rank of general; Sergeant Joseph Desire Mobutu, who was urgently promoted to colonel, also became the chief of the general staff. Mobutu had previously taken part in the Round Table Conference in Brussels as part of the NDC delegation and showed himself to be an ardent supporter of Lumumba. It was announced that the Congolese - sergeants and soldiers - were given military ranks. After that, unrest intensified in the army, caused by the discontent of the European officers, who did not want to give up their places to the Congolese.

In such a situation, on the night of July 7-8, the Belgian military units stationed in the Congo, with the help of detachments of white mercenaries, began hostilities against the legitimate government of the country. On July 11, Tshombe declared a state of emergency in Katanga and proclaimed the province a "completely independent state." At the same time, he declared Lumumba "an agent of international communism." On the same day, the government of the USSR announced "a heavy responsibility that falls on the leading circles of the Western powers who unleashed armed aggression in the Congo" and demanded its immediate cessation. In this situation, Lumumba and Kasavubu turned to the UN Secretary General Hammarskjöld with a request for military assistance. However, the "blue helmets" that soon arrived in the Congo, in essence, played the role of a Trojan horse. They in no way prevented the Belgian paratroopers from keeping under control the strategic objects they had previously captured.

In the midst of the Congo crisis, Lumumba received an invitation to visit the United States. The trip began with a visit to the UN. However, Hammarskjöld limited himself to a breakfast in honor of Lumumba and soon flew to the Congo without even discussing the Blue Helmets' action plan with the country's prime minister. In fact, he never met Lumumba again. Negotiations with US Secretary of State Herter and his deputy Dillon proved fruitless. "They consider me a communist because I did not allow myself to be bribed by the imperialists," Lumumba said in an interview with France Soir, emphasizing that "the government of the Congo does not want to profess any imported ideology and seeks only the comprehensive liberation of its country." On September 5, 1960, President Kasavubu announced the removal of Lumumba and the appointment of "more loyal to the West" Joseph Ileo as prime minister. Parliament condemned the unconstitutional actions of the president, expressing support for the lawful prime minister. The Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Mobutu, in turn, after waiting five days, began disarming Lumumba's supporters. On September 14, Mobutu staged an open military coup and took power into his own hands. The most detailed mechanism that was launched to eliminate and physically punish Patrice Lumumba from the political arena was revealed in the 1975 US Senate Commission investigation into the activities of American intelligence services, including the participation of the CIA in the events in the Congo. It is noteworthy that Allen Dulles, when he was director of the CIA, categorically characterized Lumumba as a person "like Castro or even worse."

Lumumba was under house arrest. With the help of one of the UAR embassy advisers, Lumumba's sons Francois and Patrice and daughter Juliana were smuggled to Cairo. The youngest son, Roland, stayed with his parents. However, when Lumumba's youngest daughter Christina was born prematurely in November 1960 and soon died, Lumumba himself turned to the UN administration with a request to give him the opportunity to fly to his native places in order to bury the child according to national custom in his native land, but was refused. Nevertheless, Lumumba and his wife Pauline decided to take a chance. But near Stanleyville, on the orders of Mobutu, the suspended prime minister was arrested. He was held in a military camp in the town of Tiswil, where Senate President Okito and Youth Minister Mpolo were also taken.

On December 14, 1960, Lumumba's friend Antoine Gizenga, who was Lumumba's deputy cabinet minister and who formed the anti-Mobut government in Stanleyville, telegraphed Khrushchev, appealing for urgent help: "The landing of your aircraft in Stanleyville will be provided. Warn us of the day and hour of arrival. Please ensure if possible, an extraordinary consideration of this request. Please reply to us in Stanleyville no later than two days later, otherwise we will be taken prisoner. " Moscow managed to establish relations with the Gizenga government and began to provide him with assistance, despite the vast distances, opposition from the West and the negative role of the UN administration in the Congo.

Meanwhile, Lumumba had only a few days left to live. January 17, 1961 Lumumba, Okito and Mpolo were sent to Katanga. In 1965, a photocopy of Tshombe's order of 17 January 1961 to execute "three political prisoners" was published in the journal Zhen Afrik. As it became known from the conclusion of the UN Commission, the sentence was carried out on the same day.

In a final letter sent to his wife from the Tisville camp, Patrice Lumumba reflected on the path he had traveled: "The only thing we wanted for our country was the right to a decent human existence, to dignity without hypocrisy, to independence without restraint."

Patrice Emery Lumumba(French Patrice mery Lumumba, July 2, 1925 - January 17, 1961) - Congolese politician of a left-wing nationalist wing, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the declaration of its independence in June 1960, a national hero of Zaire, a poet and one of the symbols of the struggle of the peoples of Africa for independence. Founder (1958) and leader of the National Movement of the Congo.

Removed from the post of prime minister by the President of the Congo, then arrested during the Congo crisis in September 1960. Killed on January 17, 1961.

Biography

From the people of the tetel. He graduated from high school at the Catholic mission, then courses for postal employees. He worked as a clerk, postal clerk, serving in Belgian industrial companies.

From the 1950s, he actively participated in the political life of the colony. Initially, he shared moderate political views - he was an adherent of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "Belgian-Congolese community", advocated the Europeanization of the Congo, for the gradual abolition of racial segregation.

Educated at the expense of the colonial authorities and becoming one of the so-called "evolue" (enlightened inhabitants), he served as a postal official. Among other favorites, he went on a free tour of Belgium. The question of his work in the Belgian Ministry of the Colonies was being decided, but his successful career was interrupted by an arrest on charges of embezzling money transfers in an amount approximately equal to two and a half thousand dollars.

In the late 1950s, Lumumba's views were revolutionized. After serving six months in prison, Lumumba became imbued with radical ideas, entered politics, and in October 1958 headed the left-wing National Movement party, which won 40 out of 137 seats in the country's first elections in May 1960. Lumumba became prime minister.

As a result of the current political situation, Brussels was forced to recognize the independence of the Congo, hoping to create a puppet state and continue to control the use of the country's natural resources.

At a solemn ceremony on June 30, 1960, in the presence of the Belgian King Baudouin I, who visited the country, President Kasavubu delivered a speech on national modernization, a multiracial society and cooperation with the former metropolis. Lumumba, contrary to protocol, took the floor after him and uttered an angry philippic, ending it with the famous phrase: “We are no longer your monkeys!” (“Nous ne sommes plus vos singes”).

Moiz Tshombe, the pro-Western leader of the province of Katanga, where the main mineral deposits and a significant white population were concentrated, in response, declared independence, forming the State of Katanga, of which he became president. Moscow sent Soviet and Czechoslovak advisers and ten military transport aircraft to fight the "puppet Tshombe regime", one of which, according to the official version, was Khrushchev's personal gift to Lumumba.

Since Tshombe promised to end the rebellion if Lumumba was removed from power, the president removed the prime minister on September 5, 1960 and placed him under house arrest. In response, Lumumba announced on the radio that the removal was illegal, as he was supported by Parliament. On September 6, the leaders of the main parties that made up the government coalition declared their support for Lumumba, but at that time, UN troops seized the radio station and closed access to members of the government. On September 7, the Chamber of Deputies, by a majority of votes, annuls the decision to remove Lumumba from power. On September 8, the Senate confirmed this decision, but the UN continued to ignore the government and keep the captured airfields and radio station. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Lumumba, on September 12 he was imprisoned, but was released by soldiers.

When Antoine Gizenga, a supporter of Lumumba, revolted, he fled to join like-minded people, but under circumstances that were not fully clarified, he fell into the hands of the Katangese separatists and was shot without trial.

Murder

The exact circumstances of P. Lumumba's death were unknown to the general public for a long time. According to some reports, already during the flight to Teesville [when?], he was so beaten that he died immediately upon landing. However, the son of Patrice Lumumba, Francois, filed a request to Belgium in order to clarify the circumstances of his father's death. 41 years after the event, a special commission of the Belgian parliament restored the events surrounding the death of P. Lumumba.