Humble Beginnings

Born and raised in the Katakombe region of the Kasai province in Belgian Congo, Lumumba quickly climbed the ranks from a postal clerk to the regional president of an independent Congolese trade union with his colleagues.¹ After being briefly imprisoned on charges of embezzlement in the post office, he created the Congolese National Movement which was the first political party in the Congo with a nationwide reach. After attending the All-African People’s Conference in Accra, his political views shifted strongly towards Pan-Africanism and his political activity and discourse became increasingly militaristic with the goal of achieving Congolese independence from Belgian rule.²

Belgian Independence and Chaos

Due to these activities, and an increased sentiment from the Congolese people towards freedom from Belgian rule, Belgium suddenly announced a move towards independence. Most analysts retroactively describe this as a power play to cripple and lead the largely unprepared and underdeveloped nation towards political and socio-economic disaster and draw them back to Belgian rule in the future. Unsurprisingly, faced with an inadequately trained human resource, the Lumumba leadership faced many challenges which culminated in secession of the region of Katanga (mostly backed by Belgium) and mutiny in the Congolese army.³ The region of Katanga is the most mineral rich in the Congo and the Belgian government feared a loss of control and foothold in the region due to Lumumba’s anti-colonial sentiments and policies.⁴

The Cold War and The Congo

Though most analysts debate the cause of the crisis, most historians blame the poor state of human resource development in the country as well as foreign meddling in the Congo. Although Lumumba first reached out to the United Nations and the United States for support to quell the secession, the lack of response led to a switch to the Soviet Union for support, sparking an American call to action, as well as placing the Congo in between the already growing tensions of the Cold War. Lumumba’s predicament is not far off from other African leaders forced to pick sides in the global proxy-war (the Cold War) which reached great heights in the 1960s.⁵

Lumumba’s final hours and assasination remained a topic of contention for decades. However, various inquiries shed more light on the role of the United States and Belgium in his assasination, which culminated in a formal apology by Belgium in 2002. In 2022, Belgium returned a gold capped tooth, his only remains, to the Democratic Republic of Congo.