Photo: Patrice Lumumba (2 July 1925 ~ 17 January 1961), the first
legally elected Prime Minister of the Congo Republic was murdered by a
CIA-sponsored plot, over 50 years ago. Be sure also to watch the film at the
end of this article.
And as you
read and watch, remember that behind it all, behind all this greed, lies the
grasping strangling hands of the Rothchilds and their minions. Never forget
what truly drives the movement to destroy Africa within and foment race wars
around the globe. This author does not speak of these things so I take it upon
myself to remind you of whose hands are behind the strife of Africa. This
assassination of this man just tells us that this has been going on in Africa
than many of us have been aware..
Bravery is
bravery and such a man as this Patrice Lumumba should be remembered. Every
nation has its heroes, the ones who are shot down for their refusal to bow down
to the forces of imperialism. Lumumba is one such man.
.
We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba’s murder should be a lesson for all of us”. ~ Che Guevara, 1964.
We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba’s murder should be a lesson for all of us”. ~ Che Guevara, 1964.
“Dead,
living, free, or in prison on the orders of the colonialists, it is not I who
counts. It is the Congo, it is our people for whom independence has been
transformed into a cage where we are regarded from the outside…” ~ Patrice
Lumumba, October 1960.
The
World Mathaba Against Racism
Imperialism Zionism Fascism and Reaction is our common fighting front ~ Muammar
Qadhafi, 1982
.
INTRODUCTION
The truth
surrounding the brutal murder of Patrice Lumumba is an embarrassing event
which, when exposed to the African youth of today, will definitely send the US
government scratching its head.
The Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) has had a troubled history since the assassination of
Patrice Lumumba. Currently there is conflict in the eastern DRC. But who are
the main actors in the conflict this time? African leaders, it is important to
remember history so that you can appreciate what is going on today in Africa
and the rest of the world.
Lumumba was a
strong African revolutionary leader whose Pan-Africanist vision of a united
Congo gained him many enemies from the outside world. Like Kwame Nkrumah,
Lumumba sought for a country where the numerous resources of the Congo will
benefit not only the Congo but the African people as a whole.
In his famous
first ever independence speech, a newly elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba
who had not been scheduled to speak, stood up and made this speech (30th June
1960):
“You who have fought for independence, and are today victorious, I salute you in the name of the Congolese government. We have been subjected to insults and sarcasms, to the blows we had to endure from morning to night just because we were Africans. We learnt that the law was never the same according to whether it was applied to whites or blacks. Who will ever forget the shootings or the barbarous jail cells awaiting those who refused to submit to this regime of injustice, oppression and intimidation?”
With this
speech, it was said that he signed his death warrant. From the very first day,
the West especially the American and the Belgian governments started to
sabotage Lumumba’s government and sought the immediate removal of Lumumba all
cost.
Ludo De Witte,
the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, qualifies it as "the
most important assassination of the 20th century".
His
assassination's historical importance lies in a multitude of factors, the most
pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on
Congolese politics since then and Lumumba's overall legacy as a nationalist
leader, writes Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, a professor of African and Afro-American
studies at the University of North Carolina, author of “The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History”.
"Today, it is impossible to touch down at the (far from modernized) airport of Lubumbashi in the south of the DR Congo without a shiver of recollection of the haunting photographs, taken of Lumumba there shortly before his assassination, and after beatings, torture and a long, long flight in custody across the vast country which he so loved". ~ Victoria Brittain, The Guardian, 2011.
EXPOSING THE FACTS AND DEBUNKING THE THEN MEDIA
DISTORTIONS
It is a fact
that both the Belgian government and the United States actively sought to have
him eliminated. The CIA ordered his assassination but could not complete the
job.
Instead, the United
States and Belgium covertly funneled cash and aid to rival politicians (just as
they recently did in Libya) who seized power and arrested Lumumba.
U.S.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower had
said something [to CIA chief Allen Dulles] to the effect that
“Lumumba should be eliminated". This was revealed by a declassified
interview with then-US National Security Council minute keeper, Robert Johnson
which was released in August 2000 from Senate intelligence committee's inquiry
on covert action.
The committee
later claimed that while the CIA had conspired to kill Lumumba, it was not
directly involved in the actual murder. Therefore one must ask:
on whose orders was the actual murder executed if not the United States?Which elements in the CIA ever faced justice for such a brutal murder?
In his book, “In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story” ~ John Stockwell
(1978), revealed that a CIA officer in Elizabethville was in direct touch
with Lumumba’s killers the night he was assassinated. Later, another CIA agent
admitted to have had the body in the trunk of his car to try and get rid of it
(p. 105).
This leaked
cable went on to state that Lumumba was first picked up from the airport by
"all white guards", taken to the bush where his fate was decided and
his body completely dissolved in acid, leaving no traces whatsoever.
What a horrible
way to eliminate the traces of such a hero!
Having realized
the complicity of the United Nations and the world powers, on this brutal
murder, Kwame Nkrumah thus made a broadcast to the people of Ghanaian:
“Somewhere in Katanga in the Congo- where and when we do not know- three of our brother freedom fighters have been done to death. They have been Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, Maurice Mpolo, the Minister in his government who was elected from Katanga Province and Joseph Okito the Vice-President of the Congolese Senate.About their end many things are uncertain, but one fact is crystal clear. They have been killed because the United Nations, whom Patrice Lumumba himself as Prime Minister had invited to the Congo to preserve law and order, not only failed to maintain that law and order, but also denied to the lawful Government of the Congo, all other means of self-protection.” ~ Kwame Nkrumah, (Challenge of the Congo, page 129).“History records many occasions when rulers of states have been assassinated. The murder of Patrice Lumumba and of his two colleagues, however, is unique in that it is the first time in history that the legal ruler of a country has been done to death with the open connivance of a world organization (the United Nations) whom that ruler put his trust”, ~ Nkrumah concludes (page 129/130).
I believe what
happened in Libya in 2011 goes to affirm the real agenda of the UN, as far as
Africa is concerned. Just as it had always been, it is always the same for
Africa. But who cares when an African leader is brutally murdered on the orders
of Western agents? After all we are used to it.
Between 1961 and 1973 alone, six African independence leaders were assassinated by their ex-colonial rulers, including Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.
COMPLICITY OF THE BELGIAN GOVERNMENT
A recent report
by a Belgian Commission revealed that Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested and was
not particularly concerned with Lumumba's physical well-being. Though
informed of the danger to Lumumba's life when later arrested, Belgium did not
take any action to avert his death.
Under its own laws,
Belgium was legally culpable for failing to prevent the assassination of the
leader of a country where it had colonial ties. It was also in breach of its
obligation (under U.N. Resolution 290 of 1949) to refrain from acts or threats
"aimed at impairing the freedom, independence or integrity of another
state".
In 2001, a
Belgian Commission exposed that there had been previous U.S. and Belgian
plots to kill Lumumba. Among them was a CIA-sponsored
attempt to poison him, which might have come on orders from the then U.S.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A CIA
chemist Sidney Gottlieb was made to devise
a poison disguised as toothpaste for the elimination of Lumumba to which the
corporate media intended to blame on “opposition elements”. This plot
however backfired.
In another book,
“Congo Cables”, the author
details many communications by local CIA Station Chief, Larry Devlin
at the time who continually urged the total elimination of Lumumba as the only
outcome the US government wanted to see (p. 53, 101, 129-133, 149-152,
158-159, 184-185, 195).
Thanks to the
power of suppression, political intimidation, as well as the fear and panic on
the part of many African leaders who surrender at the expense of the African
people.
The bloody hand
of colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism has always fought hard to bury
the facts surrounding the brutal murder of many African heroes, African reggae
legends, and tens of thousands of the people.
The African
people of today continue to live under the illusion of so-called
"independence", as foreign pressure continues to mount on their
leaders to either comply or face similar fate.
That
notwithstanding, we the African generation of today, cannot sit aside and watch
our history to be distorted nor completely buried for the sake of satisfying
the wishes of the oppressor. Our revolutionary leader Patrice Lumumba has
underlined that the history of the African people must be written.
This history
should not be the type that Brussels, Paris, Washington, the United Nations nor
the corporate media will teach. Rather, Africa’s history should be written by
the African people and should be taught in all the countries emancipated from
colonialism and its current puppets… a history of glory and dignity.
African scholars
and all historians of African origin therefore owe our children, the youth and
our children’s children, the responsibility to teach them the true history of
their ancestors. The future generations have every right to know the sacrifices
and the price which many of their ancestors had to pay (with their blood)
before we were able to attain our political independence.
It was Lumumba’s
wish that “Africa writes her own history, a history of glory and dignity”.
Lumumba and his
kind we fall short of today, but we will get there. ~A message to the African youth.
He is a true
African hero who must be celebrated by the African people all over the world.
Long live
Patrice Lumumba,
Long live the
people of the Congo,
Long live
Africa.
.
VIDEO: THE ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA
NOTES:
1. "Patrice Lumumba: the most important assassination
of the 20th century" available at:
2. Kwame Nkrumah, (1967) “Challenge
of The Congo: A Case Study of Foreign Pressures in an Independent State”,
Panaf Books: London.
3. Patrice Lumumba, (1972) Lumumba Speaks: The Speeches and
Writings of Patrice Lumumba, 1958–1961. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
4. Patrice Lumumba, (1962) “Congo,
My Country” London: Pall Mall Press.
5. John Stockwell
(1978), “In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story”. W.W.
Norton.
6. CIA document #CO 1366116.
7. Plan to poison Congo leader Patrice Lumumba (page 464).
pdf copy available at:
8. Biography of Patrice Lumumba, available at:
9. Karen De Young (2007), “CIA
Releases Files on Past Misdeeds”, The Washington Post. Available at
10. Victoria Brittain, (2011) “Africa:
a continent drenched in the blood of revolutionary heroes”. The
Guardian (London). Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/lumumba-50th-anniversary-african-leaders-assassinations
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