July 2 marked the centenary of the birth of the Congolese independence leader Patrice Emery Lumumba, the first democratically-elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and icon of the anti-colonial struggle in Africa.
Alongside independence leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, and the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, Lumumba symbolizes the struggle against colonial domination, oppression, and racism at the height of the Cold War.
The DRC had originally become a Belgian colony when King Leopold II seized land across central Africa in 1885, making it his personal property. This became known as the Congo Free State. Leopold’s alleged goal of developing the country was, in practice, to plunder its resources. Its people suffered the most atrocious forms of deprivation and brutality. Malnutrition, disease, and torture—including the amputation of hands and feet—became the order of the day. Resistance to the king’s rule was not tolerated.
In 1908, international pressure forced Leopold to turn the country over to the Belgian government, and the territory was renamed the Belgian Congo. This in no way changed the plight of its population. Resistance to foreign domination continued.
Through the 1950s, demands for independence from colonial rule swept throughout much of the world, including Africa and the Belgian Congo. Out of this came, in 1958, the founding of the Congolese National Movement, which was led by Lumumba until his execution in 1961.
On Jan. 4, 1959, thousands demonstrated for independence in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), a mobilization followed by a two-day rampage by Belgian security forces. Three hundred demonstrators were killed.
Yet resistance to Belgian rule quickly grew to the point where Belgium realized a new response was required. On May 22, 1960, national elections took place for the first time. Belgian hopes for a compliant government were not fulfilled.
The alliance around Lumumba won 71 of the 137 seats in parliament. However, in the Senate, 23 seats out of the 84 were reserved for local leaders, generally supporters of the colonial authorities, and Lumumba’s group remained two seats short of a majority. Consequently, Lumumba was forced to form a coalition with his Belgian-backed rival, Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Kasa-Vubu became president, and Lumumba prime minister.
Independence was set for June 30, 1960. That day, the Belgian Congo became the Democratic Republic of Congo. The then Belgian king, Baudouin, in his speech at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo’s Independence in Kinshasa, sought to glorify what his great-grandfather did for the Congo.
He mentioned various economic projects and totally disregarded the years of suffering by the native Congolese. He praised his great-grandfather “as a bringer of civilization.”
For Lumumba, those 80 years could not be ignored. The new prime minister said:
“Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood … It was filled with tears, fire, and blood. That was our lot for the 80 years of colonial rule.
“We have experienced forced labor in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones. Morning, noon, and night we were subjected to jeers, insults, and blows because we were ‘negroes.’ Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as ‘tu,’ not because he was a friend, but because the polite ‘vous’ was reserved for the white man?
“We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition to the right of might. We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others. We have experienced the atrocious sufferings … exiled from our native land: Our lot was worse than death itself …
“Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression, and exploitation used by the colonialists as a tool of their domination?”
His speech went around the world. He spoke for the millions engaged in the struggle against colonial rule and oppression. His key message was that independence must also mean former colonial powers coming to terms with how the peoples in their colonial territories were ruled—not just colonial authorities being replaced by pliable governments defending the colonizers’ interests.
Morning Star
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
