Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), a Congolese freedom fighter, was the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (known as Zaire from 1971 to 1997). He was only in office a few months: the CIA and Belgium, with the help of Mobutu, had him killed. Mobutu went on to become a puppet dictator for the US.
Killing Lumumba was not enough: the Belgians, who had ruled the Congo, cut up his body and dissolved it in sulfuric acid.
On June 30th 1960, the day of independence, King Baudouin of Belgium spoke:
“The independence of the Congo is the crowning of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II undertaken by him with firm courage, and continued by Belgium with perseverance. … It is your job, gentlemen, to show that we were right in trusting you.”
Lumumba, when he spoke, had a somewhat different view of White rule:
“We have experienced forced labour 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 only 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.”
But now it was a new day:
“We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.
“We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.”
That last sentence sealed his fate.
The head of the American CIA said:
“The removal of Lumumba must be an urgent objective.”
The British foreign secretary said;
“Now is the time to get rid of Lumumba.”
The Belgian minister of African affairs said:
“Lumumba must be eliminated once and for all.”
What America, Britain and Belgium all had in common: mining companies that were carting off Congo’s wealth of diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt and uranium.
Within weeks after independence, the south-eastern province of Katanga broke away with the backing of the Belgian army. Katanga had most of the country’s mines.
The CIA tried to poison or shoot Lumumba – but could not get close enough.
Enter Mobutu: Unable to buy off Lumumba, the US did the next best thing: it bought off Mobutu, whom Lumumba had made the head of the army. Mobutu had Lumumba arrested and sent to Katanga. In the woods of Mwandingusha, a firing squad under Belgian command shot him dead on January 17th 1961.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- Read his independence day speech – and The Guardian’s White paternalistic reaction
- White paternalism
- Du Bois: The Souls of White Folk
- American Empire
- CIA Project Wizard
- banana republic
- DR Congo:
- also born in 1925:
- Che Guevara
- Nelson Mandela
575
I am beginning to see a pattern here …
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I am beginning to see a pattern here…
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Oh, the eponymous movie should be on YouTube. Watch It.
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If I recall correctly he wasn’t exactly in league with the Soviet Union. But the geniuses in Western intelligence tended to see everybody who was anti-colonial or a social revolutionary as a communist at the time.
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I don’t think that comparison holds up. It seems to me that nowadays Western strategists try to see potential allies everywhere, for example in the Syrian Civil War. In the 50ies they created enemies by fighting people who perhaps could have been allies against the Soviet Union or at least neutral. I also don’t think that it was a phenomenon of the whole Cold War. After 1970 the West started to understand that the anti-capitalist movements were not a monolithic block and that some of them were more hostile towards the Soviet Union then they were towards the West. Think China and Yugoslavia.
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Reblogged this on [Modern Times].
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The evil spirit of Leopold lived on in those who murdered and this man in my opinion.
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Hmmpph… I wonder where all these “INDIVIDUAL EUROPEANS” were when this unjust murder/assassination/plot was happening.
Funny how and when these “individuals” Europeans appear and then disappear. Yurugu is a very timely !other^u&k+r.
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..UGH! Folks (especially Black) can’t even run their own flippin’ countries how They deem fit without these racist, bullying mofo’s sticking their effin’ noses in every aspect of Their business! R.I.P. Mr. Lumumba..SMH
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How American of them
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How American of them. America has done so many horrible crimes against humanity. Obama you no better than Christopher Columbus
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Definitely good to see that the dark history of Belgium has not gone unspoken. But Mobutu was not a puppet in the sense that although he supported policies — like political oppression, anti-communism, and economic exploitation — that the West liked, they certainly did not control the Congo; Mobutu was his own man.
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“In reality, the purpose of getting rid of them was to allow Western businesses to retain or seize control of the resources in each leader’s country.”
I disagree. I think the Americans actually thought he was a communist and participated in his overthrow for strategical reasons.
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I’m not talking about the public but the policy makers. I think we can be fairly certain that the Bush administration was well aware that Hussein had no connection to 9/11.
I don’t know the specifics of the Congolese case, but in general the policy makers of the 50ies actually saw Soviet-supported communists everywhere.
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Lumumba was an anti-communist, certainly more so than Mobutu, who was an ideological whore. But Mobutu could be bought and Lumumba could not.
Lumumba was, though, an African nationalist, which to the Americans was almost the same thing as a communist: either way, he stood against Western business interests.
Lumumba did turn to the Soviet Union for military aid, but only after turning to the United Nations did not work out (the UN was too deep in the pocket of the US).
That Lumumba might be pulled into the Soviet orbit over time, like Castro, was a reasonable American fear. But opposing the right of the Congolese to benefit from the wealth of their own country was only going to push him there.
Some in the CIA believed he was a communist. But that is not saying much: the stated beliefs of White Americans have a poor correlation with reality, but a high correlation with whatever suits their material self-interest. That is what racism is about.
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I put captions on two of the pictures.
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@ Abagond
Agreed. The Western policy towards the decolonializing world from1945 to 1970 wass disastrous – both for the countries and the strategic position of the West.
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Evil Belgians
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They did this all over Africa. Britain still barks at our presidents like they are children. @abagond please write about how France is still exploiting its former colonies in Africa and how these countries are the poorest in the continent. Thanks for this article because it explains why Africa is always excluded from the rest of the world.
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@ villagewriter, well said and great suggestion!
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[…] Patrice Lumumba(1925-1961), a Congolese freedom fighter, was the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (known as Zaire from 1971 to 1997). He was only in office a few months: the CIA and Belgium, with the help of Mobutu, had him killed. Mobutu went on to become a puppet dictator for the US.Continue reading […]
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@Lord Of Mirkwood
What happened to the white farmers in Zimbabwe was unacceptable but describing it as genocide is exaggeration (you ought to be ashamed of yourself)- I actually did a course that focused entirely on Zimbabwe in college. The white farmers owned all the fertile land in Zimbabwe and the black people were left as squatters on their own land- thanks to colonialism. When colonial rule ended, Britain agreed to fund a process where these farmers would sell their land to the government and the government would give it to the squatters- remember they stole the land. But when Britain stopped giving those funds chaos ensued. Why? Because the black squatters wanted their stolen land back and they were putting pressure on Mugabe. Up to that point Mugabe was a puppet for ‘Great Britain’ but when he gave in to the squatters he suddenly became a ‘beast’; ‘ a dictator’; ‘a corrupt president’. So, Lord of Mirkwood stop creating the impression that this is solely Mugabe’s fault. The British leadership and Aristocracy is filled with vipers. They change their colors like chameleons and I advise anyone that if this brood of vipers smiles at you ran away to the hills.
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@ Sam
Mobutu was a puppet. You want to tell me that after killing Lumumba the Belgians saw the light, met Jesus and gave up grabbing that country’s resources-you wish. Belgium and France may look like progressive nations but the blood that they have shed in Africa could turn the whole River Nile red for months.
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Another example of the exploitation of Africa.
An American Dentist Killed Zimbabwe’s Famous Lion
http://news.yahoo.com/american-dentist-killed-zimbabwe-famous-lion-192723625.html
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@ King.. This recent story about the dentist who killed Cecil just breaks my heart. What an arrogant and barbaric prick.. I hope he gets his comeuppance.
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@ bygodsloveandgrace
He lured the Lion off of his protected land with a dead animal, then shot him on private land with a compound bow. But the arrow did not kill the lion, only wounding him. So they tracked the poor beast for 40 hours and then shot it with a rifle. Then he took that nice photo.
Do you see how wide smile is?
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@ King.. That even makes this more sad. He smiles with such indifference. Doesn’t have a clue about his actions. Now there’s word that he’s upset over the backlash.. Really? What a tool….
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/28/1406591/-American-dentist-who-is-wanted-for-killing-Cecil-the-lion-is-upset-over-backlash?detail=facebook
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Disgusting! What a coward!
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Big game hunting makes no sense to me. People who do these things are socio paths.
The dentist paid 55,000 dollars for the permits and guides to shoot the lion. Big game parks in Africa cull their older herds by selling game tags. The money goes directly to black Africans. The meat from the animals usually goes to locale towns. We may find the practice disturbing but I don’t think we have a right to interfere with the practices of indigenous Africans in how they run their game parks.
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I don’t get these “hunters”. That’s some pansy crap. Seriously, you walk into a store, purchase refined weapons and shoot from afar? For sport? These “people” should be stripped naked and made to fashion weapons from their surroundings to fend off these same animals they hunt. See how well they do.
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“Lion shooters should be locked up for life. No f-cking exceptions.”
And I wondered why so many Americans are locked up.
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Kiwi said:
“@ Kartoffel
I was thinking more along the lines of Saddam Hussein. For all intents and purposes, he was essentially killed by the US, like Lumumba, because he opposed Western interests… ”
good point! it shows that with the internet and global interconnectedness the US can’t just go in with Pinochet-style subversion and coups overtly, the MO has changed, but ….
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OFF TOPIC: Lions.
Please take this to the Open Thread.
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I had considered “The Lion in Winter” thread but thought better of it…
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