Patrice Lumumba and Congolese Independence

Podcast Transcript

After decades of Belgian rule, Congo gained independence in June 1960 under the leadership of the nation’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.

However, hope was quickly shattered by Cold War rivalries and a fierce internal power struggle.

Lumumba’s vision for a sovereign, prosperous Congo was crushed by forces that prevented the nation from ever realizing its true potential.

Learn more about the tragic rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba and the birth of the modern Congo on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

To understand the roots of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s post-colonial challenges, we have to briefly review its history under Belgian rule, a topic which I covered in a previous episode.

During the 19th-century Scramble for Africa, Congo became the personal property of King Leopold II, who governed it not as a colony, but as his own personal possession.

His reign saw the unchecked exploitation of Congo’s resources and the horrific treatment of the Congolese people, all driven by Leopold’s obsession with the global demand for rubber.

The brutal extraction of rubber was organized by a terror that is almost incomprehensible.

The Congolese were forced to harvest wild rubber under the constant threat of violence if they failed to meet their strict quotas. The enforcement of these strict quotas fell to the Force Publique, a mercenary army that acted as Leopold’s personal enforcers, terrorizing the Congolese into submission.

Failure to comply with these quotas led to forced mutilation. The Force Publique agents cut off hands and feet for failure to meet rubber quotas.

It is estimated that up to 10 million people were killed during this period.

Amid mounting global outrage in the early 20th century, Congo was transferred from Leopold’s personal rule to formal Belgian administration.

This change was motivated by the hope that Belgium would improve conditions, making the Congolese situation more like that of its African neighbors.

The Belgian Congo focused on the continued extraction of Congo’s vast natural resources. Until Independence in June 1960, the Belgian government extracted valuable minerals, including copper, diamonds, and gold.

The Congo is home to some of the world’s most valuable natural resources. Recent estimates of Congo’s untapped mineral reserves put the value as high as $25 trillion.

As decolonization began in the 1950s, indigenous efforts in Congo challenged Belgian rule, including major riots in cities such as Leopoldville.

Nationalist movements in Congo demanded greater freedom and reform throughout the 1950s, culminating in the formation of the Congolese Nationalist Movement.

The Congolese Nationalist Movement was led by a young postal clerk named Patrice Lumumba.

Lumumba’s rise echoed that of other African icons, such as Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, and Jomo Kenyatta; visionaries who opposed European colonial rule and championed the cause of independence.

While each of these movements was unique, they were all driven by a shared nationalism that demanded nothing less than independence and freedom.

As pro-Independence riots and unrest intensified in 1959, Belgium began preparing for Congo’s independence.

Independence in Congo arrived abruptly, unlike the gradual process in Ghana or India. 1960 was known as the “Year of Africa” because the Congo and 16 other African nations gained independence.

After a century of exploitation and terror, the Congo entered a new era.

The end of Belgian rule marked a major milestone, but the difficult transition exposed Congo’s vulnerability to external interference, leaving its future deeply uncertain.

The 1960 elections in the Congo saw Lumumba’s Congolese Nationalist Movement party gain a plurality in the new parliament, winning 36 of 137 seats.

Despite the slim plurality, he was elected the nation’s first Prime Minister.

Despite a fervent desire for independence, the Congo had virtually no experience with self-government. Decades of Belgian oppression had denied the population their rights to education, leaving the new republic with a staggering deficit of leadership.

In a nation of fifteen million people, there were reportedly fewer than twenty college graduates.

Lumumba’s coalition faced the extraordinary challenge of building a functioning government.

Yet despite the deep challenges, Congo’s greatest test wasn’t internal political conflict but rather external interference.

Lumumba gave a fiery speech on Independence Day 1960. His inspirational words captured an optimistic tone that he hoped would inspire his fellow Congolese. He said, “The new Congo, our beloved republic that my government is going to create, will be a rich, free, and prosperous country.”

Despite the optimistic spirit of Lumumba’s Independence Day speech, the newly independent Congo would soon confront hard realities.

The troubles began almost immediately after independence, and in retrospect, they were all too predictable.

The most fundamental challenge was the fact that Congo’s extraordinary natural resources made it a continual target for Western powers, impeding its ability to act as a truly sovereign nation.

A second core challenge was that the Cold War made countries like the Congo yet another battleground between the world’s superpowers.

The new government assumed control on June 30, 1960, but the transition proved tumultuous as problems emerged almost immediately. The Belgian military forces that had been in the country did not leave. In fact, they retained leadership positions in the military.

The stated mission of the Belgian forces was to protect Belgian interests and any Belgians who remained in the country.

It took only 6 days for the troubles to begin. On July 5th, Congolese forces launched a mutiny against Belgian officers. Enraged by the situation, the mutineers quickly spread the mutiny as they sought to expand their authority and control over the nation’s military.

One account illustrates the problems the Congolese military faced.

The leader of the military, a white Belgian named Emile Janssens, addressed the Congolese at Camp Hardy and wrote on a chalkboard: “Before independence=After independence.”

Belgium was sending a clear message about its stance on Congolese independence.

Congolese forces arrested the Belgian leaders and assumed control of the nation’s military bases, establishing the Congolese National Army.

Attacks broke out against Belgian civilians still in Congo, as well as Belgian business interests. Lumumba responded to the situation by firing Janssens and all Belgian leaders, while promoting leaders in the Congolese National Army.

Within days, the Belgians had prepared a force to invade the Congo, thereby violating its sovereignty, only a week after it became independent.

The struggle’s character shifted from this point forward, becoming neo-imperial as Congo’s internal conflicts became enmeshed with wider geopolitical concerns.

Capitalizing on the chaos in the military, Congolese separatists led by Moïse Tshombe and supported by Belgian interests, claimed the region of Katanga in the southeastern corner of the country on July 11, 1960.

Katanga is significant because it is the Congo region with the most mineral wealth, including some of the world’s largest uranium reserves.

Case in point, the Katanga Shinkolobwe mine supplied the vast majority of the uranium used by the United States in its development of the atomic weapon under the Manhattan Project.

Within hours, Lumumba and Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu sent a plea to the United Nations for military assistance to end the insurrection and remove Belgian forces.

By bringing the issue before the UN, the Congolese mutiny had now become a Cold War issue, placing the United States and the Soviet Union on a collision course.

American archives paint a picture of skepticism towards Lumumba. The perspective in Washington was that his speeches indicated communist leanings.

Lumumba was not a communist, but a Congolese nationalist shaped by Belgium’s legacy. He just wasn’t interested in further exploitation of the country’s natural resources by outsiders.

Lumumba’s words reflected his primary interest in ensuring that Congo’s resources benefited the Congolese people. He said, “The wealth of Congo should benefit the Congolese, not the profiteers in Brussels, Paris, or New York.”

After only two weeks of independence, the Congo was a fractured country, dependent on foreign forces to preserve its independence and protect its natural resource base.

The UN responded with uncharacteristic speed, sending in thousands of troops. The intervention would be a harbinger of later engagements in African nationalist crises, such as Rwanda, where the force would act as a placid peacekeeping force.

The UN forces, however, despite Lumumba’s pleas, would not engage in the reannexation of Katanga or the expulsion of Belgian interests.

Lumumba made a decision that would cost him everything, including his life. In desperation, Lumumba sought Soviet military assistance against the secessionist state of Katanga.

With this single request to the Soviets, Lumumba validated Western suspicions and transformed the Congo crisis into a defining Cold War conflict.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev spoke directly to Lumumba and said, “Your struggle is the struggle of millions of people of Africa… the old Congo was not only a Belgian colony. The bayonet was Belgian, but the bosses were the United States, Belgian, British, and West German big monopolies.”

The Soviets viewed the Congo as a symbolic battlefield for anti-colonialism. Although their actual military support was modest, their vocal backing and delivery of transport equipment transformed Lumumba into a Cold War pariah, confirming the West’s worst fears.

This was the calculus of the Cold War; what was good for the Soviets was bad for the Americans and vice versa.

The Soviets began to cast the issue as one of American/NATO-led imperialist efforts to subjugate Congo and its resources.

The Congolese government had collapsed by September 1960, and Lumumba himself would soon become a target.

Lumumba and Kasavubu took turns firing at each other, dividing the government and the military, opening the door for a military coup.

In mid-September, military leader Joseph-Desire Mobutu, later known as Mobutu Sese Seko, would exploit the chaos within the Congolese government and, with Western support, install himself as a military dictator. Mobutu changed the name of the country to Zaire and held onto power until 1997.

Mobutu would profit from the Cold War by positioning himself as a bulwark against African communism. He ran a kleptocracy that enriched himself, while most Congolese lived in brutal poverty.

The impact of his reign is still felt in modern Congo and will be the subject of a future episode.

For many, Patrice Lumumba remained a profound threat because he had the strongest vision for the Congo’s future.

Lumumba would speak out against what was happening in the Congo to the very end. In his last correspondence to his wife, he stated plainly, “Unrestricted independence goes against the wishes of Belgian colonialism and its Western allies.”

Patrice Lumumba was arrested by forces loyal to Mobutu on December 1, 1960.

After being captured, Patrice Lumumba was tortured by Belgian and Katangan forces before being executed by a firing squad and buried in a shallow grave on January 17, 1961.

His body was soon exhumed and moved 125 miles or 200 kilometers to a second burial site. His executioners exhumed him a second time, determined to prevent him from becoming a martyr and his grave from becoming a pilgrimage site.

This time, they dismembered his remains and dissolved them in sulfuric acid to ensure no physical trace of him remained.

Towards the end of his life, Lumumba showed great resolve in his goal and quest. He said, “Dead, alive, free or in prison at the colonialists’ orders, I am not what matters. What matters is the Congo and our poor people, whose independence has been turned into a cage.”

Gerard Soete, the Belgian officer who oversaw the killing of Lumumba, stole his gold tooth and kept it as a souvenir. A fact that wasn’t made public until just before his death in 1999.

61 years later, in the summer of 2022, the children of Lumumba would finally welcome his tooth back. The tooth, now a sacred relic of the struggle for independence, is housed in the DRC National Museum in Kinshasa.

The story of Patrice Lumumba is, in many respects, a microcosm of Africa’s postcolonial history.

His death made him a martyr across Africa and the developing world, embodying both the hopes of postcolonial independence and the brutal realities of Cold War power politics.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

Research and writing for this episode was provided by the historian of hops …..Joel Hermensen

Today’s review comes from listener Dr Nowell on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write:

I learn something new every time I listen.

Every time I listen to an episode, new or encore, I learn something new. I just listened to the last, or at least the most recent, episode. That makes me a proud member of the Texas completionist club! If you keep making ’em, I’ll keep listening to ’em.

Thanks, Doc! Maybe you can also try to get the medical board to approve listening to Everything Everywhere Daily as continuing education credits. Its a long shot, but you never know.

Remember, if you leave a review of the podcast on any of the major podcast apps, you can have it read on the show.