Patrice Lumumba was assassinated 50 years ago today
Patrice Lumumba became the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960, and was killed in 1961. Photograph: EPA
Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.
It’s not always a good thing for your country to have an abundance of valuable natural resources particularly if one of them’s uranium. He became a threat to Belgium’s control of his country and the US’ access to, and their ability to prevent the USSR getting access to, uranium.
Is it any wonder at all that African politics is in such a parlous state today when the Western powers treated it with such contempt for so long? I wonder what tales we would tell if the tables had been turned?
