From 'whiteman in rags' to revolutionary nationalist

Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925–1961) is perhaps the most famous leader of African independence. After his murder in 1961, he became an icon of anti‐imperialist struggle. His picture was brandished on demonstrations across the world, together with those other faces of the 1960s, Che Guevara and Mao Tse‐Tung. The subject of this article is the life of Patrice Lumumba before he came to power in 1960. Lumumba was born in Kasai province in the centre of the Belgian Congo. After a few years of intermittent schooling, he left for the regional capital Stanleyville, where he became a post office clerk. Soon Lumumba became a prominent member of the évolue, those Africans hand‐chosen by the Belgians to run the colonial state. As the pace of political change quickened in the 1950s, he became an unruly subject and underwent a fascinating transformation – from praising the Belgian's civilising mission in the Congo to radical nationalism. Most academic work is based on the last dramatic year in Lumumba's life. Based on original interviews and sources largely unknown to an English‐reading audience, this article argues for the importance of understanding Lumumba's entire life to make sense of his rapid political evolution and the trajectory of political change in the Congo. Keywords: Congolese historynationalismpolitical changeévoluésbiography Notes 1. This biographical sketch is dedicated to Kemishanga, a brave and unyielding militant of the MNC. Part II of this biographical sketch will be featured in a forthcoming issue of Social Dynamics. 2. This biographical sketch makes use of a number of interviews recorded in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in November 2006. The interviews were conducted in French and translated by the author, except the interview with the Belgian/Congolese activist Tony Busselen. Those interviewed were Juliana Lumumba (Lumumba's only daughter), Francois Lumumba (Lumumba's eldest son), Asse Lilombo (post‐holder in Francois Lumumba's MNC), Mbara Emmanual Bastin (post‐holder in Francois Lumumba's MNC), Matthais Kemishanga (party organiser for the original MNC in Kasai and Lumumba's comrade) and Tony Busselen (activist and Congo expert). 3. Lumumba's 1956 book is a curious study. At the time, it was condemned by supporters of Belgian colonialism as an audacious attack on the structures of the colonial state, but later it was also dismissed by Lumumba's supporters as a hopelessly sycophantic rant on the civilising mission of the Belgians. The book was initially rejected for publication, but it was eventually printed in 1961 after his murder. The following year, it was published in English under the title Congo, My Country. Lumumba's comrades condemned its publication, believing that it gave an inaccurate picture of Lumumba's political ideas. In the same way, Belgium hoped that its publication would dampen Lumumba's martyrdom. 4. Sékou Touré (1922–1984) was born in Faranah in central Guinea. In 1953 Touré became head of the Democratic Party of Guinea (Parti Démocratique de Guinée). When President Charles de Gaulle offered French colonies membership of a Franco‐African community in a referendum on the 13 September 1958, Touré was the only one to respond 'non'. Instead he opted for immediate independence, famously commenting: 'We prefer poverty in freedom to riches in slavery'. Guinea gained independence in 1958. Guinea allied itself with the socialist bloc, and broke all relations with France in 1965

Colonialism · Militant · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · African history and culture studies · African Studies and Ethnography · History · Law

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