April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

the ABAKO leader, as President of the Republic. Lumumba’s coalition
partners agreed, and the deal was announced on 24 June 1960.
But unfortunately, Lumumba signed his own death warrant in appointing
Kasavubu out of the best of intentions. In doing so, he implanted a
poisonous Belgian wasp into his bosom. Lumumba’s action was acclaimed
as an act of statesmanship and was endorsed by a vote of confidence in
both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
However, the Belgians began to use what would have been Lumumba’s
political strengths against him. They now cultivated Kasavubu, filling his
head with sweet words about how Lumumba was young and inexperienced,
whereas Kasavubu was experienced and sagacious, as recognised in
Brussels. He must not allow any ‘impulsive’ acts of the young Prime
Minister to go unchallenged. And they backed their flattery with massive
sums of money.
Even more important, the Belgians planted into the office of the Prime
Minister (Lumumba) as his principal aide, a former soldier called Joseph
Mobutu. Mobutu had been recruited as an agent by the Belgians, while
attending the Exhibition of Brussels, following which he stayed on in
Belgium as a student of ‘journalism’. With his military background, it
would not have been difficult to teach him the tricks of espionage,
instead. When Lumumba arrived in Belgium, straight from prison, to
attend the constitutional conference, Mobutu befriended him - no doubt
on Belgian instructions. Mobutu later joined the MNC and gained
Lumumba’s confidence. At independence, he was well placed to be put in
charge of defence at the Prime Minister’s office, given his seven years’
service in the Congolese army, the Force Publique. Prompted by his
Belgian paymasters, Mobutu worked very closely with Kasavubu in secret to
undermine the new Prime Minister.
Now, on becoming Prime Minister, Lumumba had come very far indeed -
and the distance between where he had sprung from and the complexities
of political life marked by Belgian and American intrigues against him
cannot be over-emphasised. Lumumba (his full name was Patrice Emery)
was born on 2 July 1925, in the village of Onalua, in Kasai Province. His
ethnic group, the Batetela, was small in comparison to such bigger groups
in Kasai as the Baluba and the Bakongo. This gave him an advantage, for
unlike politicians from big ethnic groups, no-one feared ‘domination’ from
his side. He therefore found it easier to attract would-be political partners
from other ethnic groups.
Lumumba attended a Protestant mission school, after which he went to
work in Kindu-Port-Empain, about 600km from Kisangani. There, he
became active in the club of ‘educated Africans’, whom the Belgians
called the ‘évolués’. He began to write essays and poems for Congolese
journals. Next, Lumumba moved to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to work as
a postal clerk and went on to become an accountant in the post office in
Stanleyville (now Kisangani). There he continued to contribute to the
Congolese press.
In 1955 Lumumba became regional president of an all-Congolese trade
union of government employees. This union, unlike other unions in the
country, was not affiliated to any Belgian trade union. He also became
active in the Belgian Liberal Party in the Congo. In 1956, Lumumba was
invited with others to make a study tour of Belgium under the auspices of
the Minister of Colonies. On his return he was arrested on a charge of
embezzlement from the post office. He was convicted and condemned to
12 months' imprisonment and a fine.