Nomad_Africa_Edition12

Patrice Lumumba
PATRICE ÉMERY
LUMUMBA:
THE GREAT AFRICAN MARTYR
From its independence from Belgium in 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) has been left with an unstable political system as its tribal leaders have had
more power than the central government. Prevalent on the world’s mind when DRC
is mentioned are the names such as Kabila, Lumumba, Mobuto and ultimately, the
first and second Congo war.
Words: KRISTIE OMAR
from 1971 to 1997, the country
was officially the Republic of
Zaire; a change made by
then ruler Gen. Mobutu Sese
Seko to give the country
what he thought was a more
authentic African name.
“Zaire” is a variation of a term
meaning “Great River” in local Kongo language;
like the country’s current name, it
refers to the Congo River, which drains a
large basin that lies mostly in the republic.
Unlike Zaire, however, the name Congo has
origins in the colonial period, when Europeans
identified the river with the kingdom
of the Kongo people, who live near its
mouth. Following the overthrow of Mobutu
in 1997, the country’s name prior to 1971, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, was reinstated.
Congo subsequently was plunged
into a devastating civil war; the conflict officially
ended in 2003, although fighting continued
in the eastern part of the country.
A nation as big as Western Europe, the Democratic
Republic of Congo is a topic for
most political, social and human rights activists
for decades. A quarter century of experimentation
with Marxism was
abandoned in 1990 and a democratically
elected government took office in 1992. A
brief civil war in 1997 restored former Marxist
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, and ushered
in a period of ethnic and political unrest.
Southern-based rebel groups agreed
to a final peace accord in March 2003, but
the calm is tenuous and refugees continue
to present a humanitarian crisis.
Has all this fighting made us forget what the
Republic of Congo offers us as a continent?
Congo is rich in natural resources. It boasts
vast deposits of industrial diamonds, cobalt,
and copper; one of the largest forest reserves
in Africa; and about half of the hydroelectric
potential of the continent. And what
about the Congolese leaders that have defiled
and defined new political directions in
the country and hence affected Africa as a
whole? Perhaps, to this day, the most celebrated
is Patrice Émery Lumumba.
THE BIRTH OF A MARTYR
Born in 1925 during Belgium’s rule of the
Congo, Patrice Émery Lumumba was
brought into a world of racial segregation.
Large numbers of white immigrants, many
from Belgium, who moved to the Congo
after the end of World War II, came from
across the social spectrum, but were
nonetheless always treated as superior to
black people. From the tiny village of Onalua
in northeastern Kasai, a Congolese
province, at the time of his birth, the Congo
was still a colony of Belgium.
As a child, Patrice Lumumba attended
Protestant and then Catholic schools run by
white missionaries. At the mission schools,
Lumumba proved to be a fine student, even
though the mud-brick house he lived in had
no electricity and he could not study after
Issue 12 | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | www.nomadafricamag.com | 55