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Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba
Death in the Congo "is a gripping account of a murder that became one of the defining events in postcolonial African history. It is no less the story of the untimely death of a national dream, a hope-filled vision very different from what the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo became in the second half of the twentieth century.
When Belgium relinquished colonial control in June 1960, a charismatic thirty-five-year-old African nationalist, Patrice Lumumba, became prime minister of the new republic. Yet stability immediately broke down. A mutinous Congolese Army spread havoc, while Katanga Province in southeast Congo seceded altogether. Belgium dispatched its military to protect its citizens, and the United Nations soon intervened with its own peacekeeping troops. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, both the Soviet Union and the United States maneuvered to turn the crisis to their Cold War advantage. A coup in September secretly aided by the UN toppled Lumumba s government. In January 1961, armed men drove Lumumba to a secluded corner of the Katanga bush, stood him up beside a hastily dug grave, and shot him. His rule as Africa s first democratically elected leader had lasted ten weeks.
Fifty years later, the murky circumstances and tragic symbolism of Lumumba s assassination still trouble many people around the world. Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick pursue events through a web of international politics, revealing a tangled history in which many people black and white, well-meaning and ruthless, African, European, and American bear responsibility for this crime."
When Belgium relinquished colonial control in June 1960, a charismatic thirty-five-year-old African nationalist, Patrice Lumumba, became prime minister of the new republic. Yet stability immediately broke down. A mutinous Congolese Army spread havoc, while Katanga Province in southeast Congo seceded altogether. Belgium dispatched its military to protect its citizens, and the United Nations soon intervened with its own peacekeeping troops. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, both the Soviet Union and the United States maneuvered to turn the crisis to their Cold War advantage. A coup in September secretly aided by the UN toppled Lumumba s government. In January 1961, armed men drove Lumumba to a secluded corner of the Katanga bush, stood him up beside a hastily dug grave, and shot him. His rule as Africa s first democratically elected leader had lasted ten weeks.
Fifty years later, the murky circumstances and tragic symbolism of Lumumba s assassination still trouble many people around the world. Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick pursue events through a web of international politics, revealing a tangled history in which many people black and white, well-meaning and ruthless, African, European, and American bear responsibility for this crime."
296 pages, Hardcover
First published February 10, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 8, 2015
Authors Girard and Kuklick digest the sad story of Patrice Lumumba who within two years of being the first democratically elected prime minister of the Congo was removed from office and murdered.
It appears that Belgium never expected to truly liberate the Congo or, maybe they didn’t know what liberty entailed. There were many financial interests in the southern province of Katanga, where with installation of Lumumba, a secession movement began. The story takes a lot of twists and turns. At a few points there is marginal hope for Lumumba and his democracy.
It is hard to tell why so much western hostility was poured onto Lumumba. On pages 140-1 Richard Helms is quoted as saying “I’m relatively certain that he represented something that the US government didn’t like, but I can’t remember anymore what it was.” This is exactly what I felt as I was reading the book. It seemed to be an idea that fit the needs of Belgium, the anti-communists in the US (although there is no evidence that Lumumba was a communist) and competing politicians and politicians on the take in the Congo. The UN’s objections to him are the hardest to glean.
While the locals did the deed, they responded to other masters. The CIA had developed a culture of doing dirty work and used a coded vocabulary for it: “a good high level”, “plausible deniability”, “eliminate”, and “subvention” meant bribery. Later US Senate hearings cut through the nuance and divulged (later confirmed in declassified CIA documents) that the order came from President Eisenhower.
The capture, torture and the disposal of Lumumba’s body were sordid affairs and paved the way for Joseph Mobutu.
While this is a dramatic story the prose is bland and reportorial. Hypocrisies are noted as are the strange episodes (i.e. brutal events and the delicacies of protocol) but in general, events are left to speak for themselves. If you want the facts, this book is for you.
It appears that Belgium never expected to truly liberate the Congo or, maybe they didn’t know what liberty entailed. There were many financial interests in the southern province of Katanga, where with installation of Lumumba, a secession movement began. The story takes a lot of twists and turns. At a few points there is marginal hope for Lumumba and his democracy.
It is hard to tell why so much western hostility was poured onto Lumumba. On pages 140-1 Richard Helms is quoted as saying “I’m relatively certain that he represented something that the US government didn’t like, but I can’t remember anymore what it was.” This is exactly what I felt as I was reading the book. It seemed to be an idea that fit the needs of Belgium, the anti-communists in the US (although there is no evidence that Lumumba was a communist) and competing politicians and politicians on the take in the Congo. The UN’s objections to him are the hardest to glean.
While the locals did the deed, they responded to other masters. The CIA had developed a culture of doing dirty work and used a coded vocabulary for it: “a good high level”, “plausible deniability”, “eliminate”, and “subvention” meant bribery. Later US Senate hearings cut through the nuance and divulged (later confirmed in declassified CIA documents) that the order came from President Eisenhower.
The capture, torture and the disposal of Lumumba’s body were sordid affairs and paved the way for Joseph Mobutu.
While this is a dramatic story the prose is bland and reportorial. Hypocrisies are noted as are the strange episodes (i.e. brutal events and the delicacies of protocol) but in general, events are left to speak for themselves. If you want the facts, this book is for you.
December 28, 2022
This is a story about the newly independent Congo and a fight for power and control by the new local politicians, Belgian establishment and foreign companies operating in Congo.
A scenario of the rich natural resources being nationalised and a possibility of involvement from the communist countries raised alarm bells in Belgium, USA and Great Britain.
The consequence of all this was a political murder of the democratically elected prime minister Patrice Lumumba in Congo in 1961 and a rule of kleptocratic regime of Mobutu for the next 25 years.
The murder and barbaric destruction of Lumumba’s, and his two allies, remains was on a par with the recent murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Regardless of his political views, nothing can justify the atrocity committed by the Belgian and Congolese operatives. None of them have been brought to justice, leaving a permanent blemish on their governments.
Timeline of events:
May 1960 The elections take place in Congo to select the new government. Lumumba’s party gets the largest number of votes, although not a majority.
17 june 1960 Belgian Resident Minister asks Kasa-Vubu to form a government.
23 June 1960 Lumumba announces a new government. Kasa-Vubu becomes the president.
30 June 1960 Congo recovers its independence from Belgium. King Baudouin attends the celebrations in Leopoldville. Lumumba’s speech acknowledges suffering of Congolese during its colonisation by Belgium.
4 July 1960 The native soldiers in Leopoldville refuse to take orders from the Belgian officers. Lumumba dismisses the Belgian general and replaces him with the Congolese. In the ensuing riots the white Belgians depart in large numbers. Belgium sends a contingent of soldiers to restore the order.
11 July 1960 Moise Tshombe in Katanga declares his province’s independence.
13 July 1960 Kasa-Vuba and Lumumba aproach Soviet Union about a military support.
14 July 1960 UN adopts a declaration asking Belgian troops to be withdrawn.
22 July 1960 Lumumba embarks on a trip to New York castigate the UN for its deficiencies, and then to Washington to secure goodwill and money from the US.
9 August 1960 the southern part of the province Kasai declares its independence.
5 September 1960 Kasa-vubu announces dismissal of Lumumba’s government and designates Joseph Ileo, president of Congo’s senate, as a new prime-minister. The constitutional crisis ensues.
14 September 1960 Joseph Mobutu announces that he is "neutralising" Kasa-Vubu and two competing government. The army is to maintain order till the end of December and during that time Mobutu asked the Congo university students to oversee the public affairs. He announced that the envoys of USSR and Czechoslovakia will leave and their embassies closed.
27 November 1960 Lumumba leaves his compound, protected by UN troops and
heads for Stanleyville to meet with his supporters there.
1 December 1960 Lumumba’s convoy is stopped in the village of Lodi by the local soldiers.
2 December 1960 Lumumba is delivered to Stanleyville. Mobutu transfers Lumumba to Thysville, south of Leopoldville, where he occupies a single cell inside the military compound at Camp Hardy.
13 January 1961 Discipline at Camp Hardy buckles. The soldiers demand to be paid and some want Lumumba to be set free. Kasa-Vubu and Mobutu arrive and manage to settle the dispute.
17 January 1961 Victor Nendaka, a national security chief, takes Lumumba, Okito and Mpolo from their separate cells and takes them to an airstrip, near town of Lulala. They fly 150 miles to Moanda. At the same time two comissioners Kazadi and Mukamba travel from Leopoldville in a large plane of Air Congo. At Moanda, the meet and Nendaka orders them to take prisoners to Elizabethville. A Belgian advisor Frans Verscheure takes the prisoners to an empty bungalow two miles off the airport. The ministerial group, including Tshombe, visit the prisoners in the evening. Later at night the prisoners are driven some thirty miles. Captain Julien Gat commands the firing squad and the prisoners are shot and buried in a shallow grave.
18 January 1961 The bodies are pulled out, driven to an another place near the border with Rhodesia and buried again.
26 January 1961 A white councellor to the chief commissioner of Katanga’s police, Gerard Soete, travels to the graveside to remove any signs of dead politicians. He, with his assistant disinter the bodies, cuts to pieces and uses sulphuric acid to dissolve the remains. Finally they burn the remains.
27 January 1961 Julian Gat leaves Elizabethville in a convoy of military vehicles to pretend they transport Lumumba and other prisoners to a prison in Kasai.
10 February 1961 Radio Katanga broadcasts that prisoners had escaped. The gendarmerie was searching for the fugitives and offered a reward for their arrest.
13 February 1961 Katanga announces that villagers in the bush had seized the escapees and killed them.
A scenario of the rich natural resources being nationalised and a possibility of involvement from the communist countries raised alarm bells in Belgium, USA and Great Britain.
The consequence of all this was a political murder of the democratically elected prime minister Patrice Lumumba in Congo in 1961 and a rule of kleptocratic regime of Mobutu for the next 25 years.
The murder and barbaric destruction of Lumumba’s, and his two allies, remains was on a par with the recent murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Regardless of his political views, nothing can justify the atrocity committed by the Belgian and Congolese operatives. None of them have been brought to justice, leaving a permanent blemish on their governments.
Timeline of events:
May 1960 The elections take place in Congo to select the new government. Lumumba’s party gets the largest number of votes, although not a majority.
17 june 1960 Belgian Resident Minister asks Kasa-Vubu to form a government.
23 June 1960 Lumumba announces a new government. Kasa-Vubu becomes the president.
30 June 1960 Congo recovers its independence from Belgium. King Baudouin attends the celebrations in Leopoldville. Lumumba’s speech acknowledges suffering of Congolese during its colonisation by Belgium.
4 July 1960 The native soldiers in Leopoldville refuse to take orders from the Belgian officers. Lumumba dismisses the Belgian general and replaces him with the Congolese. In the ensuing riots the white Belgians depart in large numbers. Belgium sends a contingent of soldiers to restore the order.
11 July 1960 Moise Tshombe in Katanga declares his province’s independence.
13 July 1960 Kasa-Vuba and Lumumba aproach Soviet Union about a military support.
14 July 1960 UN adopts a declaration asking Belgian troops to be withdrawn.
22 July 1960 Lumumba embarks on a trip to New York castigate the UN for its deficiencies, and then to Washington to secure goodwill and money from the US.
9 August 1960 the southern part of the province Kasai declares its independence.
5 September 1960 Kasa-vubu announces dismissal of Lumumba’s government and designates Joseph Ileo, president of Congo’s senate, as a new prime-minister. The constitutional crisis ensues.
14 September 1960 Joseph Mobutu announces that he is "neutralising" Kasa-Vubu and two competing government. The army is to maintain order till the end of December and during that time Mobutu asked the Congo university students to oversee the public affairs. He announced that the envoys of USSR and Czechoslovakia will leave and their embassies closed.
27 November 1960 Lumumba leaves his compound, protected by UN troops and
heads for Stanleyville to meet with his supporters there.
1 December 1960 Lumumba’s convoy is stopped in the village of Lodi by the local soldiers.
2 December 1960 Lumumba is delivered to Stanleyville. Mobutu transfers Lumumba to Thysville, south of Leopoldville, where he occupies a single cell inside the military compound at Camp Hardy.
13 January 1961 Discipline at Camp Hardy buckles. The soldiers demand to be paid and some want Lumumba to be set free. Kasa-Vubu and Mobutu arrive and manage to settle the dispute.
17 January 1961 Victor Nendaka, a national security chief, takes Lumumba, Okito and Mpolo from their separate cells and takes them to an airstrip, near town of Lulala. They fly 150 miles to Moanda. At the same time two comissioners Kazadi and Mukamba travel from Leopoldville in a large plane of Air Congo. At Moanda, the meet and Nendaka orders them to take prisoners to Elizabethville. A Belgian advisor Frans Verscheure takes the prisoners to an empty bungalow two miles off the airport. The ministerial group, including Tshombe, visit the prisoners in the evening. Later at night the prisoners are driven some thirty miles. Captain Julien Gat commands the firing squad and the prisoners are shot and buried in a shallow grave.
18 January 1961 The bodies are pulled out, driven to an another place near the border with Rhodesia and buried again.
26 January 1961 A white councellor to the chief commissioner of Katanga’s police, Gerard Soete, travels to the graveside to remove any signs of dead politicians. He, with his assistant disinter the bodies, cuts to pieces and uses sulphuric acid to dissolve the remains. Finally they burn the remains.
27 January 1961 Julian Gat leaves Elizabethville in a convoy of military vehicles to pretend they transport Lumumba and other prisoners to a prison in Kasai.
10 February 1961 Radio Katanga broadcasts that prisoners had escaped. The gendarmerie was searching for the fugitives and offered a reward for their arrest.
13 February 1961 Katanga announces that villagers in the bush had seized the escapees and killed them.
August 10, 2017
This book is the definitive account of the murder on Patrice Lumumba. The authors skip the overanalysis of colonialism but decide to give a factual overview about this very complex chain of events which led to the murder of Patrice Lumumba.
March 6, 2021
This book was probably significantly better in French. Much of the English translation was horrifyingly dry in some places and overly literal in others. The parts where I could recognize the discrepancies worried me because my French is by no means passable. Moving on.
The organization of the book itself was confusing until around the 35% mark or so when it became less muddling through and more understanding what’s happening. From the organization of the book it seemed like a reach to blame the CIA entirely which confused me as I was led to believe this was the entire thesis of the book. The book however lacked a distinct thesis that was intellectually challenging. The closest thing to a thesis I can ascertain was “this was like the murder on the orient express”. Well, yes.
All of history can be like that because we don’t live in a lab environment and many people bear responsibility in some capacity if you look into any historical event. I think more sources would be helpful on this one particularly African sources and most likely French sources.
This was literally about the death of Lumumba so if you want more information into his politics and public opinion, and more details about allegations of “communism” you won’t find it in this book.
The details about Belgian involvement were the strongest part of the book as well as the analysis of CIA documents and information. Overall good book with some critiques I didn’t want to lose track of.
The organization of the book itself was confusing until around the 35% mark or so when it became less muddling through and more understanding what’s happening. From the organization of the book it seemed like a reach to blame the CIA entirely which confused me as I was led to believe this was the entire thesis of the book. The book however lacked a distinct thesis that was intellectually challenging. The closest thing to a thesis I can ascertain was “this was like the murder on the orient express”. Well, yes.
All of history can be like that because we don’t live in a lab environment and many people bear responsibility in some capacity if you look into any historical event. I think more sources would be helpful on this one particularly African sources and most likely French sources.
This was literally about the death of Lumumba so if you want more information into his politics and public opinion, and more details about allegations of “communism” you won’t find it in this book.
The details about Belgian involvement were the strongest part of the book as well as the analysis of CIA documents and information. Overall good book with some critiques I didn’t want to lose track of.
June 19, 2015
The history of Africa as fiefs for the European countries tells us that the western culture had little understanding of anything outside their own lifestyles, did not want to spend the time trying to figure out why and how the African cultures developed and worked the way that they did, thought only of the monetary rewards of usage and denied a people's their sovereignty. And that was just the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the twentieth century the west had become convinced that they could not only right the injustice of the past, but they should be capable of picking and choosing those who would make these countries modern,
This is a sad tale of obfuscation, interference, self aggrandizement, unwitting stupidity and the awful power of personal egotism along side terror and murder. The Congo was a land of small yet self-sufficient tribes, and unbelievable natural wealth. First the land and its riches were taken by the greedy who trampled beyond belief what existed there first. Then in came those who thought they could fix the problem. All of this was complicated by an ideological global war, the cold one.
Patrice Lumumba was in office for ten weeks.. Whether he would have brought the Congo to a more equitable economic, political and cultural existance is moot. What we do know is that centuries of meddling in a land the west didn't understand and never tried to, a land western leaders thought they could remake in their own powerful western image is still, in this twenty first century, a place of low economies, warring factions and cultural disarray. This book shows all the players, and while it can't speak to what was in their minds, it does illuminate their actions which were self serving, egotistical and in many way simply brutal.. A sad centuries long tale of a waste of a peoples and their land.
This is a sad tale of obfuscation, interference, self aggrandizement, unwitting stupidity and the awful power of personal egotism along side terror and murder. The Congo was a land of small yet self-sufficient tribes, and unbelievable natural wealth. First the land and its riches were taken by the greedy who trampled beyond belief what existed there first. Then in came those who thought they could fix the problem. All of this was complicated by an ideological global war, the cold one.
Patrice Lumumba was in office for ten weeks.. Whether he would have brought the Congo to a more equitable economic, political and cultural existance is moot. What we do know is that centuries of meddling in a land the west didn't understand and never tried to, a land western leaders thought they could remake in their own powerful western image is still, in this twenty first century, a place of low economies, warring factions and cultural disarray. This book shows all the players, and while it can't speak to what was in their minds, it does illuminate their actions which were self serving, egotistical and in many way simply brutal.. A sad centuries long tale of a waste of a peoples and their land.
September 18, 2024
A good compendium on the Congolese crisis and the events that led to the death of the first Prime Minister of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba. An objective and detailed book, focusing mainly on a meticulous account of the events of late 1960 and early 1961.
April 9, 2018
Thank you thank you thank you to this book. Loved it.
December 14, 2023
tremendously impressive chronicled history, would be strengthened by a louder narrator voice/ argumentative thread
August 14, 2016
A very careful, painstaking account. Not sure how much it adds to the body of information out there, but compiles a thorough narrative of the years 1959-61 in one place. The organization gets a little bit tedious, and there's not a lot of analytical content. But certainly worth a read, particularly if the events in Congo in the early 1960s are unfamiliar.
July 20, 2016
Detailed but so poorly written (and/or edited) that the details lose much of their force. Too bad as it should have been a powerful story had it been better told
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April 15, 2017This was a pretty good book that reads like an academic research paper. It is very informative.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews