written speeches of professor lumumba

Patrice Lumumba

Speech at the opening of the All-African Conference in Leopoldville

August 25, 1960.

Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa ’s Freedom , Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 19-25. Written : by Patrice Lumumba; Transcribed : by Thomas Schmidt.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear comrades,

The fighting Congolese people are proud and happy to receive their brothers-in-arms in their country today.

For my Government, for us Congolese, your presence here at such a moment is the most striking proof of the African reality whose existence our enemies have always denied and are still attempting to deny. But you, of course, know that that reality is even more stubborn than they, and Africa lives on and fights. She refuses to die to justify the arguments about the backwardness of our history, a history we have made with our hands, our skins and our blood.

It is at conferences such as this that, we first became conscious of our personality, of our growing solidarity. When at our first conferences, which were held in various cities in Africa, we brought up the problem of decolonisation the imperialists never expected we would be successful. However, since the first Conference of the Peoples of Africa in Accra in December 1958 we have traversed the entire road of the liberation of our continent together.

You will recall the upsurge of the liberation struggle of the peoples of Angola, Algeria, the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Nyasaland and Rhodesia after the Conference in Accra, and of Ruanda-Urundi today. You will remember that a decisive step forward was taken after that historic Conference. Nothing, neither bullets, nor repressions, could stop this popular movement.

The work of this Conference is aimed at accelerating the movement for the independence of the African continent.

Ministers, dear fighters for the freedom of Africa, it is your duty to show the world and those who sneer at us that nothing can deter us from liberating Africa, which is our common aim. We can achieve this aim only in solidarity and unity. Our solidarity will have meaning only when it is boundless and when we are convinced that Africa's destiny is indivisible.

Such are the deep-going principles of the work you will have to do. This meeting will prepare the ground for a Summit Conference at which our countries will have to speak on:

1) the unqualified support of all the African states in the general struggle for a Pan-African bloc;

2) a policy of neutralism with the purpose of achieving genuine independence;

3) the breaking down of colonial barriers through cultural exchanges;

4) trade agreements between the African states;

5) Africa's position with regard to the European Common Market;

6) military co-operation;

7) the building in Leopoldville of a powerful radio station with the aid of all the African states;

8) the creation of a research centre in Leopoldville.

Ministers, you have come into contact with the reality of the Congo here, in the very heart of the crisis that we shall have to resolve.

Your confidence in the future of our continent will unquestionably help you to complete your work successfully. Your principal purpose is to prepare a meeting of our Heads of State, who will in deed establish African unity, for whose sake you have responded to our appeal.

You know the origin of what is today called the Congolese crisis, which is actually only a continuation of the struggle between the forces of pressure and the forces of liberation. At the very outset of the Belgian aggression, my Government, the guarantor and representative of the sovereignty of the Congolese nation, decided to appeal to the United Nations. The U.N. has responded. And so has the free world. Belgium has been condemned. I went to New York to show world public opinion the moving forces of the Congolese drama.

Upon our return from the United Stateswe replied to the invitation of the Heads of the free African states, who publicly adopted a definite position and unanimously extended to us their fraternal support. From this rostrum I express my gratitude to President Bourguiba, His Majesty Mohammed V, President Sekou Toure, President Tubman, President Nkrumah and President Olympio, whom I had the honour to meet at this decisive moment. I regret that material difficulties prevented me from replying to the invitation of President Nasser and His Majesty Haile Selassie.

All of them, fighting for African unity, have said "No" to the strangulation of Africa. All of them immediately realised that the attempts of the imperialists to restore their rule threaten not only the independence of the Congo but also the existence of all the independent states of Africa. They all realised that if the Congo perishes, the whole of Africa will be plunged into the gloom of defeat and bondage.

That is further striking proof of African unity. It is concrete testimony of the unity that we need in the face of imperialism's monstrous appetite.

All statesmen are agreed that this reality is not debated but fought for so that it may be defended.

We have gathered here in order that together we may defend Africa, our patrimony. In reply to the actions of the imperialist states, for whom Belgium is only an instrument, we must unite the resistance front of the free and fighting nations of Africa. We must oppose the enemies of freedom with a coalition of free men. Our common destiny is now being decided here in the Congo.

It is, in effect, here that the last act of Africa's emancipation and rehabilitation is being played. In extending the struggle, whose primary object was to save the dignity of the African, the Congolese people have chosen independence. In doing so, they were aware that a single blow would not free them from colonial fetters, that juridical independence was only the first step, that a further long and trying effort would be required. The road we have chosen is not an easy one, but it is the road of pride and freedom of man.

We were aware that as long as the country was dependent, as long as she did not take her destiny into her own hands, the main thing would be lacking. This concerns the other colonies, no matter what their standard of life is or what positive aspects of the colonial system they have.

We have declared our desire for speedy independence without a transition period and without compromises with such emphasis because we have suffered more mockery, insults and humiliation than anybody else.

What purpose could delays serve when we already knew that sooner or later we would have to revise and re-examine everything? We had to create a new system adapted to the requirements of purely African evolution, change the methods forced on us and, in particular, find ourselves and free ourselves from the mental attitudes and various complexes in which colonisation kept us for centuries.

We were offered a choice between liberation and the continuation of bondage. There can be no compromise between freedom and slavery. We chose to pay the price of freedom.

The classical methods of the colonialists, which we all knew or partially still know, are particularly vital here: survivals of military occupation, tribal disunity, sustained and encouraged over a long period, and destructive political opposition, planned, directed and paid.

You know how difficult it has been for a newly independent state to get rid of the military bases installed by the former occupying powers. We must declare here and now that henceforth Africa refuses to maintain the armed forces of the imperialists in its territory. There must be no more Bizertes, Kitonas, Kaminas and Sidi Slimanes. We have our own armies to defend our countries.

Our armed forces, which are victims of machinations, are likewise freeing themselves from the colonial organisation in order to have all the qualities of a national army under Congolese leadership.

Our internal difficulties, tribal war and the nuclei of political opposition seemed to have been accidentally concentrated in the regions with our richest mineral and power resources. We know how all this was organised and, in particular, who supports it today in our house.

Our Katanga because of its uranium, copper and gold, and our Bakwanga in Kasai because of its diamonds have become hotbeds of imperialist intrigues. The object of these intrigues is to recapture economic control of our country.

But one thing is certain, and I solemnly declare that the Congolese people will never again let themselves be exploited, that all leaders who will strive to direct them to that road will be thrown out of the community.

The resonance that has now been caused by the Congolese problem shows the weight that Africa has in the world today. Our countries, which only yesterday they wanted to ignore as colonial countries, are today causing the old world concern here in Africa. Let them worry about what belongs to them. That is not our affair. Our future, our destiny, a free Africa, is our affair.

This is our year, which you have witnessed and shared in. It is the year of our indisputed victory. It is the year of heroic, blood-drenched Algeria, of Algeria the martyr and example of struggle. It is the year of tortured Angola, of enslaved South Africa, of imprisoned Ruanda-Urundi, of humiliated Kenya.

We all know, and the whole world knows it, that Algeria is not French, that Angola is not Portuguese, that Kenya is not English, that Ruanda-Urundi is not Belgian. We know that Africa is neither French, nor British, nor American, nor Russian, that it is African.

We know the objects of the West. Yesterday they divided us on the level of a tribe, clan and village. Today, with Africa liberating herself, they seek to divide us on the level of states. They want to create antagonistic blocs, satellites, and, having begun from that stage of the cold war, deepen the division in order to perpetuate their rule.

I think I shall not be making a mistake if I say that the united Africa of today rejects these intrigues. That is why we have chosen the policy of positive neutralism, which is the only acceptable policy allowing us to preserve our dignity.

For us there is neither a Western nor a communist bloc, but separate countries whose attitude towards Africa dictates our policy towards them. Let each country declare its position and act unequivocally with regard to Africa.

We refuse to be an arena of international intrigues, a hotbed and stake in the cold war. We affirm our human dignity of free men, who are steadily taking the destiny of their nations and their continent into their own hands.

We are acutely in need of peace and concord, and our foreign policy is directed towards co-operation, loyalty and friendship among nations. We want to be a force of peaceful progress, a force of conciliation. An independent and united Africa will make a large and positive contribution to world peace. But torn into zones of hostile influence, she will only intensify world antagonism and increase tension.

We are not undertaking any discriminative measures. But the Congo is discriminated against in her external relations. Yet in spite of that she is open for all and we are prepared to go anywhere. Our only demand is that our sovereignty be recognised and respected.

We shall open our doors to specialists from all countries motivated by friendship, loyalty and co-operation, from countries bent not on ruling Africans but on helping Africa. They will be welcomed with open arms.

I am sure that I shall be expressing the sentiments of all my African brothers when I say that Africa is not opposed to any nation taken separately, but that she is vigilant against any attempt at new domination and exploitation both in the economic and spiritual fields. Our goal is to revive Africa's cultural, philosophical, social and moral values and to preserve our resources. But our vigilance does not signify isolation. From the beginning of her independence, the Congo has shown her desire to play her part in the life of free nations, and this desire was concretised in her request for admission to the United Nations.

Ministers and dear comrades, I am happy to express the joy and pride of the Government and people of the Congo at your presence here, at the presence here of the whole of Africa. The time of projects has passed. Today Africa must take action. This action is being impatiently awaited by the peoples of Africa. African unity and solidarity are no longer dreams. They must be expressed in decisions.

United by a single spirit, a single aspiration and a single heart, we shall turn Africa into a genuinely free and independent continent in the immediate future.

Long live African unity and solidarity!

Forward, Africans, to complete liberation!

Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa | Patrice Lumumba Archive

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Prof. PLO Lumumba: The Face to Pan-Africanism and Afro Upbeat

The Kenyan Law Drop, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba is perhaps the greatest Knock African advocate lively today. Boy possesses aforementioned sam spirit of Congolese Self-determination Leader, Patrician Émery Lumumba; additionally is a symbolic incarnation concerning Kwame Nkrumah.

Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumbais no doubt one von the most vocal Pan African women and Afro optimists alive today. His brilliance, excellent oratory skills, in-dept understanding of Afrikan our, discipline, sound knowledge of Afr political landscape, advocacy press fearlessness on the face to opponents sets him apart from his contemporaries. Magufulification a Africa by Prof. PLO Lumumba at Nkrumah Hall, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania#Magufulification #MagufulificationsofPROfPLoLUMuMBA #M...

He continues go interaction Hairstyle Optimists and Pan-Africans around the world when he takes his message of African unity to the corners of this world without fear or favority. With 1959 Patrice Lumumba was the most prominent nationalist and self-determination leader in the Congo.  His infamy was also spreading beyond the nation’s boundaries as reflecting in is speech given at the closing session of the Internationally Seminar structured at of Congress with that Freedom … Read More(1959) Pathways Lumumba, “African Unity and National Independence”

I met Professor PLO Lumumba in person for the first time at the 9th Edition of Fela Debates, Felabration 2017 in Lagos, Nigeria where he delivered a Keynote address. 

They held the audience spell constrained and served African history switch ' cups ' to everyone present at the event. Most surprising was the fashion he spoke of Nigerian site and leadership about the understanding of a technocrat who his lifetime in the county all his life.

Recently, his ' terrifying ' Speech delivered by an event into military leaders the Australia went viral and weiterlesen to remove an scales off who eyeballs the even the most opaque and least intellect Africans at the actions of political leaders, comprador-bourgeoisie and Neo-colonialisms in Africa. In what he termed 'Africa by this Get Table', he proved how Africa is indeed ' meat eaten alive by Dominions ' - which it characterized the ' conceptual Westwards .

He continues to ask the questions and expose the underlining effects away colonial presence in Africas and the poverty leadership credentials of political leaders in the helm of affairs across Africa.

I will leaves you with excepts from speeches with Teacher Patrick Slots Otieno Lumumba: A Champion of Pan-Africanism as a tool against Neo-Colonialism and Poor Command in Africa. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR UPDATES. SHARE AND COMMENT AS WELL.THANKS FOR WATCHING MSAMBELWA TALK SHOW. PLO Lumumba can a criticize African ambaye a...

When I look at Africa, many questions come to mind. Many times I ask myself, what would happen if Mwalimu were to rise upward and see what is happening. Many dates I will ask myself how will happen if Kwame Nkrumah and Patrick Lumumba were to go up plus perceive what is happens. Because what they would be confronted with your einem Greenland where the Democratic Republican of Congo is unsettled. Higher education – The lifeblood of development

As I speak to you the Central African Republic is at war. But we talk of it only mutely. As I speaker to thou now, in South Sudan, who youngest nation in Africa, the Nuwera have ascend against the Dinka. As EGO speak to you now, Burundi is unsettled. As I tell to you now where is unease in Egypt, as in is unease in Libya. In Niger it is no better, in Senegal in who Cassamance, it is no better. Stylish Somalia it is no better. Africa is at war with self.

This is whats i would be confronted because. They would exist confronted through an Africa which statistician and romantic economists say is growing, but which is truth is stagnated. That is the Africa that they would be confronted with. They wanted be confronted including an Africa which, as Academic Mlama hinted in magnitude presentation here, is with Africa which is suffering from schizophrenia – it does not know self.

They would may confronted include an Africa where young menschen and young wives are constantly humiliated at embassies of European countries and the United States because they seek the almighty green card. They be exist confronted with an Africa where young men and women from Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Mauritanian drown in the Mediterranean as they seek to be enslaved in Ec. This time around, Africans are not wailing and kicking because they are being taken away to be enslaved, they be seen wailing and kicking as few seek to be enslave for Europe and America. This is the tragedy concerning Africa.

They would been confronted through an Africa where my will lost their self-pride. On Africa places Africans are nope proud of their things. An Africa what the the hotels are Dar es Salaam or Kigali, even food has foreign names. Available us fry potatoes we call the French fry even if they are fried into Car u Salaam. #PLOLumumba #TheUnityUniversity #SomalilandProf. PLO Lumumba offically click An Unanimity University (TUU) inside Somaliland. The Units University is Africa’s pion...

They would are confronted with another Africa, an Africa which does not tells her story. The Africa your how is told by Europe and Us – the CNN, Radio Deutsche-Welle, Radia France. Digital services for Ghana, Africa. Award-winning blog and digital platform on, for, and over Afrika and Africans. Perspectives on wellness, statement, travel, social press & digital skills, careers, entrepreneurship, product, events & get.

That is the Africa they would be confronted including. They wouldn be confronted with teen men and girls who have no pride in Africa. When they want to relish themselves they sing the praises of football teams from Europe and America. It is Manchester United, it is Arsenal, to is Real Madrid and Barcelona. Not Yanga, not Mufulira Wanderers, not Gor Mahia, non FC Leopards. FULL SPEECH: Prof. PLO Lumumba LECTURE after he offcially opened One Entity University in Somaliland

No, ensure is the Africa that they would be confronted with. Her would be confronted including an Africa which does not enjoy its theatre and drama. That Africa celebrates Lionardo whodunit Caprio, items celebrated Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. The Africa works not how Genevive Nnaji of Nigeria press Rita Dominic press Olu Jacobs of Nigerian. Information does not celebrate Bongohood or Nollywood or Riverwood. She celebrates Hollywood. That is one Africa which with they would be confronted. They would be confronted with African women his tallest source of joy remains cheap Grade BARN Mexican soap opera: la patrona, louisiana muher de me vida. Profs PLO Lumumba highest Languages Ever

Why must we remind ourselves of these realities? Because throughout the ages, and battle has always have the fight of the brain. If your understanding is conquered, then you are going nothing. The that is reason in to age von enlightenment in Europa, the great René Descartes enunciated “Cogito ergo sum.” I consider, therefore I am. In a public lecture to commemorate Africa Day-time on 25 May, Professor PLO Lumumba said: “If us take does seize save flash and if and universities do not ...

And therefore if Africans are to begin to make a contributions in their affairs, Afrikans must begin to think. But the question is, am we thinking?

We have universities with ihr amounts. Tanzania got universities including Dar es Salaam. Nairobi has universities as indeed Kampala, as really South Africa, Johannesburg. We have all these universities. We have engineers, but magnitude roads become not be made by Tanzanian civil engineers, it is the Chinese who are present in this assembly whom are manufacture our roads.

So ours have engineers who cannot even make roads. Our have professors whom we have taught, but when we are unwell – particularly if we are of the governmental class – depending on who colonized you, if you are colonized by the United Kingdom, you rush to London. If yours colonized by the French, you rush to Paris. If you are colonizes by an Portuguese, you rushed to London, and if you are colonized via the Spaniards, you rush to Madrid, Spain.

And current, because the White are beginning to get you act together, we run to India. And strong lately, because the Arabs is also beginning to obtain the act together, ourselves run to Dubai. Notwithstanding that we take the Kenyatta hospitals regarding like country, the Muhimbilis starting Tanzania, the Chuck Hani Baragwanaths of South Africa and the Mama Yemos of Kinshasa in Zaire or the DRC. Aber we have no faith in our physicians. August 25, 1960. Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa's Freedom, Russia, Progress Publishers, 1961, page 19-25.

In the area of learning we also don’t have believes. Our political class introduced something that group call free learning, the is free indeed. Free of knowledge. Because they been that dubious regarding ones institutions, that the typical African politician will not dare accept their offspring to this schools. Their children will be educated in the British system, in the American system, so that whereas they graduated they go to the United Royalty, to the United U. (1959) Patrice Lumumba, "African Unity and National Independence" •

Not so there is anything wrong is those institutions, but the agenda is wrong because is leaders long missed the script and ought to be described for who they are – our misleaders.

But we are co-authors of our own accident. Whenever we are given an opportunity for elect our leaders, we are given a blank check. And if you permit me a bit latitude, and if you give me one blank check and you accept mein to analogize press them say which I am given the blank check to buy adenine Mercedes-benz Volkswagen, get we do is if we are called after – having past so empowered – were buy where we call ampere tuk-tuk from India and us expect it in behave like a Mercedes Benz.

How does that happen? Because what wealth how is to elect thieves. Wee select hyaenas to take care of goats both although that goats are consumed, we wonder why.

What are your thoughts?

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Department of African Studies

Dr. plo lumumba on the role of africa and the black diaspora in international affairs.

By Constance Pruitt

The Palavar Series presented a public lecture on Africa and Black Diasporic Engagements featuring renowned Dr. PLO Lumumba. The event took place from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2018, in the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library at Howard University. The public lecture, “On the Role of Africa and the Black Diaspora in International Affairs” was hosted by Dr. J. Jarpa Dawuni of the Political Science Department and Dr. Msia Kibona Clark of the African Studies Department.

Dr. Mohamed Saliou Camara, Chair of the African Studies department, provided the welcome address. Next, Ayana Gregory, daughter of the late Dick Gregory, gifted the audience with an inspiring and interactive opening song, reminding the audience that, “We are the ones that we have been waiting for for…. We are qualified.” Dr. Dawuni then gave a brief introduction of Dr. Lumumba, the renown Kenyan lawyer, Pan-Africanist and public speaker, calling him “a great son of Kenya, greater son of Africa, and an even greater Pan-Africanist.”

Dr. Lumumba expressed his enthusiasm to speak at Howard University and share his thoughts on a subject that is very important especially on the history of Africa. He discussed the popular but often misguided conversations around the Black diaspora that focuses solely on slavery, colonization, or its independence era. Instead, Lumumba insisted that we should look at how Africa is today and the disbursement of its sons and daughters throughout the world. He stated that Africa is attractive to many players on the global stage, then posed to the audience the question of why. What is it in Africa that people seek? He noted, that Africa is becoming an economic and political mecca and has a bright future ahead. Read the entire article here .

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Lumumba speaks: the speeches and writings of Patrice Lumumba, 1958-1961

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30th June 1960 – Lumumba’s Independence Day Speech

Patrice Lumumba’s Independence Day speech stands as a capsule in time, reading it and watching it you see the encapsulation of Congolese and African decolonisation in the 1960s; the righteous indignation and fury aimed at the colonial powers, language gently coated with Marxism, and a desire to carve out a better future for Congo and the African continent. It was a speech laden with possibility, as the destiny of this new fledgling nation-state was ready to be determined – immense possibility to “make Congo the pride of Africa” in Lumumba’s own words. In his speech he vows to never forget the brutality the Belgians unleashed on the Congo basin, he vows to continue the ‘struggle’ for economic independence, and he reiterates the need for the Congolese to “set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy”. The themes are clear, castigation of the colonial legacy, recognition of ‘struggle’ and a discourse laced with soft-Marxism, as well as Congolese citizenship. This short discourse analysis will attempt to analyse all three of these themes throughout the speech, and look at how the language used reveals Lumumba’s ideals, and the reactions that language sparked across the Western world.  

Of course, Lumumba’s speech didn’t happen in a vacuum – first we must contextualise his words. From 1885 to 1960 the Congo had been ruled by Belgians, first King Leopold II who ruled the river basin as his own personal fiefdom in which millions of Congolese died (estimates vary, one estimate notes that the population of the Congo fell by 11.5 million people). Leopold then relinquished control to the Belgian state in 1908 and they ruled the nation until 1960 when independence was achieved on the 30th June 1960. Independence arrived, much like Lumumba, in a fervent rush. As late as 1958 the Belgians were mapping out routes that would attempt to placate the desire of Congolese self-determination, but by January 1960 they had caved in and declared that independence would arrive six months later in June of that year, the date of which Lumumba would give his speech. (It is interesting to note here that the decolonisation decision and process was so rushed that the fledgling nation did not have a national anthem ready by independence day) Lumumba went on to win the first Congolese elections in May (despite the meddling invisible hand of the Belgians), and in June when independence arrived he would become the Congo’s first democratically-elected Prime Minister – a joyous and cathartic moment. Independence Day was upon the Congo, and as they gleefully danced to Joseph Kabasele’s “Independence Cha Cha”, there seemed little that could dampen their spirits. That was before the then Belgian King arrived for the independence ceremony to hand over the keys to the nation, and its wealth of minerals, to Lumumba and the Congolese. King Baudouin’s speech was full of praise for the Belgian colonial regime. As reported by The Guardian at the time, the King praised “the genius of King Leopold II” and stressed that the Belgian colonisers “deserve admiration from us and acknowledgement from you” – the speech was tone deaf at best, and crass at worst.  

Nevertheless, this is the context surrounding Lumumba’s independence day speech – a brutal colonial regime that lasted almost a century, a hasty decolonisation process that saw interference and bloodshed, and on a cathartic day the King of the colonial power had pronounced the supposed virtues of the Belgian regime. This is important background to what Lumumba says, because it dictates what he says and the manner in which he says it, specifically the words chosen. The speech is broadly divided into two parts, the first part focusing on the past injustices the Congolese have had to endure, and the struggle to break free from those injustices and the second part focusing more on the future and what lies ahead.

The tone of the speech is set from the very start, he addresses the Congolese as “victorious independence fighters” – this language is rousing and paints the Congolese who are watching and listening not only as people who fought in a struggle, a war but as the victors of that war. It immediately makes every Congolese see themselves as the victors – this is only reinforced by the line before in which he addresses “men and women of the Congo”, Lumumba isn’t talking about a select group, he is including everybody from the Congo in his framing. This is significant as it signals Lumumba’s intent to reject divisive ethnic politics, which the Belgians had tried to stoke. He then goes on to say “I salute you in the name of the Congolese government”, once again painting the Congolese as fighters – a salute is typically saved for soldiers – but crucially he is also legitimising himself here. The Belgians are no longer the rulers, they can no longer speak for the Congo – Lumumba now represents the Congolese government, and it is a government of Lumumbas.  

He goes on to allude to conflict and the military – “my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks” he says, and implores those friends in the ‘ranks’ (typically a military description) to engrave the 30th June 1960 in their hearts, “the glorious history of our struggle for freedom”.   Here, we must pause and note how often Lumumba alludes to ‘struggle’. In the political world using the word ‘struggle’ is a signifier of left-wing politics – as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. Believing in a constant struggle against greater forces, of the masses struggling against a privileged few is a key tenet of Marxism in all its shades, and Lumumba’s use of the word is noteworthy. He goes on to use the word struggle seven times. The word struggle on its own wouldn’t denote Marxist sympathies but throughout the speech Lumumba urges Congo to achieve “economic independence” and longs for an “independent and sovereign Congo”. When coupled with the knowledge that Lumumba had plans to keep profits from the mining industry firmly within his country’s border and seek what was essentially nationalisation, it was easy to see why his rhetoric could be interpreted as being gently coated with Marxism. It was something that frightened Belgian vested interests who wanted to keep the money flowing to Brussels, as well as the new global superpower the United States whose Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dubbed Lumumba “Congo’s Castro”. It is with this background that the words “national economy” uttered by Lumumba sent shudders down the spines of Western powers.  

Lumumba – in what can only be described as a direct rebuke to the Belgian King – derides the colonial legacy, and spits at all the injustices. He decries every facet of Belgian colonialism, from the “jeers, insults and blows because we were ‘negroes’… the black was addressed as “tu”… because the polite “vous” was reserved for the white man”   to “the atrocious sufferings… forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger… our lands seized… the shootings which killed so many of our brothers”. Lumumba spends a significant chunk of his speech spitting at the legacy of Belgian colonialism – something that may not have happened had the aforementioned speech by King Baudouin not occurred. The Guardian reports that Baudouin’s speech was so badly received that the incoming Head of State Joseph Kasabuvu chose to omit praise for the King in his remarks. This highlights how the context of the speech dictated Lumumba’s discourse. “Our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten”, Lumumba says – it sparks a physical reaction and conjures a visceral image of the suffering the colonised had to endure.  

After castigating colonialism in the first part of the speech, Lumumba sets his sights on the future and evokes the themes we’ve just seen. There is an appeal to all Congolese across ethnic lines, “I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels… I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children”, and there is soft-Marxism, “let us commence together a new struggle… we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour.”  

What, then, can we take from this discourse analysis of Lumumba’s Independence Day speech? If we take the word of some of the Western press that were at the scene, it “soured the taste of many”. Whether that is true or not Lumumba’s speech did indeed set the tone for his brief Premiership and its failure – his attempts to create a Congolese civic nationalism failed as Katanga seceded within days of his Premiership. His rhetorical soft-Marxism scared the Western powers and would contribute to his downfall, and his justified castigation of the Belgian colonial legacy soured relationships with the former power immediately. Nevertheless, Lumumba’s speech still stands as a monument in time – the anticipation of independence and possibilities that came with it are evident in the speech, but with hindsight we can see that the speech alludes to the phenomena that would eventually push Lumumba out of power, and lead the Congo to ruin.  

L. James, Empires in the Sun: The Struggle for the Mastery of Africa, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016

P. Lumumba, Speech at The Ceremony of The Proclamation of the Congo’s Independence, 30th June 1960, retrieved from: https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/lumumba/1960/06/independence.htm 

“Marred: M. Lumumba’s Offensive speech in the King’s Presence”, The Guardian, 1st July 1960, https://www.theguardian.com/world/1960/jul/01/congo

L. Zeilig “Léopold’s Congo.” In Lumumba: Africa’s Lost Leader, Haus Publishing, 2008, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1hfr315.3

Mirjam de Bruijn

October 7, 2020 (16:21) Log in to Reply

Lumumba himself was clearly aware of the language he used and the references to ideologies of the left. The analysis of the speech needs a context that you provide the reader with. You could have analyzed the visual expressions as well, as you took the video as your point of departure.

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Congolese Independence speech by Patrice Lumumba on June 30, 1960

given June 30, 1960

Men and women of the Congo, Victorious independence fighters, I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government.

I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts, a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children, so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom.

Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood.

It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us. That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten.

We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones. Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were "Negroes". Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as "tu", not because he was a friend, but because the polite "vous" was reserved for the white man?

We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might. We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others. We have experienced the atrocious sufferings, being persecuted for political convictions and religious beliefs, and exiled from our native land: our lot was worse than death itself. We have not forgotten that in the cities the mansions were for the whites and the tumbledown huts for the blacks; that a black was not admitted to the cinemas, restaurants and shops set aside for "Europeans"; that a black travelled in the holds, under the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.

Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were mercilessly thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation used by the colonialists as a tool of their domination? All that, my brothers, brought us untold suffering.

But we, who were elected by the votes of your representatives, representatives of the people, to guide our native land, we, who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression, we tell you that henceforth all that is finished with. The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our beloved country's future is now in the hands of its own people.

Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness. Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour. We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.

We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children. We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble. We shall stop the persecution of free thought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights. We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and we shall ensure for everyone a station in life befitting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the country. We shall institute in the country a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill.

And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship. Even Belgium, which has finally learned the lesson of history and need no longer try to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us its aid and friendship; for that end an agreement has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. I am sure that this co-operation will benefit both countries. For our part, we shall, while remaining vigilant, try to observe the engagements we have freely made.

Thus, both in the internal and the external spheres, the new Congo being created by my government will be rich, free and prosperous. But to attain our goal without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can. I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad. I ask you all not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our grand undertaking.

Finally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of fellow-citizens and foreigners who have settled in our country; if the conduct of these foreigners leaves much to be desired, our Justice will promptly expel them from the territory of the republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they, too, are working for our country's prosperity. The Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.

Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country. I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.

Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation! Long live independence and African unity! Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!

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Patrice Lumumba's Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence

Milestone Documents in World History

Commentary on famous speech

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This thesis focuses on the traveling exhibition A Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art, mounted by The Museum of African Art, in New York, NY in 1999. The art in the show portrayed Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) as an enduring heroic figure, who has now taken on religious significance since his death. Lumumba is cemented in the political discourse of an independent Africa, as such he is portrayed in A Congo Chronicle, as a symbol of national unity, political freedom and human rights; a cult of personality has arisen around Patrice Lumumba which can be seen through the continued use of his image as a political rallying point. This thesis examines the role art has played in solidifying Lumumba as a symbolic figure in the Congolese political landscape and the significance of popular paintings in the Congo. This thesis also explores how A Congo Chronicle is demonstrative of the importance of religious iconography in Congolese culture with imagery such as origin stories, Mami Wata ...

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Petit, Pierre, 2020. « Official miniatures. The figure of Patrice Lumumba in the global and the national contexts », Matthias De Groof (ed.), Lumumba in the Arts, pp. 373-387. Leuven: Leuven University Press. Le présent chapitre analyse les représentations de Lumumba sur les « miniatures officielles », à savoir les timbres, monnaies, médailles, cartes postales et autres images de petit format ratifiées par les autorités de l’État. Leur banalité, leur diffusion à grande échelle et leur validation par le pouvoir en place en font une source originale pour étudier l’héroïsation de l’ancien Premier ministre. La chronologie des miniatures rappelle que cette consécration fut internationale avant d’être congolaise. L’image de Lumumba s’est construite sur fond de la guerre froide et du premier élan panafricain, en URSS comme dans l’Égypte de Nasser ou la Guinée de Sékou Touré. C’est donc à l’étranger que s’est développée cette première imagerie, qui alterne les références au héros libérateur moderne et au martyr éternel. Contrairement à la rétrospection qui fait de Lumumba un héros « populaire » au Congo dès son décès (ce qu’il n’était pas), il faut attendre son élévation au rang de héros national par Mobutu, en 1966, pour que cette imagerie se diffuse au Congo, sur fond de paradoxes et de rétractations. Laurent Désiré et Joseph Kabila utiliseront eux aussi la référence à Lumumba en début de mandat, comme si l’histoire se répétait autour d’un fétiche de la nation placé sous la stricte tutelle du pouvoir en place. Parallèlement à cette carrière nationale, l’icône de Lumumba continue à circuler à travers l’Afrique et le vaste monde, générant une tension créatrice à l’interface des registres national et international. Lumumba occupe, par exemple, le quatrième rang parmi les personnalités politiques africaines célébrées par les timbres en dehors de leur pays d’origine. Il y rejoint dorénavant le panthéon des ancêtres fondateurs de l’Afrique indépendante, émoussant par cette évolution générique l’image des débuts révolutionnaires.

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Patrice Lumumba, 60 Years Later

On January 17, 2021, the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the independent Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and one of the great African leaders of the 1960s was marked. The historical relevance of this assassination includes local, regional and global factors ranging from internal rivalries and complicity to the importance of Congo as a reality and image in Africa; from the context of African countries fighting for independence to power disputes between the colonizing powers; and from relations between them in the context of the Cold War, the consequences of which are still felt today. In fact, it was a murder that was announced on independence day from a speech.

On June 30, 1960, at the ceremony for the proclamation of independence of the Congo, there were three speeches: from King Baudouin of Belgium, the former colonizing power, the President of the Congo, Joseph Kasavubu, and Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister, the latter in an intervention not foreseen in the initial protocol. It was a short speech of about twelve minutes, written in an accessible and incisive language, performative and visual, a speech that, as the historian Jean Omasombo Tshonda defends, “founds the independent Congo”. 1 The first eight minutes are the clearest definition of what colonialism is from the point of view of a continent, a country, a community, a person.

For Lumumba, what was at stake with the decolonization that independence brought, that the new world order coming out of post-World War II had offered as a promise and that the Bandung conference in 1955 had called for, was the launching of a new understanding of the world that would radically reimagine relations among people, peoples, communities and states. The promise was the struggle, for what was at stake was not just something national, but of the entire continent and all the subjugated peoples. “The independence of Congo marks a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole continent”. 2 And, in fact, the impact of this discourse was national, continental and worldwide and even today the metamorphoses of this transnational and transcontinental history have ramifications in the most varied sectors of public and private life of contemporary European and African societies, translating into a renewed need to adjectivize the word decolonization - of the mind, of the imaginary, of being, of knowledge, of the arts, of narratives, of space, of people.

The ephemeral life of Patrice Lumumba, and of so many other African fighters murdered and imprisoned in what was thought to be the beginning of a path of liberation, shows how colonialism lingers in decolonization, overshadows independence, and haunts the postcolonial. In the same year, 1960, Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the independent Congo, was placed under house arrest in September, captured in November, and on January 8 wrote the last letter to his wife, Pauline, nine days before his assassination on January 17, 1961. In it he records the permanence of the old world from colonialism in metamorphosis to neo-colonialism in defense of the white bastion in Southern Africa of which his imprisonment is an expression, combined with the new world that emerged from World War II, the Congo being one of the nerve centers of Cold War confrontation in Africa. The assassination of Lumumba reveals the steps of this policy on the continent, executed by its Congolese rivals and Belgian officials, with the consent of the United States and the vigilance of the CIA, in its policy of combating communist action in the world led by the Soviet Union, and in its solid and historic relationship with Belgium in terms of exploitation of the resources of the “colony”. But in this letter, Lumumba also affirms the certainty in the continent’s final victory:

We are not alone. Africa, Asia and free peoples will always be on the side of the millions of Congolese who will not give up the struggle while the colonialists and their mercenaries remain in our country.

Two images will remain in the collective imaginary: the image of the young Prime Minister, the triumphant leader of the independence discourse, who touches everyone and represents the new world; the image of Patrice Lumumba with his hands tied behind his back, surrounded by the military and, with them, the symbol of a future still imprisoned by the colonial hand, which marks the suffering face of the leader and, with him, of all the Congolese people and all the peoples subjugated by an old world.  And ends his letter to Pauline, looking at future generations:

History will one day reveal its verdict, but it will not be the history that will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington, or the United Nations; it will be the history that will be taught in countries freed from the yoke of colonialism and its puppets.

  45 years after Patrice Lumumba’s speech and a very active neo-colonialism, Belgium would open a parliamentary inquiry into the death of Patrice Lumumba, to which Adam Hochschild’s books, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, were published in 1998, and, in 1999, Ludo De Witte’s The Assassination of Lumumba.

What everyone knew and no one pronounced was timidly concluded: Belgium’s “moral” involvement in the murder of the young leader, confirming what his companion in arms, Amilcar Cabral, had written in February 1961 in his text “Lumumba died so that Africa may live” 3 . This was followed in 2002 by a formal apology from the Belgian state to Patrice Lumumba’s family, and thus the “public secret” 4 that had long haunted Belgium began to be unveiled, with all the phantasmatic images of a young Congolese prime minister murdered with his companions, dismembered and dissolved in acid, of what would have been two teeth left, and Belgium’s support for the terrible dictator Mobutu, who would rule the Congo for decades. This opened up the possibility that, one day, another story would also be taught to all Belgians and all Europeans, and the process of decolonization would continue its path in Africa and Europe. This is what we continue to witness today.

Patrice Lumumba was named after a small square in Brussels in April 2019, the then Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, addressed an official apology to the Belgian half-breeds torn from their African mothers and interned in institutions in Belgium during the colonial period, We witnessed the long judicial process of Patrice Lumumba’s sons regarding the return of his father’s mortal remains, and also, within the framework of the Black Lives Matter movement, the decisive interventions on the statues of King Leopold II, which itself epitomizes the brutal memory of colonial Belgium that Patrice Lumumba described in his speech. These are the words of this speech taken up by Pitcho Womba Konga, a Belgian performer, actor and rapper, in the play Kuzikiliza (2017), a title that, translated from Swahili, means “to make oneself heard. In the performance, the actor creates the conditions for listening to his speech written by Lumumba’s words, showing his actuality and the stages of decolonization yet to be accomplished. It is also Lumumba’s words that the poet and slammer Lizette Lombé updates in her poem, pronounced in post-colonial Belgium where both artists live. This is how Patrice Lumumba’s post-memory puts her words today on continued silence:

Who will forget?

That a black man was called by “you”…

Not like a friend, of course,

But because “Sir”, respectfully, was reserved to the 

Who will forget? 

They told me

You are a scarab!  A great monkey!  A cockroach! 

They told me 

You are a pig!  Fucking black! 

Your mother slept with a nigger!

You’re the daughter of herbs! 

You should go back to your land!  Back to the bush!

To your hut!

You should go back to your tree!  Your vine!  Your bananas!

You should thank Belgium for taking you in! 

Even if you were born here… 

(…)Who will forget? 5

None of the artists experienced colonialism in the Congo, not even the official period of decolonization, but their speeches show us that the colonial act did not end with those who practiced it and with the historical framework that led to political independence, nor did decolonization take place in its fullness of restitution. On 30 June 2020, Philippe, the King of the Belgians, who is now the age of independent Congo, acknowledges for the first time the pains and humiliations inflicted on the Congolese people and their present extensions in a letter addressed to the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Félix Tshisekedi.  In his words: “I wish to express my deepest sorrow for the wounds of the past, the sufferings and humiliations inflicted on the Congolese people whose pain is now rekindled by the discrimination still present in our societies. 6 In a cross-mail the same day, the daughter of Patrice Lumumba, Juliana Lumumba addressed the King of the Belgians asking that the remains of her father be returned to her family and to the Congo.

60 years after the speech of Patrice Lumumba who founded the Congo and condemned its author, the King of the Belgians comes close, in a semantic and politically dialogical way, to the speech of Patrice Lumumba and opens a process of revisiting history, archives and memory, proposing a Commission of Truth, Reconciliation and Restitution. In parallel, and through the judicial and royal system, Belgium will return to Patrice Lumumba’s family the remains that one of the Belgian officers involved in the murder had sinisterly kept for himself and which have long haunted the Belgian imaginary. In this national environment of great change, but also of global awareness of the impact of brutal past on our present, which the Black Lives Matter movement represents, and following the resolution of the Brussels Parliament in April 2019 which favors the repatriation of remains and objects brought to Belgium during the colonial period, six institutions, launched the HOME project, whose goal is to give peace, repatriation and burial to the remains of many colonized black bodies that were brought to Belgium in the colonial period, as trophies of conquest, as objects of study, as beings to exhibit, as bodies of work. 7

A new phase of decolonization is perhaps now beginning, in which Belgium begins to look at its colonial ghosts and begins a process of decolonization of its former colony. Perhaps one day the dream enunciated by Patrice Lumumba in his last letter to his wife Pauline will be fulfilled in another way, and it will be possible for Belgian and Congolese children, European and African children to learn their part of the common history of their countries, respecting the different memories and refusing the logics of oblivion.

MEMOIRS is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation Framework Programme (No. 648624);

MAPS Post European Memories: a post-colonial mapping is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT - PTDC/LLT-OUT/7036/2020).

The projects are based at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra. 

• 1. Tshonda, Jean Omasombo (2020) La Décolonisation du Congo belge. La gestion politique des 24 derniers mois avant l’indépendance, Tervuren: AfricaMuseum.
• 2. All quotations are from Patrice Émery Lumumba (2018) Chora, Ó Negro, Brother Bem-Amado, Falas Afrikanas. (translation by Apollo de Carvalho, José Santy Jr. and Zetho Cunha Gonçalves), pp. 18, 24.
• 3. Cabral, Amilcar “Lumumba died, that Africa may live, 1961,” in Chora, Ó Negro, Irmão Bem-Amado, pp. 27-38.
• 4. Michael Taussig, (1999), Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative. Stanford, Stanford University Press. p. 6.
• 5. Lombé, Lizette (2018) Black Words, Paris, L’Arbre à paroles. Published in Portuguese in Memoirs Público Encarte, 2018, p. 17. (translation by Fernanda Vilar and Felipe Cammaert, revised by António Sousa Ribeiro).
• 6. “Philippe, the king of the Belgians, expresses his “deepest regrets” in Congo, 30 June 2020
• 7. HOME - Human remains Origin(s) Multidisciplinary Evaluation é um projeto científico federal lançado em 2019, com quatro coordenadores e seis instituições. Mais informação aqui.

by Margarida Calafate Ribeiro A ler | 1 February 2021 | África , colonialism , Congo , freedom , govern , independence , memoirs , patrice Lumumba

by Margarida Calafate Ribeiro

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