Author: Sankar Srinivasan
Publisher: Srinivasan Sankara Narayanan
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 31
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Book Description
The story of Patrice Lumumba is the story of a man who fought for his country's independence and right to self-determination, only to be brutally murdered by foreign forces. Lumumba was the charismatic leader and first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His short tenure as prime minister was marked by political instability, ethnic tensions, and international interference that ultimately led to his overthrow. Lumumba's death remains a controversial and tragic event that has had a profound impact on African history and the struggle for independence across the continent. In this short ebook, we will explore the life of Patrice Lumumba, from his humble beginnings to his rise to power and his eventual imprisonment and execution. It examines the political climate in Congo during Lumumba's tenure, the various internal and external factors that contributed to his downfall, and the legacy he left behind. Rather than being the story of one man, Lumumba's story reflects the complex political and social landscape of early independence Africa. Throughout its history, gain insight into the challenges faced by African leaders during this period and the forces that shaped the history of the continent. The author Sankar Srinivasan is a stock market consultant and a social activist from India.
Author: Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821445065
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 93
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Book Description
Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the country’s first democratically elected prime minister. After a meteoric rise in the colonial civil service and the African political elite, he became a major figure in the decolonization movement of the 1950s. Lumumba’s short tenure as prime minister (1960–1961) was marked by an uncompromising defense of Congolese national interests against pressure from international mining companies and the Western governments that orchestrated his eventual demise. Cold war geopolitical maneuvering and well-coordinated efforts by Lumumba’s domestic adversaries culminated in his assassination at the age of thirty-five, with the support or at least the tacit complicity of the U.S. and Belgian governments, the CIA, and the UN Secretariat. Even decades after Lumumba’s death, his personal integrity and unyielding dedication to the ideals of self-determination, self-reliance, and pan-African solidarity assure him a prominent place among the heroes of the twentieth-century African independence movement and the worldwide African diaspora. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja’s short and concise book provides a contemporary analysis of Lumumba’s life and work, examining both his strengths and his weaknesses as a political leader. It also surveys the national, continental, and international contexts of Lumumba’s political ascent and his swift elimination by the interests threatened by his ideas and practical reforms.
Author: Emmanuel Gerard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674745361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293
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Book Description
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. More than 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.
Author: Didier Ndongala Mumbata
Publisher: Paragon Publishing
ISBN: 1782229337
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 72
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Book Description
Europeans and Americans, and especially Western students, know very little, if anything, about Africa and its extraordinary political leaders. At the Institute of Political Science, in the political leadership courses, the focus is on the great political leaders who shaped world history, such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, Vladimir Lenin, etc. No one is mentioned on the continent of Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Soundiata Keita, Leopold Senghor and Mansa Kanga Mousa. The latter, king of the kings of Mali from 1312 to 1337, an empire in West Africa, is considered the richest man in human history. “Political Leadership in Africa” is a series of books that shine a light on extraordinary African political leaders, so that people around the world, especially politicians, journalists and students, will pay new attention to Africa, its history and its people. Indeed, Patrice Emery Lumumba “Ahead of His Time” is the first volume in the series. This book is a detailed political analysis of an extraordinary politician, who became prime minister when the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence in 1960. Although his life was cut short, Patrice Lumumba was undoubtedly an exceptional political leader. The consequences of the events that led to the liberation of the Democratic Republic of Congo would have been profoundly different without his impact on the political outcome. He is now described as a hero, a martyr, a prophet and the Abraham Lincoln of African politics.
Author: Ludo De Witte
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839767928
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398
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Book Description
The Assassination of Lumumba unravels the appalling mass of lies, hypocrisy and betrayals that have surrounded accounts of the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba—the first prime minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity—since it perpetration. Making use of a huge array of official sources as well as personal testimony from many of those in the Congo at the time, Ludo De Witte reveals a network of complicity ranging from the Belgian government to the CIA. Patrice Lumumba’s personal strength and his quest for African unity emerges in stark contrast with one of the murkiest episodes in twentieth-century politics.
Author: David Sweetman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780582603554
Category : Congo (Democratic Republic)
Languages : en
Pages : 72
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Book Description
Author: Emmanuel Gerard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674725271
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 293
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Book Description
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. More than 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.
Author: Bogumil Jewsiewicki
Publisher: Museum for African Art/Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 124
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Book Description
Author: Thomas R. Kanza
Publisher: Schenkman Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780870739019
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 386
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Book Description
Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781689790642
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 54
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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "Without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men." - Patrice Lumumba The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event-known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885-galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa. The conference established two fundamental rules for European seizure of Africa. The first of these was that no recognition of annexation would granted without evidence of a practical occupation, and the second, that a practical occupation would be deemed unlawful without a formal appeal for protection made on behalf of a territory by its leader, a plea that must be committed to paper in the form of a legal treaty. One of the most controversial colonization efforts took place in the Congo, which still conjures up contrasting images of jungles, wildlife, warlords, civil wars, blood diamonds, and the ongoing anarchy of ethnic and tribal warfare. Indeed, the vast expanse of Congo remains one of the most enigmatic and little-known regions of Africa. It is also, undeniably, the original African failed state. It has suffered generations of warlord rule, inter-ethnic violence and insecurity, particularly in the remote and isolated east of the country. The original name of the region derives from the Kingdom of Kongo, a pre-colonial power that ruled a limited region surrounding, and extended south of, the mouth of the Congo River. The first Europeans to discover the mouth of the Congo River were the Portuguese, who incrementally explored the coast of Africa throughout the late 15th century and established diplomatic and trade relations with the Kongo Kingdom before assuming control of what later became Portuguese West Africa, and later still Angola. At that point in history, the European trading powers were only really interested in trade, most particularly the Atlantic Slave Trade, and there was little incentive to penetrate the interior to any depth. The Portuguese made no particular effort, therefore, to explore the Congo River any further inland than the Crystal Mountains or the extensive region of rapids that tended to shield the interior from the coast. For generations the Portuguese simply traded off the coast, while what lay beyond in the dark interior remained a matter of myth and speculation. It was in the nature of Belgium's withdrawal from Africa that power was essentially handed over to the first in line to receive it. Very little of the careful preparation that characterized the British withdrawal from Africa was evident in Congo, in major part due to the fact that the Belgian system of administration allowed for no phased entry of Congolese employees into the executive level, so there was no one trained or experienced in running a government who was in a position to take over from the departing Belgians. The same, indeed, was true in the armed forces. As it turned out, the first in line to take power was a tall, stern-featured ideologue by the name of Patrice Lumumba. Though he was still just 35, his life story was already one full of ideology, politics, and chaos, and things would only get more turbulent once he became the Congo's leader. Patrice Lumumba: The Life and Legacy of the Pan-African Politician Who Became Congo's First Prime Minister looks at one of the most important African leaders of the 20th century.
