Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo, was a hero to his fellow Africans but a communist threat to the West. The West believed Lumumba was pro-soviet and would open the door to communist control of this mineral rich region. Within months of becoming Prime Minister in 1960, Lumumba was ousted in a military coup, inspired by the West. It was led by a turncoat colonel, Desire Mobutu who would be Congo's military dictator for the next thirty years. In early December 1960, Patrice Lumumba and two of his Ministers were killed by members of the Belgian Secret Service. None of the murderers, or the men behind them, has ever been indicted, but Lumumba's voice still echoes throughout Africa today.

1 online resource, 1 video file, 1 min., 13 sec. long. Online access for Northwestern users through Films on demand.
Patrice Lumumba is assassinated, triggering emotional international response seen through mass protests.

Streaming video files. 3 separate episodes.
1. The quest for power. Covers the years from Mobutu's birth until 1969, documenting his journey from cook's son, to military journalist, to Secretary of State, and then President. Shows Mobutu meeting Patrice Lumumba during negotiations for the Congo's independence in 1960. Includes footage of Lumumba in captivity with Mobutu looking on, of Mobutu's coup in 1965, and of the ensuing four-year civil war.
2. The upper hand. Covering the years from 1969 to 1988, Part Two shows that by 1970 Mobutu was the undisputed ruler of Zaire, controlling its riches, property, and people. Resistance was brutally repressed, as shown in footage of a University protest that ends in bloodshed. Mobutu's increasing paranoia is exemplified on an archival film of a mass execution, where 13 supposed traitors were hanged.
3. The end of a reign. Covers the years 1988 to 1997. Includes footage of Mobutu partying on the Mediterranean Coast with French and Belgian officials, prominent Americans and other dignitaries. Documents the emergence of an opposition movement in Kinshasha led by Etienne Tshisekedi, the development of the National Conference from 1990 to 1992, and the rebellion led by Kabila in 1996. In May, 1997 Kabila, Mobutu and South African President Nelson Mandela met in Kinshasha, within weeks Kabila took the city, Mobutu fled and died in exile in September of that year.

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.

On January 17, 1961, two hundred days after the declaration of independence of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba was struck down by violent death in Elizabethville. ... Alive, Lumumba was a personality who aroused all kinds of contardictory reactions. ... Dead, Lumumba continues to weigh heavily on the life and destiny of the Congo and of Africa. It is in his name that groups and countries confront one another; it is in teh name of fidelity to his mission that the masses are rebelling, armed against established power, for he is the focus of a myth whose force goes beyond his life as a man. - extract from the authors preface.

Important speeches and writings of Patrice Lumumba between 1958 and his death in January 1961 in chronological order and brief explanatory passages by the authors.

In this important biography, the great contribution of Lumumba to the process of the African Revolution is analysed and assessed.

Three people who knew Lumumba personally, his French lawyer, Belgian lawyer and a black writer, talk about him, in this issue of Europe: Revue Mensuelle. " For us, on reading the three testimonies and the letters that follow, we acquire a better knowledge of this personality who, during his lifetime, was more complex, for sure, than his legend. But let us ask the question: what remains of him in the memory of men? Its complexity? No. His legend. And this legend translates without the slightest ambiguity the ideal to which he first sacrificed his reputation in the capitalist world, then his life." excerpt from issue editors introduction.

1 broadside ; 28 x 22 cm.

1 online resource (195 pages) : illustrations.
The aim of this work is to make a contribution towards the search for a solution for the present and future problems of the Congo. I do not claim to offer the solution, since there are others more competent and qualified than myself, namely the rulers of the country and those responsible for Belgian colonial policy. My aim must be interpreted merely as a desire to take part in the free discussion of the complex problems confronting the country, since the clash of ideas produces light. It is as a citizen of this African continent that I wish to take part in the debate which is now opening. -- Excerpt from the Author's Introduction.

A series of speeches, statements and comments made by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, president of Ghana, between February 14th and February 20th, 1961.

A giant country like Congo with its huge ethnic diversity will always remain an inexhaustible source of wonder and astonishment. Congo-expert and photographer Angelo Turconi dwells on the country's nature, the daily life, its people, Congo's art and culture and its economy in 150 colour images. Included are rare images of rituals and traditions that now belong in the past.