Patrice Lumumba at One Hundred: A Biographical Reappraisal

This article marks the centenary of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose political life and tragic death became emblematic of Africa’s struggle for independence. It traces Lumumba’s intellectual and political evolution from a representative of the Congolese évolué class — an advocate of a “Belgian-Congolese community” based on gradual reform and coexistence — to a leading figure of the radical Pan-African and national liberation movement after the 1958 All-African Peoples’ Conference. The study examines the challenges Lumumba faced in governing a newly independent Congo, a country quickly transformed into a Cold War battleground and a site of competing geopolitical interests over Africa’s vast strategic resources. It analyses the factors behind his failed attempts to secure military support from Ghana and the Soviet Union, which sealed his defeat by pro-Western forces and led to his assassination. The article also explores the resurgence of scholarly and political interest in Lumumba as a symbol of African independence and of the unfulfilled aspirations associated with decolonisation. A critical reassessment of his legacy, achievements, and errors is particularly relevant today, as Africa enters a new phase of postcolonial self-determination and struggles to assert genuine sovereignty. The analysis draws on documents from Russian and British archives, Lumumba’s speeches, memoirs of contemporaries, and official publications of the United Nations, the USSR, and the United States.

Patrice Lumumba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, national liberation movement, Africa, Pan-Africanism, colonialism, decolonisation, Cold War, Congolese crisis, 1960–1965