Lumumba, Patrice

Lumumba, Patrice (Hemery)

Lumumba

(credit: Agence Dalmas)

(born July 2, 1925, Onalua, Belgian Congo—died January 1961, Katanga province, Republic of the Congo) African nationalist leader, first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (June–September 1960). Lumumba worked as a trade-union organizer before founding the Mouvement National Congolais, Congo's first nationwide political party, in 1958. That same year his militant nationalism at a major Pan-African conference in Accra, Ghana, brought him to prominence. During negotiations in Belgium in 1960, he was asked to form the first independent Congolese government. His rival Moise Tshombe immediately announced the secession of Katanga province. When Belgian troops arrived to sustain the secession, Lumumba appealed first to the UN and then to the Soviet Union. He was dismissed by Pres. Joseph Kasavubu and, a short time later, assassinated by Tshombe loyalists. His death caused a scandal throughout Africa, where he was looked on as a leader of Pan-Africanism.