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<span class="post_date" title="2016-01-21">January 21, 2016</span>
<h1 class="headline" itemprop="headline"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/21/a-revolutionary-speech-patrice-lumumba-and-the-birth-of-the-republic-of-congo/"
rel="bookmark">A Revolutionary Speech: Patrice Lumumba and the
Birth of the Republic of Congo</a></h1>
<p class="post_meta"> <span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/ludodew3393/"
rel="nofollow">Ludo de Witte</a></span> </p>
<div class="post_content" itemprop="articleBody"><b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/21/a-revolutionary-speech-patrice-lumumba-and-the-birth-of-the-republic-of-congo/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/21/a-revolutionary-speech-patrice-lumumba-and-the-birth-of-the-republic-of-congo/</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
<p><em>Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese independence leader and
first democratically elected Prime Minister, was executed 55
years ago on 17th January, 1961. He had been beated and
tortured in a culmination of two assassination plots by the
Belgian government and the CIA, ordered directly by President
Dwight Eisenhower to ‘eliminate’ the charismatic leader, with
the cooperation of British intelligence and Katangan
authorities. </em></p>
<p><em>Just months before his deposition in a coup, Lumumba
had delivered a powerful speech declaring the independence of
the Republic of Congo and speaking eloquently about the
struggle against racism and colonization, “an indispensable
struggle to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was
imposed on us by force.”
</em></p>
<p><em>He added:</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>“Our wounds are too fresh and too smarting for us to
be able to have known ironies, insults, and blows which we
had to undergo morning, noon and night because we were
Negroes. We have seen our lands spoiled in the name of laws
which only recognised the right of the strongest. We have
known laws which differed according to whether it dealt with
a black man or a white.</em></p>
<p><em>“We have known the atrocious sufferings of those who
were imprisoned for their political opinions or religious
beliefs and of those exiled in their own country. Their fate
was worse than death itself. Who will forget the rifle-fire
from which so many of our brothers perished, or the gaols in
to which were brutally thrown those who did not want to
submit to a regime of justice, oppression and exploitation
which were the means the colonialists employed to dominate
us?”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>The written text of this speech, delivered on 30th June
1960 in the presence of the Belgian King Baudouin, has been
held in the archives of the Société Générale de Belgique. Ludo
de Witte, author of<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859844103/counterpunchmaga"> The
Assassination of Lumumba</a>, returns to the events of the
day in an article originally published in French in <strong>Le
Vif/L’Express.</strong> </em></p>
<p>Few speeches have marked our history as much as that given
by the Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba on 30 June 1960,
the day that Congo achieved its independence. This speech could
be considered the birth certificate of modern Congo, a country
that was then emerging from eighty years of colonialism and
which looked with confidence to its future. In Africa
this speech is considered one of the key moments in propelling
the continent onto the international stage. In the West, many
have seen it as a call to arms opening up Belgian-Congolese
hostilities, plunging this former Belgian colony into chaos. A
chaos marked by the fall of the Lumumba government in
1960 and, the following year, by the assassination of the man
considered in Congo to be the country’s first ‘national hero’.</p>
<p>Today, fifty-five years after independence, the paper copy
of the text read by Lumumba has resurfaced for the first time.
This is the definitive version of his speech. These are the
pages that the Congolese prime minister brought with him to the
podium. This text was written and typed out the previous night,
and corrected by hand just before and even during the ceremony.
We can consider it the country’s founding document. It was found
in the archives of Finoutremer, the former Compagnie du
Katanga, which was previously one of the jewels of the Société
Générale de Belgique. So for more than half a century the
Congolese were deprived of a document that is essential to
their country’s history.</p>
<p><strong>Baudouin warns his government</strong></p>
<p>Léopoldville (today’s Kinshasa), 30 June 1960s.
Distinguished guests crowd into the Palais de la Nation, where
Congo’s independence is due to be officially celebrated. The
impressive building on the bank of the River Congo was built
under the governor general Pétillon. It was first conceived
as a residence for members of the royal family travelling to
Africa and, in part, as a residence for the governor general. In
the new Congo, the parliament would meet there. As if nothing
should change after power was handed to the Congolese, the
guests were welcomed by a bronze statue of Léopold II –
founder of the independent Congolese state – on horseback. Among
those in the auditorium: newly elected Congolese politicians,
Belgian officials, the international diplomatic corps, and
the national and foreign press.</p>
<p>The rather nervous Belgian élite was asking itself
questions. Against all expectations the nationalist Patrice
Lumumba had managed to form a government. Could Belgium hold
onto its interests in its ex-colony? For months, under pressure
from his father Léopold III’s entourage, the young
king Baudouin warned his government that Belgium’s ‘imperishable
rights’ in Congo had to be preserved.</p>
<p>Gaston Eysken’s government placed all its hopes in the
Congolese army. This ‘new’ army, led by Belgian officers, had to
‘contain’ the Lumumba government. This was a risky ‘Congolese
gamble’. Baudouin wanted to make the Congolese prime minister
understand that Congolese sovereignty had its limits. For the
Africans, the king’s speech of 30 June bordered on provocation.</p>
<p><strong>Léopold II, the ‘liberator’</strong></p>
<p>There had been intensive work on this speech at the Palais
de Laeken. In one draft, Léopold II was described as the
‘liberator’ of Congo, a state ‘formed by freely concluded
treaties between its leaders and the king’s <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859844103/counterpunchmaga"><img
class="alignright size-full wp-image-79015"
src="cid:part4.09020904.08010202@freedomarchives.org"
alt="asslumumba" height="262" width="175"></a>envoys’. Prime
minister Eyskens, who checked the text, considered that
this passage went too far. He wanted completely to get rid of
this reference to Léopold II. Ultimately he was contented by the
term ‘liberator’ being replaced with the word ‘civiliser’. The
sentence according to which the Congolese leaders had offered
the country to Léopold II of their own volition was removed. All
in all, the draft text focused on its message of saying in
veiled but unequivocal terms what path the Palace wanted Congo
to take: a neo-colonial régime guaranteeing Brussels’ interests,
with black dignitaries as mere sub-contractors.</p>
<p>The speech by the Congolese president Kasa Vubu, which
had previously been transmitted to Brussels, and which was meant
to follow Baudouin’s speech, was so ‘flat’ and ‘academic’ that
in a certain sense it confirmed or even reinforced the King’s
arguments. The ceremony seemed to augur well for the Belgian
élite.</p>
<p><strong>The King’s speech</strong></p>
<p>It began in line with the wishes of the former colonial
régime. King Baudouin invited those in attendance to celebrate
colonisation more than he did independence. The sovereign gave
the impression that he was speaking in the name of his
great-uncle, founder of the Congo Free
State: ‘Congo’s independence marks the outcome of the work
conceived by the genius of King Léopold II, which he undertook
with tenacious courage and which Belgium has continued with
perseverance. … In this historic moment, our thoughts must
turn to the pioneers of African emancipation and to those after
them who made Congo what it is today. They deserve both our
admiration and your recognition, because it was they who,
devoting all their efforts and even their lives to a great
ideal, brought you peace and enriched your moral and
material inheritance’. In this story crowned with success, there
was no place for the Congolese people. After this, he again
invoked the memory of Léopold II, in the following terms: ‘He
appeared before you not as a conqueror but as
a civiliser’. After a summary of the advantages that
colonisation had brought to Congo: infrastructure, medical care,
teaching, industry – followed a series of paternalistic remarks.
The king warned the Congolese over their lack of
political experience, the danger of tribal conflicts and ‘the
attraction that foreign powers could exercise over certain
regions’. After an homage to the colonial army
‘which accomplished its burdensome mission with unfailing
courage and devotion’, came a last piece of advice: ‘Do not
compromise the future with hasty reforms and do not replace the
structures that Belgium has left you until you are certain that
you can do better … Do not be afraid of turning to us for help.
We are ready to stand by your side, offering you advice and
working with you to train the technicians and functionaries that
you will need’. After Baudouin, Kasa Vubu read out his
speech, and his words were quickly forgotten.</p>
<p>Baudouin’s idyllic portrayal of the colonial period clashed
with the memory of the colonised: the millions of dead, as a
result of the privations, forced labour, disease and repression
under Léopold II’s rule; the brutal crushing of the revolts of
the 1920s and 1930s; the terrible ‘war effort’ during the Second
World War; the corporal punishment with the chicotte whip; the
apartheid… But what did that matter to Brussels? An unwritten
law forbade any discussion of colonial abuses, and independence
was not meant to change that. Such were the Belgian élite’s
hopes.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Lumumba had found out about Baudouin and
Kasa Vubu’s speeches in advance. And although the protocol did
not plan for any third speech, Congo made its voice heard ‘in
the name of a century of silence’, to use a phrase from Jean
Jaurès.</p>
<p><strong>Belgian-Congolese tensions</strong></p>
<p>There were also other reasons why the Congolese prime
minister wanted to have his say. Just before independence
Brussels and colonial milieus had held a knife to the Lumumba
government’s throat. The Belgian government unilaterally changed
the legal status of colonial companies to Belgian ones, thus
depriving Congo of its shares in the mining businesses. An
attempt at secession in Katanga was foiled, but the secessionist
lobby went unpunished.</p>
<p>A further incident: Lumumba wanted an amnesty measure
upon independence, but the governor general Cornelis was opposed
to this. Cornelis proposed that King Baudouin take this measure
upon the day of his arrival in Congo on 29 June. Lumumba gave
his assent, but that evening the King flatly refused to make the
amnesty. The following morning the Congolese prime
minister handed over the typescript of his speech to his
ministers, to be amended in the hours that followed. Lumumba
confided to one of his entourage, Pierre Duvivier, that he was
weary ‘of being treated like a little kid’. Tired and
threatened, the prime minister was firm in his conviction: his
speech would galvanise the Congolese masses.</p>
<p><strong>Lumumba’s unforeseen speech</strong></p>
<p>After the speech by President Kasa Vubu, the President of
the Chamber, Kasongo, gave the word to Lumumba. This sparked the
consternation of Baudouin and Eyskens. Indeed, the
information service had neglected to hand them a copy of the
text, though this had been provided in advance. The content of
the speech gave them an even greater surprise. In his
introduction the prime minister addressed his remarks not to the
country’s former ‘masters’ but ‘to the men and women of
Congo, combatants who are now victorious in their fight for
independence’. In the typewritten text this address was preceded
by ‘Sir, Excellences, Mesdames and Messieurs’, but he did not
pronounce these words, choosing to address himself directly to
his people. Suddenly the eminent foreign guests became the
spectators to a celebration of the nationalist movement and its
first successes.</p>
<p>Was the colony Léopold II’s masterpiece? Lumumba gave the
word to History itself: colonialism was ‘the humiliating slavery
imposed on us by force … Our wounds are still too fresh and too
painful for us to be able to chase them out of our memory’. He
bitingly recalled ‘the mockery, the insults, the blows we
suffered morning, noon and night, because we were negroes.
Who will forget that blacks were called “tu” not out of
friendship, but because the respectful “vous” was reserved to
whites only? We have seen our lands spoiled in the name of
supposedly legal texts that recognised only the law
of the strongest. We have seen the law being different for
whites and for blacks: accommodating for the former, cruel and
inhuman for the latter’.</p>
<p>The system was based on repression: ‘We have seen the
atrocious suffering of those subjected to confinement on account
of their political opinions or religious beliefs – exiled in
their own country, theirs was a fate worse than death itself …
Who can forget the shootings in which so many of our brothers
perished, or the dungeons that so many were brutally thrown
into because they no longer wanted to submit to a regime where
oppression and exploitation were called “justice”?’</p>
<p><strong>Not a generous gift</strong></p>
<p>The Congolese Prime Minister explained that independence was
not a generous gift offered by the Belgian state, as the king
had tried to present it: ‘No Congolese worthy of the name will
every be able to forget that [independence] was won in struggle
… we could not be more proud of this struggle in blood, fire and
tears, since it was a just and noble one’. Brussels’ role
in the decolonisation process was reduced to its proper
proportions, ‘Belgium, finally understanding the direction of
History, did not try and stand in the way of our independence’.</p>
<p>Lumumba then turned to the future ‘We will begin a new
struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to
peace, prosperity and greatness. … We will show the world what
the black man can do when he is working in freedom, and we will
put Congo at the centre of the prestige that will shine forth
from Africa as whole’. He then solemnly declared, ‘We will make
sure that our homeland’s earth truly benefits its children. We
will review all the laws established in other times, and
make new, just and noble ones’. These promises to the Congolese
people, dispossessed of millions of hectares of land during the
colonial period, showed his intention to liberate his
homeland from the yoke of the colonial inheritance, and to fight
any new attempt at a neo-colonial recuperation of his country.
Congo and Belgium would deal as equals, and their cooperation
would be ‘profitable to both countries’. Foreigners’ assets
in Congo had to be respected. But Congo would remain
vigilant. This also meant an end to trade monopolies: Congo
would accept the help ‘of numerous foreign countries’ such that
their cooperation would be ‘loyal’ and ‘not seek to impose any
sort of policy upon us’. Lumumba finished with a message for
Africa: ‘Congo has to become a springboard for the liberation of
the whole African continent’. A warning addressed to other
colonial powers and the South African apartheid regime.</p>
<p><strong>Contradictory reactions</strong></p>
<p>Lumumba’s speech was interrupted eight times by the
prolonged applause of the Congolese in attendance. His speech
concluded with an ovation. He was heard on the radio by
thousands of Congolese, many of whom had not imagined it
possible to speak to whites in this manner. These minutes of
truth were cherished and savoured after eighty years of
colonialism. For the first time in the country’s history, a
Congolese man addressed the nation and the world. He had
restored confidence to his people, taking his place among
the legendary leaders of Africa. His violent death seven months
later did nothing to damage this supernatural status – quite the
contrary. Decades later researchers in the Sankuru region report
continual evocations of Lumumba, patiently awaiting his
reincarnation.</p>
<p>For his part, king Baudouin was stupefied. He wanted to
leave the country immediately, but Prime Minister Eyskens
convinced him to stay. Lumumba was prepared to give a
‘reconciliatory’ speech in a closed circle during the dinner
that followed the ceremony. Eyskens himself wrote
this speech, later declaring ‘I was Lumumba’s nigger!’ The
Western media lashed out at Lumumba. Time spoke of a ‘venomous
attack’. Monsignor Van Waeyenberg, rector of the University of
Louvain, asked if Lumumba ought to be thrown in prison.
Conversely, Belgian official circles tried to play down
the significance of the incident, as La Libre Belgique noted.</p>
<p>The British ambassador to Congo aptly explained how this
affair was received in political and diplomatic circles:
‘Lumumba’s brutal speech … was perceived as a means of letting
off steam and positioning himself as a candidate for an eminent
position on the Pan-African stage’. Discontent was expressed
at the 4 July cabinet council meeting in Brussels, but the
atmosphere was mainly optimistic.</p>
<p>Colonel Frédéric Vandewalle, head of the colonial
security forces, was among those in attendance at the Palais de
la Nation. The officer who would in subsequent years play a
major role in the liquidation of Congolese nationalism later
revealed, ‘For many Congolese this display of
defiance, which was incongruous and offensive to the Belgians,
provided retribution. It enjoyed great success among those
attending the ceremony without having been invited. Their
applause was echoed by the crowds outside’.</p>
<p><strong>Making independence palpable</strong></p>
<p>Vandewalle understood that the Congolese people wanted
the authorities to make independence palpable by creating jobs,
providing adult education and raising salaries. ‘The more
attentive observer noted that during the military parade [after
the ceremony at the Palais de la Nation] the African crowd gave
most applause to the blacks carrying the adjutants’ silver
star. This opened the first breach in Congo’s military’s
traditional barrier to any Africanisation of the cadres, which
most Congolese wanted but which made little sense according to
Belgian criteria’. Before independence, the nationalist leaders
had long insisted that the colonial power ought to embark upon
the Africanisation of the army. The mass pressure for this only
increased on the eve of independence.</p>
<p>The typescript of Lumumba’s speech bears witness to
the importance of this question. Here we can read an appeal to
the Congolese: ‘I ask all of you not to demand unreasonable wage
rises from one day to the next, before I have had time to set in
motion the overall plan by which I will assure the nation’s
prosperity’. On the document itself we see that this sentence
was crossed out, and the nationalist leader did not ultimately
pronounce these words. Lumumba was still revising his text even
during the king’s speech, which suggests that he waited until
the last moment before getting rid of this line. The king’s
speech required an unequivocal reply, wholly opposed to
Baudouin’s paternalistic approach.</p>
<p><strong>Meeting words with action</strong></p>
<p>A few days after the ceremony the official guests left Congo.
On a sign in the military encampment in the capital the
Congolese army leader General Emile Janssens wrote ‘Before
independence = after independence’.</p>
<p>Ignoring the Lumumba government, he told the soldiers that
they should not expect promotions. A military revolt broke out.
Lumumba rapidly re-imposed control, thanks to the Africanisation
of the officer corps. Janssens was dismissed. The prime minister
thus met the words of the 30 June speech with action. With the
demise of the white officer corps, Brussels lost the instrument
through which it intended to hold on to control of the
Congolese government. We know what happened next: Belgian troops
intervened under the pretext of wanting to protect the whites in
the Congo – soldiers had raped white women during the military
revolt, though this had now been stopped. The Belgian
forces separated the wealthy Katanga from the central
government. Diplomats and secret agents plotted against the
Prime Minister. In January 1961, Lumumba was assassinated, but
his partisans did not abandon the struggle. In November 1965,
after the bloody repression of nationalist revolts
General Mobutu seized power, with the help of the CIA and the
encouragement of the Belgian government.</p>
<p><em>With Nicolas Manchia.</em></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="author_description"> <strong>Ludo de Witte</strong> is
the author of <em><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859844103/counterpunchmaga">The
Assassination of Lumumba</a>.</em> </p>
</div>
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