Overview

"Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was at the centre of the country's popular defiance towards the relentless exploitation of its Belgian coloniser. Within months of independence being won he Patrice Lumumba was arrested, tortured and executed. ""The Murder of Lumumba"" reveals the appalling mass of lies that have surrounded the murder. Uncovering official sources and personal testimony, it reveals a network of complicity ranging from the Belgian government to the United Nations and the CIA."

Full Product Details

9781859846186

Table of Contents

Reviews

We will never know what Patrice Lumumba might have accomplished had he been allowed to live. But with this riveting book we now know the full history of his murder, a tragedy that still reverberates forty years later. Ludo De Witte has carefully brought to light the shameful story that Belgian officialdom worked so long to hide or distort. --Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost Ludo De Witte's rigorous work proves what has been suspected for over forty years that clear responsibility for the cowardly and cynical murder of one of Africa's most promising leaders lies with the Belgian government, among many other accomplices, including the United States government, the CIA, the UN ... a never-ending story of arrogance, greed and power. The assassins are still among us. --Raoul Peck, director of Lumumba Time will never erase the injustice committed against my father, a crime which brought a halt to emancipation in the Congo and to the African revolution in general. I hope that this heroic account, which reflects very closely our own understanding of the facts of Patrice Lumumba's assassination, will help to honour his memory properly and promote the continuing emergence of free and democratic societies in the Congo and throughout Africa. --Francois Emery Tolenga Lumumba De Witte has assembled a staggering amount of detail to support his allegations of direct government participation in Lumumba's murder. -- Washington Post Book World De Witte has performed an important service in establishing the facts of Lumumba's last days and Belgium's responsibility for what happened. -- New York Review of Books De Witte writes without stylish frills or narrative tricks, but this is a vivid and utterly compelling account of a nation strangled at birth by the West. --Ronan Bennett, Los Angeles Times De Witte's book, politically passionate as it is, is an unignorable effort to bring the West face to face with its culpability in this entire sad and sanguinary tale. --Richard Bernstein, New York Times One Belgian author has triumphed over decades of official obfuscation: Belgium did collude in Patrice Lumumba's assassination ... It raises questions about Western policy in Africa that will reverberate for decades to come. --Michela Wrong, Financial Times One should never underestimate the ruthlessness of British gentlemen cradling endangered shares. --Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books Thoroughly researched, passionately written, deeply disturbing. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Whilst the battle for control over the resources of the Congo (now DR Congo) continues today this important book restores Congolese history and saves it from the official version peddled by those directly implicated in the affair. -- New Internationalist

Indefatigable Dutch sociologist De Witte ( Crisis in Kongo , not reviewed) examines the murder of Congolese nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba and unearths a sordid story of corruption, violence, conspiracies, and lies. On January 17, 1961, former Prime Minister Lumumba and two of his associates were murdered by firing squads in a remote clearing. Shortly afterwards, their remains were moved, then exhumed a few days later. This time, the perpetrators, desperate to cover their trails, dismembered the bodies, submerging them in sulfuric acid. Even this was insufficient, so the remains of the remains were burned, and those stubborn fragments that refused to disappear were scattered across the countryside. Lumumba had been captured by his political enemies on December 1, 1960, days after escaping from house arrest; he was then subjected to many days of beatings and other humiliations (among the most disturbing of which was his being forced to swallow hair ripped from his own face and head). De Witte's conclusion is blunt: It was Belgian advice, Belgian orders and finally Belgian hands that killed Lumumba on 17 January 1961. The author has examined documentary evidence at the United Nations, in Belgian archives, and in Africa, and he argues that Lumumba's assassination resulted from the fear of the Belgians (and of other Western countries, especially the US, just then reeling from its problems with Castro) that Lumumba-a popular politician-would so animate the people that they would expel rather than accommodate the business interests in the country. De Witte shows with devastating clarity how the UN and the West portrayed Lumumba as a danger (comparisons to Hitler were made), how the eight Belgian soldiers and nine policemen shot him (and received bonuses in their next paychecks!), how the government concocted lies about an escape attempt and denied responsibility for his death. His research has left him deeply cynical, as revealed in his declaration that governments espouse humanitarian and ethical principles only when they serve political objectives. Thoroughly researched, passionately written, deeply disturbing. (1 map, 2 charts, 8 pages b&w photos) (Kirkus Reviews)

De Witte has assembled a staggering amount of detail to support his allegations of direct government participation in Lumumba's murder. -- Washington Post Book World <br><br> De Witte has performed an important service in establishing the facts of Lumumba's last days and Belgium's responsibility for what happened. -- New York Review of Books <br><br> De Witte writes without stylish frills or narrative tricks, but this is a vivid and utterly compelling account of a nation strangled at birth by the West. --Ronan Bennett, Los Angeles Times <br><br> De Witte's book, politically passionate as it is, is an unignorable effort to bring the West face to face with its culpability in this entire sad and sanguinary tale. --Richard Bernstein, New York Times <br><br> One Belgian author has triumphed over decades of official obfuscation: Belgium did collude in Patrice Lumumba's assassination ... It raises questions about Western policy in Africa that will reverberate for decades to come. --Michela Wrong, Financial Times <br><br> One should never underestimate the ruthlessness of British gentlemen cradling endangered shares. --Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books <br><br> Thoroughly researched, passionately written, deeply disturbing. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)<br><br> Whilst the battle for control over the resources of the Congo (now DR Congo) continues today this important book restores Congolese history and saves it from the official version peddled by those directly implicated in the affair. -- New Internationalist

We will never know what Patrice Lumumba might have accomplished had he been allowed to live. But with this riveting book we now know the full history of his murder, a tragedy that still reverberates forty years later. Ludo De Witte has carefully brought to light the shameful story that Belgian officialdom worked so long to hide or distort.--Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost

Author Information

"Ludo De Witte is a sociologist and a writer. He is author of the Dutch work ""Crisis in Kongo"" and has researched two broadcast television documentaries on Patrice Lumumba."

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available