The Assassination of Lumumba - Review

New Internationalist, Oct, 2001 by Phil England

Ludo De Witte (Versa ISBN 1859846181)

The murder of Congo's first democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba has been deliberately shrouded in mystery for over 40 years. An elaborate but messy cover-up and a stalled UN investigation have allowed the true sequence of events to be obfuscated. Lumumba rose to prominence on a wave of people power during the heady days of decolonization in Africa. Within three years the nationalist movement forced Belgium's hand into giving the Congolese their independence.

But whereaas the brutal former colonial power wanted a compliant, malleable African government that would allow Western companies to continue to extract Congo's valuable mineral resources, Lumumba wanted independence on terms that would benefit the Congolese people. The West- Belgium, the US, Britain and the United Nations - united against him and within seven months Lumumba had been assassinated.

The Belgian Government-with the help of mercenaries - went on to crush the nationalist movement in the rest of the country. In the process some 200,000 Congolese were killed before the corrupt Mobutu was installed as a Western-friendly military, dictator. De Witte's meticulous reconstruction might, for the casual reader, feel overburdened with detail at times. But it's worth persevering with because the damning evidence he amasses - much of it in the conspirators' own words - is sufficient to implicate a string of leading Belgian officials right up to the then Prime Minister as well as the UN Secretary-General at the time, Dag Hammarskjold. Indeed, the book has now forced an official enquiry in Belgium.

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.

RATING: * * * * *

STAR RATING

EXCELLENT: *****

VERY GOOD: ****

GOOD: ***

FAIR: **

POOR: *