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MikeDunnAuthorToday in Labor History April 13, 1953: CIA Director Allen Dulles launched the MKUltra mind control program. The program ran from 1953 to 1973. It involved giving human subjects LSD and other drugs, often without their knowledge. Then, researchers would try to “weaken” their minds and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. Over 7,000 U.S. war veterans were unwitting test subjects, as well as many Canadian and U.S. civilians. The program was a continuation of Nazi mind-control experiments, which utilized mescaline against Jews and Soviet prisoners, hoping it could be exploited as a “truth” serum. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor of the CIA, recruited many of these Nazi torturers in the wake of World War II to exploit their knowledge and research. MKUltra was headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who later devised plans to kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar, and saturating his shoes with radioactive thallium to make his beard fall out. He also tried to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo, with poison. Several well-known liberals and radicals knowingly participated in MKUltra and its OSS predecessors, either as test subjects (e.g., Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Hunter), or as researchers (e.g., anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson). Others who have been alleged to have been victims or volunteers include Sirhan Sirhan, Ted Kaczyinski, Charles Manson, and Whitey Bulger. For a really fascinating look at Margaret Mead's and Gregory Bateson’s exploration with hallucinogens and their connection to MKUltra, check out the recent book, Tripping on Utopia, by Benjamin Breen. And for a truly amazing documentary on the 1961 CIA-supported coup in Congo, check out the 2024 documentary, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.” But the film is really about so much more than the coup. It covers Cold War machinations, propaganda, and covert operations in the early 1960s; the superpowers’ jockeying for control of puppet regimes and spheres of influence in the global south; the Pan-African movement; racism in the U.S., the Civil Rights movement, and the repression against it; and, of course, jazz music, including tons of interviews and live footage of Lumumba, Ghanian president and revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, activist and writer Andree Madeleine Blouin, Malcolm X, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, surrealist artist Rene Magritte. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#workingclass</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LaborHistory</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#cia</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mindcontrol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#mindcontrol</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/torture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#torture</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lsd" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lsd</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mkultra" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#mkultra</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/castro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#castro</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nazis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nazis</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/oss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oss</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/allenginsberg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#allenginsberg</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lumumba</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/malcolmx" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#malcolmx</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/coltrane" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#coltrane</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/jazz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#jazz</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/imperialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#imperialism</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/kenkesey" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kenkesey</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/margaretmead" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#margaretmead</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/charlesmanson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#charlesmanson</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mescaline" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#mescaline</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/castro" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#castro</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/soviet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#soviet</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/coldwar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#coldwar</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#books</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nonfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nonfiction</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ussr" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#ussr</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/communism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#communism</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#film</a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/documentary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#documentary</a> <a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstadon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@bookstadon</a>

abolitionmediaWhat Does Lumumba Represent, 64 Years After his Assassination? What do the Congolese know about him? Why was he never tried for Lumumba’s assassination? What did he really do to deserve desecration and humiliation? Is he really a hero? Is there a legendary concept that one should be proud of for belonging to one’s nation? It is the DRC’s greatest legacy. A touching word that signifies love of one’s homeland to the point of supreme sacrifice. He was the first politician to demystify the UN by breaking with Dag Hammarskjöld. On American soil, he refused to bow to Yankee diktat, because during the Cold War, the man wanted the DRC not to be a satellite of any power. The author of political neutralism. He symbolizes the people’s struggle for their independence, as well as a man of freedom and dignity. His assassination was no accident, as it fit with the Western plan to recolonize the Congo and Africa.He is a source of inspiration for all political parties that aspire to lead the nation for the well-being of the people. Lumumba’s courage is a political lesson for the African political class. He is the compass and the light of theories focused on human emancipation. He was the hope of free Africa; he embodies hope yesterday, today, and tomorrow. A beacon of Black struggle against racial discrimination. He is a political light that illuminates the darkness and the mediocre. His light will never be extinguished.A symbol of the struggle of young African leaders for the decolonization of the continent, he embodied the hope for a free Africa. Lumumba remains a question mark for all the puppets of the West who cannot find a correct answer regarding his political thinking. He did not like independence as a gift; it was the fruit of struggle. A visionary, he knew how to read the signs of the times and anticipate events.Patrice Emery Lumumba’s character can be explained by his lack of vanity, firmness in principles, love of country, rectitude, vitality of spirit, passion for Africa, generosity, faith in man and nation, hence his greatness. He was not afraid of death; he simply wanted the happiness of Congo and Africa. He is an ideal man with a generous heart. He is a conscience that acts. He was endowed with a brilliant intelligence. He was the first Congolese to hold the position of commercial director under the colonial regime. He was the first Black person to live in the residential area of Gombe with white people.He was the first Congolese to write a political essay, the first to advocate for the education of Congolese girls and the emancipation of black women. He was the first Congolese to create a trans-ethnic party, the first Congolese politician to think of the Congo as a unitary nation, and the first Congolese leader to popularize the concept of “independence.”He is also the first Congolese to have successfully organized a political rally in the annals of the Congo. He is the first Congolese leader to demand the holding of a Belgian-Congolese round table to accelerate the political independence of the Congo. He is the first Congolese politician to have called the Congolese people to civil disobedience against the colonial order. He is also the first Third World leader to have stayed at Blair House.Lumumba enters history through the front door, that of bravery and heroism. An incorruptible man, he did not become a national hero because of his death, but thanks to his exemplary life, his honorable struggle, and his assassination, which only reinforced his myth. Why is Lumumba’s political history not taught in our schools?Lumumba’s heroism is a crime for the West, because knowledge of his struggle allows Congolese youth to fight imperialism to regain political and ideological independence, and rebuild our national sovereignty. Lumumba’s political history is linked to the founding of the United States of Africa. Lumumba’s story must be hidden to keep Africans enslaved by the West.Thus, the mystery surrounding his assassination and the place of his torture became a state secret for Belgium and its local lackeys. There was no trial for Lumumba, so that Africans would not discover the West’s modus operandi against Africa’s happiness.The High Council of the Republic, the transitional parliament under the leadership of Cardinal Mosengwo, had taken three decisions on the Lumumba case:1. A parliamentary commission must go to Lubumbashi to exhume and identify the tomb of Lumumba, Lumbala and Okito;2. Parliament instructs the government to organize a proper funeral for Lumumba and his companions, and then to compensate their families.3. Demand the return to the Lumumba family of all the deceased’s property seized from the ITB Bogaert boat.To date, the Lumumba family has never received the end-of-career allowance as Prime Minister or Minister of Defense. This problem must also be resolved.Why is the Congolese government silent on Lumumba’s rights?Lumumba does not have a tomb; the DRC, with the economic independence advocated by Lumumba, should be a great power. Moreover, 1 FCFA was equivalent to 2 US dollars. Canadians and people from other African countries came to the DRC for treatment. Unemployed Europeans came to this country to look for work. The Lumumba case is a state secret. It takes great courage to open this page in Congo’s history. Lumumba’s tomb bothers the West, which therefore cannot honor him in his own country.Gérard Soete, one of Lumumba’s assassins, showed on Belgian television the two teeth removed from Lumumba’s mouth after his assassination. This crime against humanity left the Belgian justice system blind and unable to open a judicial investigation against this individual. No statement has been made by the Congolese government demanding the return of the two teeth.An assassin presents the remains of the prime minister who paved the way for Congo’s independence, but the Belgian and Congolese governments remain silent. No summons has been issued. François and Roland Lumumba filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, but the latter refused to open this Pandora’s box.Juliana Lumumba recently left the court system, but she wrote to the Belgian king asking for the return of her father’s remains so that she could grieve and organize a dignified funeral for her late father. The Belgian king accepted her request. The Belgian and Congolese governments agreed to organize Lumumba’s funeral.President Félix Tshisekedi receives the Lumumba children several times. The Belgian king also receives the Lumumba children. Gérard Soete presented two teeth. Curiously, Belgium will return only one tooth, without any explanation, but we have videos of Gérard Soete on Lumumba’s remains. Where is Lumumba’s other tooth? The Congolese parliament, under the presidency of Bishop Mosengwo, had recommended compensation for the Lumumba family.Why did the Belgian and Congolese governments not plan to compensate the Lumumba children? This is another enigma. An equation to be solved. Even Lumumba remains shrouded in mystery. Today, the desecration of the Lumumba mausoleum is a heavy burden for the Congolese government.Unfortunately, the culture of honoring symbols does not yet exist in the DRC. Another equation to solve. The Congolese and Belgian governments are civilly and criminally liable for organizing the funeral, and therefore for the desecration of the Lumumba mausoleum. Add to that the desecration, which is also a case against the Congolese government.Some gestures not to forget1. In 1966, Mobutu publicly proclaimed Lumumba a national hero.2. In 1997, President Laurent Kabila appointed Juliana Lumumba Minister of Culture.In 2002, a monument to Lumumba was erected in Kinshasa by President Joseph Kabila.In 2018, President Félix Tshisekedi erected a mausoleum in Shilatembo in honor of Lumumba. President Félix Tshisekedi held a proper funeral for Lumumba and erected a mausoleum in his honor in Kinshasa, in recognition of his role in winning the country’s independence.In 2002, the Belgian king apologized to the Congolese people and the Lumumba family for Belgium’s role in Lumumba’s assassination.Why the hatred against Lumumba?The West wants the DRC to be ruled from the outside. Congo’s independence must remain empty. However, in his speech of June 30, 1960, Lumumba demanded that the Congolese people teach the glorious history of their struggle for independence.To speak of Lumumba is to agree to take up the torch of his struggle to regain the independence and sovereignty of the DRC, which explains why his political history remained secret for so long. For the West, the Congo must remain under the yoke of the 1885 regime, established after the Berlin Conference. The Congo’s minerals remain the property of the West.In 2007, Congo dared to sign a mining agreement with China worth nine billion US dollars. Curiously, the IMF, the World Bank, the British NGOs Global Witness and Witness, the United States, and France demanded that China disengage from the Congo. President Joseph Kabila was warned by Louis Michel and Karel De Gucht for his rapprochement with China. These people believe that the DRC is their private boutique and that other continents have no right to the Congo’s riches. Today, Rwanda is supported by the West to occupy and plunder the Congo’s wealth. This is the tragic story of the DRC after Lumumba’s assassination.A mental revolution is needed to escape this situation. Nothing is free; colonization continues in another form. To escape poverty and misery, one must work, which is why the Lumumba government’s program is a great lesson. Congo’s minerals have elevated several Western countries to the ranks of powers, but have left the country prey to wars of aggression, the proliferation of foreign armed groups, and genocide. The richest country in the world, yet its people live in poverty. With 34 categories of minerals, the DRC holds all the cards to become a great power. The country must be equipped with better policies to achieve a flourishing economy. By marrying the political class and the scientific world, Congo will easily take off. Lumumba, Africa and the Free World: A Glorious History.On June 30, 1960, Lumumba declared that the independence of the Congo marked a decisive step toward the total liberation of an entire African continent. From the collapse of apartheid, youth across Africa rose; the AES space is the true image of Lumumba’s struggle.Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo, had two types of cabinet. Kandolo was chief of staff, Mobutu, secretary for the DRC, but Comrade Moumié, leader of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, and Andrée Blouin, head of public relations for the Cabinet of African States, were also part of the cabinet.It must be understood that Kandolo, Mobutu, and Holden Roberto were bribed by the CIA to extract state secrets. The CIA concluded that Lumumba was a Congolese political figure hostile to Western interests. He could not be manipulated; his body had to be made to disappear. After his assassination, and during the Cold War period, the Congolese were forbidden to discuss the history of the Congo and Lumumba. Lumumba is an African hero, and the founding of the United States of Africa was a major provocation for Westerners. This country will not be the West’s flagship.Lumumba, an international heroLumumba University in Moscow (Russia); a Lumumba Boulevard in an upscale neighborhood in Tehran; in Windhoek, Dar es Salaam, and Dakar. A Lumumba Street in kyiv (Ukraine), a Lumumba Square in Beijing, a Lumumba monument in Leipzig (Germany), a Lumumba Square in Algiers, a stone dedicated to Lumumba in Catania (Italy), a Lumumba Avenue in Lusaka, Luanda, Bucharest, and Rabat (France), a Lumumba monument in Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Sfax (Tunisia). Lumumba High School in Brazzaville, a monument in Havana (Cuba), and Lumumba Square in Nairobi.Many countries around the world, including Egypt, Russia, Bulgaria, Guinea, and Sri Lanka, have issued stamps featuring Lumumba. Students at major universities around the world demonstrate with photos or banners featuring Lumumba’s image.Lumumba’s ideas circulate globally, with people defending their doctoral theses at major universities around the world, notably in France, at the Sorbonne. Lumumba entered the political science teaching programs at the Free University of Brussels between 1962 and 1964, thanks to the study of his essay “Congo, Land of the Future, Is It Threatened?”It should be noted that many countries, in several continents, proclaimed Lumumba a national hero, such as Ghana in 1961, Guinea in 1961, Egypt in 1961, Mali in 1961, Morocco in 1961, Sudan in 1961, Algeria in 1962, and honored on a large scale in Congo-Brazzaville.In Europe, the USSR under Khrushchev, Yugoslavia in 1961, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Albania and Romania.Asia: China by Mao himself, India by Nehru himself in July 1961.Latin America: Argentina by René Barrientos, Mexico by national opinion and Cuba.United States: Civil Rights Movement in 1961; Martin Luther King in 1962; Malcolm X in 1964. The CIA will assassinate this great Black American revolutionary who had mobilized Black Americans to create an army and come avenge Lumumba in the Congo.The entire world recognizes Lumumba’s worth, except in the DRC, because the country is prey to international imperialism. The West loves the Congo’s riches, but not the Congolese. Lumumba is a political figure of historic stature, a universal hero, a great spirit who must be respected and honored. Lumumba is a school, a political religion, a doctrine, a political movement, a fighting philosophy. We will explain all of this in another column.Homeland or death, we will win!Boswa Isekombe Sylvere Secretary General of the Congolese Communist Party The Lion with the Red Heart <a href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18192" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18192</a><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/africa/" target="_blank">#africa</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/congo/" target="_blank">#congo</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/democratic-republic-of-congo/" target="_blank">#democraticRepublicOfCongo</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/lumumba/" target="_blank">#lumumba</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/socialism/" target="_blank">#socialism</a>

Robert HeinzeI feel like I should write something about <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Grimonprez" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Grimonprez</a>' formally masterful documentary, which it seems to me continues to push a version of <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>'s murder that was established by Ludo de Witte and popularised by Raoul Peck; namely, one that underplays Lumumbas own tactical and political errors, presents Kasavubu and Tshombe as mostly pawns and Mobutu as the evil presence in the shadows and in general underplays Africans' agency. In contrast, Hammarskjöld seems more a traitor to the cause than a tragic figure in which the structural problems of the UN itself played out.I've taught about the history of the <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/DRC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DRC</a> several times. Each time, we would watch Raoul Peck's "Lumumba" at the end and take apart its heroic narrative. This doesn't mean downplaying the imperialist violence at the center of the story; it does mean taking African politicians' decisions seriously.

Achim ReinkeHabt Ihr alle gesehen, dass dieser großartige (Oscar-nominierte) Dokumentarfilm jetzt auf arte läuft?!? Der Kampf zwischen der machtbasierten und der regelbasierten Weltordnung im Kalten Krieg am Schauplatz Kongo. Ein Meisterwerk, phantastisch montiert und geschnitten. Unvergessliche Zitate, ein tiefer Einblick in Handeln und Denken der politischen Weltmächte. Ein Film wie guter Jazz! So dicht, so aufregend…<a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/kino" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kino</a> <a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#film</a> <a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/afrika" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#afrika</a> <a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/kongo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kongo</a> <a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lumumba</a> <a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/jazz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#jazz</a> <a href="https://freiburg.social/tags/fernsehen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#fernsehen</a> Soundtrack für einen Staatsstreich - Die ganze Doku | ARTE <a href="https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/109338-000-A/soundtrack-fuer-einen-staatsstreich/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/109338-000-A/soundtrack-fuer-einen-staatsstreich/</a>

Jean-Jacques BirgéSOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT <a href="https://blogs.mediapart.fr/jean-jacques-birge/blog/120225/soundtrack-coup-detat" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://blogs.mediapart.fr/jean-jacques-birge/blog/120225/soundtrack-coup-detat</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/jazz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#jazz</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/congo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#congo</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lumumba</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/documentaire" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#documentaire</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#film</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/jeanjacquesbirge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#jeanjacquesbirge</a>

IXI17 January 1961, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo "The boy from Onalua, the studious bookworm, the colonial prisoner, the leader of the MNC, the hero of the Brussels roundtable, the happy parliamentary candidate from Orientale, the thirty-five-year-old prime minister of the Congo, a son, a husband, and a father — this was the man now stooping before a tree, squinting through hazy eyes into the headlights, panting, trembling, and saying nothing. A burst of bullets, and Lumumba crumpled. It was over." Prologue: Probably many millions, possibly 10 million or more, were murdered from 1885, when the Berlin Conference formally recognised the 'Congo Free State' (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo - formerly Zaire), until 1908, when Belgium took it over as a colony. The Congo Free State was King Leopold II of Belgium's private land, not a colony, to do with as he pleased. And the massive killing did not stop when Belgium took it over. After decades of unsuccessful uprisings against the colonialists, the first nationwide Congolese political party, the Congo National Movement, was founded in 1958 by Patrice Lumumba and other Congolese leaders. In January 1959, riots broke out in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) following a rally calling for Congo's independence. Violent clashes between Belgian troops and the Congolese also occurred later in the year, and Belgium, which had previously maintained that independence for the Congo was not possible in the immediate future, suddenly capitulated and began making arrangements for Congo's independence. Congo became an independent republic on 30 June 1960. "I have never doubted for a single instant that the sacred cause to which my comrades and I have dedicated our entire lives would triumph in the end. But what we wanted for our country — its right to an honorable life, to perfect dignity, to independence with no restrictions — was never wanted by Belgian colonialism and its Western allies." — Patrice Lumumba, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo It should have been a moment of great optimism, of jubilation. The Congo was finally to be freed from Belgium - one of seventeen countries to gain independence from the ruling powers of Europe in 1960. Within days of the handover, however, the new Congolese army mutinied, Belgian troops intervened and Lumumba turned to the United Nations for help in protecting his newborn nation from what the press was already calling 'the Congo crisis'. Frustrated by the ineptitude of the UN peacekeeping mission and spurned by the United States, Lumumba then turned to the Soviets for help - an appeal that set off alarm bells at the CIA. “The Americans believed that Lumumba was a Communist because the Belgians said he was,” [Thomas Kanza, Lumumba’s ambassador to the UN] told the press. “The Americans did not even know Lumumba.” It speaks volumes about the flimsy basis of America's involvement in the Congo crisis that when Richard Helms, Richard Bissell's deputy at the CIA, testified before the Church Committee fifteen years later, he could not remember which camp Lumumba belonged to: “I am relatively certain that he represented something that the United States government didn’t like, but I can’t remember anymore what it was,” he said. He asked his interrogators for help. “Was he a rightist or leftist?…What was wrong with Lumumba? Why didn’t we like him?” To prevent the spread of communism in Africa, the CIA sent a message to its station chief in the Congo, Larry Devlin: Lumumba had to go.American ignorance often went hand in hand with racist attitudes towards the Congolese people and their leaders. US-UN cable traffic during the Congo crisis is full of paternalism and exasperation with the "children" running the newly independent country, including the "little boy" Lumumba. What the Congolese needed, they seemed to suggest, was supervision and control.Why did the United States care who ran the Congo? The Congo had vast natural resources, but the most valuable of these - its minerals - could all be found in greater quantities in North America. US imports of Congolese uranium, once substantial, had ceased by the time of independence from Belgium. Geographically, the Congo was a backwater, far from both the United States and the Soviet Union. It had no global economic or political influence to speak of. And yet, as an unreleased Church Committee report concluded, “The U.S. became deeply involved through covert action in a country which represented no strategic threat to the U.S.; which housed no significant U.S. commercial interests; in which few American citizens resided; and which was contiguous to no U.S. territory.” The explanation lies partly in what the US Senator William Fulbright would call “the arrogance of power,” the idea that America’s might gave it the right to remake foreign societies and governments in its own image. But the extensive US involvement in the Congo is also explained by a Cold War shibboleth: the domino theory. According to this theory, if one country fell to the Communists, neighbouring countries would follow. The lack of evidence for this theory - never before had a Communist takeover actually set off such a chain reaction - has not prevented it from becoming an article of faith among US policymakers and the American public. Within a year it would all unravel. The CIA plot to assassinate Lumumba would fail, but he would be deposed in a CIA-backed coup, taken to enemy territory in a CIA-approved operation, and shot by Congolese assassins.Lumumba's death itself was the culmination of a long process of of dehumanisation. From suggestive jokes - the Belgians talked of silencing him with an "effective injection" - to President Eisenhower's wish that Lumumba suffer death by crocodile - to repeated physical abuse in Belgian custody, at the hands of a mob of angry white evacuees - the Prime Minister had long since become a disposable body long before his assassination in the Katangan countryside. According to the report, Lumumba and his companions, Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo, were captured, abducted by plane, taken to a forest hut and then tortured. His political opponents Tschombé, Kimba and Belgian politicians then appeared, insulted the prisoners and spat on them. On 17 January 1961, Patrice Lumumba and his two companions were shot dead by Katangese soldiers under Belgian command and initially buried on the spot. To cover up the crime, the bodies were exhumed a few days later. Lumumba's body was dismembered, dissolved in sulphuric acid supplied by a Belgian mining company, and his remains cremated. The only remnant of the slain Pan-African leader, a gold tooth taken as a trophy by one of his Belgian assailants, was returned to his family and buried in Lumumba's mausoleum in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, in 2022.Jonathan Kalubi, one of the guests at the ceremonial handover of the remains in Belgium, after the Belgian apology for Lumumba's assassination:"An apology is all well and good," he says, "but we demand reparations that are proportionate to the crimes. It's really despicable to kill and mutilate a family man. Simply returning the remains of his body is not enough. We must go further. Belgium must pay reparations sufficient to dry the many tears this country has shed".After the assassination, a young and ambitious military officer named Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn allegiance to Lumumba, would seize power with the help of the United States and misrule the country for more than three decades. "Lumumba wanted to redistribute the country's wealth, use it for the country's development and pass it on to the people,’ his son Roland Lumumba explains. "But the wealth is still in the hands of a few. We are the world's largest exporter of industrial diamonds, the largest of coltan - more than half of the world's deposits are in Congo. We have oil, timber, water. Everything. We shouldn't really be a poor country."For the people of Congo, the events of 1960-61 marked the beginning of another chapter in a long history of suffering and humiliation.For the US government, however, they provided a playbook for future interventions.__Sources:"The Lumumba Plot - The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination" by Stuart Reid, 2023Commentary: Exemplifying the Horror of European Colonization: Leopold's Congo<a href="https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.7.1.03.HTM" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.7.1.03.HTM</a>The Free State of the Congo, a hidden history of genocide - Col·leccio Marull<a href="https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/gabinetpostal/lestat-lliure-del-congo-un-genocidi-a-lombra/?lang=en" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/gabinetpostal/lestat-lliure-del-congo-un-genocidi-a-lombra/?lang=en</a><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Congo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Congo</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Colonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Colonialism</a>

DJM (freelance for hire)Satchmo in Congo - Updated post<a href="https://amf.didiermary.fr/grand-kalle-african-jazz-satchmo-okuka-lokole/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://amf.didiermary.fr/grand-kalle-african-jazz-satchmo-okuka-lokole/</a>With info on the new documentary by Johan Grimonprez "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat"<a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Jazz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Jazz</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Congo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Congo</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Soundtrack" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Soundtrack</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/OST" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#OST</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/LouisArmstrong" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#LouisArmstrong</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/CIA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#CIA</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a> <a href="https://masto.ai/tags/Independence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Independence</a>

Jey DeeKrass. Das wir bisher überhaupt nicht klar."Patrice <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a> steht für die Unabhängigkeitsbewegung in Afrika! Er wurde erschossen! Und ihr benennt 'Kakao mit Schuss' nach ihm!"<a href="https://www.stern.de/gesellschaft/lumumba-rassistisch--weihnachtsmarktklassiker-sorgt-fuer-diskussionen-34256356.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.stern.de/gesellschaft/lumumba-rassistisch--weihnachtsmarktklassiker-sorgt-fuer-diskussionen-34256356.html</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/rassismus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#rassismus</a>

Kriszta Satori<a href="https://journa.host/tags/BBCNews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#BBCNews</a> - False alarm over DR Congo hero's golden tooth <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04l233zg15o" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c04l233zg15o</a> <a href="https://journa.host/tags/DRC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DRC</a> <a href="https://journa.host/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>

Daniel Carkner🥀One of the unexpectedly good films I saw at VIFF this year -- wouldn't have seen it if my dad wasn't intent on it -- was Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat. You wouldn't think it would be watchable to have a feature length film of headlines, live music clips, archival interviews, and old newsreels cut together at a quick pace, but it was amazing. To the degree I felt it told the story in a way a conventional slow narrative couldn't. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/13/coups-colonialism-and-all-that-jazz-new-film-unravels-cold-war-truths-johan-grimonprez-soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/13/coups-colonialism-and-all-that-jazz-new-film-unravels-cold-war-truths-johan-grimonprez-soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat</a><a href="https://historians.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#film</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/documentary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#documentary</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/Belgium" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Belgium</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/Congo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Congo</a>

Daniel Carkner🥀Came from this excellent <a href="https://historians.social/tags/documentary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#documentary</a> at <a href="https://historians.social/tags/VIFF2024" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VIFF2024</a>. Actually, I couldn't make sense of what to expect from the trailer before. But it was amazing. Telling the whole story of the era of the Lumumba assassination with chaotic juxtaposition of short quotes and headlines, archival footage and music from the time. I didn't see how it could work for 150 minutes but I was really taken in. Highly recommended. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RwLdIiZk_8&ab_channel=KinoLorber" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RwLdIiZk_8&ab_channel=KinoLorber</a><a href="https://historians.social/tags/Film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Film</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/Congo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Congo</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/documentaries" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#documentaries</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/VIFF" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VIFF</a> <a href="https://historians.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>

ProvololTonight! TAPES 📣 (Friday 12 January)Free and virtual cinema for the <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#fediverse</a>! Our theme for the evening: Patrice <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a> and the Congolese National Movement21:30 CET/WAT<a href="https://provo.lol/tags/Film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Film</a> <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/cinema" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#cinema</a> <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/Fridaynight" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Fridaynight</a> <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/DRC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DRC</a> <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/liberation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#liberation</a> <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/panAfricanism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#panAfricanism</a> <a href="https://provo.lol/tags/Africa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Africa</a>Tune in at: <a href="https://stream.provo.lol" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://stream.provo.lol</a>

Annalena SchmidtUff... Die letzten Tage waren nicht einfach. Ich bin mittlerweile (wieder) froh, dass ich den <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>-Tweet gemacht habe, allerdings war das Ausmaß der Diskussion überraschend!Danke für die Solidarität! Ich bin dankbar, dass das Thema nun so breit medial aufgegriffen wird!

Annalena SchmidtHeiße Diskussion um heißen Kakao mit Schuss. Kommentar zur <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>-Debatte von "Sachsen Fernsehen": Rassismus im Kakao? Zeit für Sprachwandel und Verständnis! <a href="https://www.sachsen-fernsehen.de/mediathek/video/rassismus-diskussion-um-lumumba-ist-der-name-des-weihnachtsgetraenks-rassistisch/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.sachsen-fernsehen.de/mediathek/video/rassismus-diskussion-um-lumumba-ist-der-name-des-weihnachtsgetraenks-rassistisch/</a>

Annalena SchmidtDer rbb hat ein Interview mit Tahir Della, Pressesprecher der Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland, zur Frage "<a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a> - ein rassistischer Name für ein Getränk?" geführt. <a href="https://www.rbb-online.de/rbbkultur/radio/programm/schema/sendungen/der_morgen/archiv/20231205_0600/kultur_aktuell_0710.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.rbb-online.de/rbbkultur/radio/programm/schema/sendungen/der_morgen/archiv/20231205_0600/kultur_aktuell_0710.html</a>

Annalena SchmidtWarum die Aufregung und Hetze nach meinem gestrigen Tweets zu dem Getränk <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>. Es gibt nun mehrere Artikel über den Tweet. Bereits im letzten Jahr gab es bspw. von @SWR2 einen Audiobeitrag: <a href="https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/cosmo/lumumba-ein-rassistisches-getraenk/cosmo/12165051/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/cosmo/lumumba-ein-rassistisches-getraenk/cosmo/12165051/</a>Hört rein! Es kommt auch eine schwarze Stimme zu Wort!

Annalena SchmidtEin Tweet über die rassistische Bezeichnung eines winterlichen Heißgetränks. Ein ekelhafte, rassistische Diskussion. Ein Artikel der Bild. Und schon habe ich wieder anonyme Anrufe, Nachrichten und Drohungen. Immerhin wird das Thema diskutiert... <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>

Annalena SchmidtIch habe seit dem morgen einen krassen Shitstorm wegen des <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>-Beitrags auf Twitter. Nun hat die Bild die "Diskussion" aufgegriffen. Seitdem kommen auch noch Mails und Hass auf anderen Kanälen rein...

Julia S.THE ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA, first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, explored in this timely, fascinating, intensely researched work with emphasis on US Cold War strategy and the role of the CIA. A MINUS<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lumumba-plot-stuart-a-reid/1143205978?ean=9781524748814" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lumumba-plot-stuart-a-reid/1143205978?ean=9781524748814</a><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@bookstodon</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/book" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#book</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Books</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/bookreview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#bookreview</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/bookreviews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#bookreviews</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/nonfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nonfiction</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/history" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#history</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/africanhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#africanhistory</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/coldwar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#coldwar</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/cia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#cia</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lumumba</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/DemocraticRepublicoftheCongo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DemocraticRepublicoftheCongo</a>

Catmama 🐈<a href="https://mastodon.world/@jasonhickel" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@jasonhickel</a> Unfortunately, Lumumba wasn't the only democratically elected leader assassinated because they wanted to take back control of their countries' resources from foreign entities. So much of the global South's wealth has been plundered by the global North.Let me stop now before I go off on a rant...<a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Lumumba" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Lumumba</a>

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