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Ben Valentine Gardner Rogers Rhetoric 105, Section Q10 4 May 2004
More than Words Since the late 1800’s, almost all of Africa had been under European colonial rule, but this changed drastically in 1960. Sixteen African nations gained their independence that year, including the former Belgian Congo, which became the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 30. One of the key personalities that made this possible was Patrice Lumumba, who experienced widespread support in gaining independence and became the first Prime Minister of the DROC. However, he lost much of this support once he was in office, and lasted fewer than 200 days. Lumumba’s ability to communicate was a key reason for his success and failure. Patrice Lumumba was born in the Kasai Province of the Belgian Congo on July 2, 1925 as a member of the Batetela tribe, and received his primary education from a Catholic mission school. At age 18, Lumumba moved to Kindu and became a corporate clerk. After moving to Leopoldville for vocational school, he moved to Stanleyville to work as a postal clerk (Lemarchand 199). It was in Stanleyville that Lumumba began his political career, and according to Crawford Young, he had become “president or secretary of no less than seven associations in Stanleyville in 1953” (295). Lumumba’s involvement in these organizations also had a strong impact, he increased membership in the Association des Evolués de Stanleyville from 162 to over 1,000 members in four years, and was “regarded as the most eminent spokesman of Liberal ideas” by 1959 (Lemarchand 202). Lumumba’s public presence was not limited to his political organizations, he was also the editor of L’Echo Postal, and often wrote about the “problems of racial, social, and economic discrimination” in three other newspapers (Lemarchand 199). With all of these activities, it is surprising that Lumumba was also an assistant to the French sociologist Pierre Clément, who found him very helpful and eager. In July of 1956, Lumumba was sentenced to two years imprisonment for embezzling $2,520 from the post office for the Association des Evolués. After the Association returned the money, Lumumba’s sentence was reduced to 12 months, which began his career as a prisoner, leaving and re-entering the prison system for the next five years. During his 1956-1957 imprisonment, Lumumba wrote Congo, My Congo, 200 pages to “make a contribution towards the search for a solution for the present and future problems of the Congo” (Lumumba 7). Because this book was not published until after Lumumba’s death, it did not have an impact on the independence movement, but the views Lumumba wrote about certainly did. In Congo, My Country, Lumumba explains that one of the main reasons Europeans should not have control of the Congolese is that the Europeans do not understand the African way. Lumumba attributes this to the “instinctive mistrust of the Congolese for the white man” (Lumumba 8). Baldwin writes about similar problems in the United States, on an entirely different continent under different circumstances. In “Notes of a Native Son,” Baldwin writes about his father’s mistrust for white people, which he at first ignores, but later understands after a first-hand encounter in New Jersey. While Baldwin’s personal experience was in a restaurant, his father’s warning came from years of unfair treatment and, undoubtedly, warnings from his elders. The mistrust the Congolese felt towards Europeans was not entirely the result of one instance, but rather of years of mistreatment, since the Belgians colonized in the late 1800’s, which finally culminated in independence. Upon his release from prison, Lumumba moved to Leopoldville where the Bracongo brewery hired him as a beer salesman due to his reputation for relating to crowds of people (Peck). In late October of 1959, Lumumba, now a prominent public figure and leader of the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC/L), spoke at a MNC meeting that preceded a riot that left 26 Africans dead. Lumumba was accused of starting the riots, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison (Lemarchand 47). Less than one month into his sentence, the MNC lobbied for his release so that he could attend the Round Table in Belgium, a meeting to negotiate the terms of independence, threatening to withdraw from negotiations if Lumumba were not released. Lumumba was finally granted temporary release, attended the Round Table, and was never required to finish his remaining five months of imprisonment. Lumumba’s reputation and participation in the Round Table expanded his fame and reputation from Congo-wide to worldwide, and he took the position of Prime Minister in the new DROC, with Joseph Kasavubu as the President. These two men had a close relationship, as Lumumba expressed in his July 22, 1960 radio address. Between the Chief of Staff and me there is a unity of view, a unity of logic, a solidarity and not one needle can come between this friendship … This unity makes the independence of Congo strong. (qtd. in Heinz 15)
This relationship undoubtedly boosted the confidence of many Congolese, but the turbulent early days of the DROC proved Lumumba’s claim false. Independence had come very suddenly, in part as a result of Lumumba’s negotiating, and chaos was eminent. On July 5, 1960, General Janssens, the white general of the Congo’s military unit, the Force Publique, held a meeting with African officers at which he wrote “After Independence – Before Independence” on a chalkboard and announced, “The Force Publique continues as before” (qtd. in Young 316). Before independence, the Force Publique was almost entirely made up of Congo natives, with the exception of the high-ranking officers who were white Europeans. The Congo natives had hoped that independence would bring black leaders to the Force, who would bring fairness and end the oppression that the white generals were notorious for. Janssens’ illustration caused the mutiny of black troops against their white officers, and the result was complete chaos, with troops walking the streets tormenting Europeans. In an attempt to resolve the situation, Lumumba promoted all soldiers and required Janssens to resign (Young 316). Unfortunately, Lumumba’s moves did little to calm the violence towards Europeans in the Congo, and Belgian troops re-entered on July 9 to protect them. On July 11, the Belgian navy bombarded the city of Matadi, killing 19 Congolese. News of this “massacre” spread quickly, and when it reached the Force Publique barracks, the troops vengefully attacked European citizens and their property (Young 317). Belgium’s initial mission to protect Belgians in the Congo had clearly gotten out of hand, and almost all interventions were unauthorized and in violation of the Friendship Treaty that was presented to the Congolese and Belgian governments before independence. Belgo-Congolese relations were never worse, and Lumumba and Kasavubu declared an end to Belgo-Congolese relations, and telegrammed the Soviet Union’s Premier Khrushchev to “keep a close watch on the Congo situation for any Western plot against its sovereignty” (Young 319). When the situation seemed as bad as it could be, the Katanga province, which had been attempting to secede for some time, seceded. The first attempt was made in December of 1959, and another attempt was made days before independence. Finally, on July 11, the province officially seceded under the leadership of Lumumba’s rival Moise Tshombe, with support from the Belgian military (Young 318). The secession was particularly alarming because Katanga had large amounts of natural resources, which the Congo depended on economically. Without a controllable army, Lumumba needed outside assistance to bring Katanga back, which he received from the United Nations in the form of military units on July 15. This move gave the appearance of Lumumba’s weakness, and the United Nations doubted his abilities as a leader, seeing his style as “irrational and erratic” (Young 323). This reputation was also made worse in the eyes of Westerners by Lumumba’s request of the Soviet Union to keep an eye on the Congo. The U.N. assistance was also not what Lumumba had expected, he wanted the United Nations to keep order and reunite the Congo, but he UN’s only mission was to keep the situation in the Congo from spreading to the rest of the world (Young 323). In another attempt to gain power and support in late August, Lumumba organized an African summit, but no heads of state attended, and the gathered leaders were unwilling to support Lumumba militarily, causing him to approach the Soviet Union a second time, this time to ask for military support (Young 324). This further decreased Lumumba’s ability in the eyes of Western diplomats. Finally, on September 5, 1960, President Kasavubu made a national radio address “revoking Prime Minister Lumumba from his functions” (Young 326). The United Nations accepted the revocation, and although Lumumba tried to revoke Kasavubu’s presidency, he was unable to. Three days later, four of 27 ministers had been revoked along with Lumumba and the government was in total chaos again, only two months after it had been formed. Lumumba was put under house arrest in the Prime Minister’s Residence in Leopoldville, surrounded by UN troops to protect him from arrest, and Congolese troops to prevent escape. In a final attempt to regain power, Lumumba planned to escape to Stanleyville where he had the most popular support. On November 27, a rainy Sunday evening, Lumumba crouched in the back of the MNC’s station wagon, and when stopped by the Congolese troops stopped the car, the chauffer told them that he was out to buy cigarettes (Heinz 4). The troops let the car through, and Lumumba had escaped, on his way to Stanleyville. However, on December 2, when Lumumba had reached Port Francqui, several miles from friendly territory, he was captured and imprisoned in the Thysville military prison. On January 17, 1961, Lumumba, along with Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, both government officials associated with Lumumba, were moved to a very secure prison in the Katanga province. The three arrived bruised and bleeding from a police beating. UN troops were present at the airport where the three were beaten, but “The troops were under orders not to intervene in Congolese politics” (“Lumumba Moved”, 7). The New York Times quoted a UN soldier saying, “Lumumba and the other two fell to the ground where they were clubbed, hit in the face with rifle butts, and kicked and pummeled. The police let them lie awhile and then resumed their beating” (“Lumumba Moved”, 7). The beatings outraged many, increased anti-European sentiment, and led to the “arbitrary arrest” of several Belgians in the Congo (Hofmann 4). Lumumba still had popular support in parts of the Congo, particularly Stanleyville, but did not have the support he needed from other regions of the Congo and from Congolese and international politicians. There are many different stories that take place on the night of January 17-18, but the one fact they all agree on is that Lumumba was murdered along with Okito and Mpolo. Some blame the Minister of the Interior, others blame Katangese and Congolese officials, and others blame Europeans (Heinz 129). There are also many stories explaining what happened to the bodies. These conflicting stories add to the mystery of Lumumba, and in some ways elevate him to the position of a mysterious hero. Lumumba was even seen as a martyr by some, as portrayed in Peck’s film, Lumumba. How was a postal clerk able to rise to the position of Prime Minister so quickly, and fall from power so soon? Lumumba began his political career as the leader of several political organizations in Stanleyville, where he began to build his reputation as an organizer and public speaker. According to René Lemarchand, the author of Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo, Lumumba had a unique skill that led to his success as a public figure. Above all, Lumumba possessed a special knack for setting people in motion, for arousing an emotional response from his audience, for whipping up enthusiasm for his ideals. His own excitement, as well as his ideas, was infectious, In other words, as much as the effectiveness of his tactical maneuverings, it was Lumumba’s own dynamic behavior and charismatic appeal which helped the MNC to score a victory at the polls. (Lemarchand 222)
Lumumba’s skill as a public speaker who could focus the energy of a crowd on his ideas was evident; he was imprisoned for starting the October 1959 riot, although his only involvement was speaking to the gathered crowd. In Raoul Peck’s 2001 movie Lumumba, which tells Lumumba’s political life story, there is a scene in which Lumumba meets with the president of the Bracongo Brewery in Leopoldville. The president tells Lumumba that he has heard that he knows how to talk to the people, and offers him a manager’s wages if he can increase sales. Lumumba succeeds in selling the less popular beer, in a new city where he does not yet have a public reputation. A recent psychology study was conducted at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium that analyzed several of Lumumba’s speeches using a computer program to “examine how group representations can be used strategically to induce social change” (Klein 571). The researchers’ pick of Lumumba as their subject was perfect because Lumumba was famous for being successful when negotiating and working with both Belgians and Congolese. The study showed that when speaking to Congolese, Lumumba spoke of the “Congolese as a victim of Belgian oppression,” but when speaking to Belgians he spoke of the “Congolese as an infant State having friendly sentiments towards Belgium … [that was] expected to assist their Independent State” (Klein 586). All of these speeches were trying to convince the audience of basically the same thing, the necessity of an independent, united Congo. The speeches were successful with the audiences they were directed towards as well because Lumumba was able to negotiate an earlier date for independence for the Congo, and gained the support of the Congolese people who named him their first Prime Minister. However, once Lumumba had gained power, his former techniques did not work as well. While he was able to resolve certain situations, such as a group of rebellious Congolese soldiers storming into a conference room, holding Lumumba at gunpoint demanding Congolese leadership in the military, as portrayed in the film Lumumba, in most instances Lumumba needed more than words. The tumultuous events during the first two months of the DROC were not Lumumba’s fault, Katanga had been attempting secession before independence, and Congolese soldiers, after years of inferior treatment by Belgian generals, saw independence as a chance to change this. Independence also came very suddenly, and without proper preparations, chaos was inevitable. Without military force, regaining Katanga was next to impossible, and Lumumba was forced to seek outside assistance from the UN and other nations, which were not fully willing to help him because they saw him as a weak leader due to the chaos in the Congo. While expressing his revolutionary ideas worked very well for Lumumba while seeking political power, he needed more than words once he was in office, he needed physical strength in the form of an army and he needed broad national support, which was very difficult to come by in such a chaotic situation. While this may have been beyond the ability of any human being, it was Lumumba that was expected to carry it out. Nevertheless, many considered Lumumba a hero, and his murder shocked the Congo as well as the world. James Baldwin, who saw Baldwin as an “African hero” that had “come into the world, out of the past”, and showed that “black has become a beautiful color” (ctd. in “Down”, 331), reported the riots in the United Nations after Lumumba’s death. He reported that “[Lumumba] had captured the popular imagination [in Harlem]” (“Negro” 25), and that “The Negroes who rioted in the United Nations are but a very small echo of the black discontent now abroad in the world (“Negro” 104). Lumumba’s success as a black man leading a black nation to overcome their longtime white oppression was, in Baldwin’s eyes, exactly what black Americans needed to see in their struggle for Civil Rights. Raoul Peck’s film, Lumumba opens with a narration, by the character of Lumumba describing how he was seen as dangerous alive, but even more dangerous dead. The film plays heavily on the fact that Lumumba was seen as a martyr by many of his Congolese supporters, and that although he was in office for less than two months, had a very strong impact on the Congo. Patrice Lumumba was clearly a successful man. He rose from being a postal clerk in a colonial nation to being the prime minister of a free nation that he helped bring freedom to. Much of this success can be attributed to his ability to connect to people personally. Unfortunately, with events beyond his control and political leaders against him, he was unable to continue the work he had started and worked so hard for, and the Congo remained in chaos for years. Nevertheless, Lumumba was an extraordinary man who served as a role model in the Congo, the United States, and the world. Works Cited allRefer Reference – Zaire – The Secession of Katanga. Dec. 1993. 26 Apr. 2004. < http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/zaire/zaire33.html> Baldwin, James. “A Negro Assays the Negro Mood.” New York Times Magazine 12 Mar. 1961: 25+ --. “Down at the Cross.” 1955. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 296-347. --. “Notes of a Native Son.” 1955. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84. Heinz, G., and H. Donnay. Lumumba: The Last Fifty Days. New York: Grove Press, 1961. Hoffmann, Paul. “Stanleyville Seizes 12 Belgians To Avenge Jailing of Lumumba.” New York Times 21 Jan. 1961: 4. Lemarchand, René. Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964. Lumumba. Dir. Raoul Peck. Videocassette. Zeitgeist Films. 2001. “Lumumba Moved; Reported Beaten.” New York Times 19 Jan. 1961: 7. Lumumba, Patrice. Congo, My Country. 1962. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969. Young, Crawford. Politics in the Congo: Decolonization and Independence. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965.
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