I PREFER TO DIE WITH MY HEAD HIGH..........DO NOT WEEP FOR ME! AFRICAN LEADERS 102: Patrice LUMUMBA - 1st Prime Minister of #Congo My dear wife, I am writing these words to you, not knowing whether they will ever reach you, or whether I shall be alive when you read them. Throughout my struggle for the independence of our country I have never doubted the victory of our sacred cause, to which I and my comrades have dedicated all our lives. But the only thing which we wanted for our country is the right to a worthy life, to dignity without pretence, to independence without restrictions. This was never the desire of the Belgian colonialists and their Western allies, who received, direct or indirect, open or concealed, support from some highly placed officials of the United Nations, the body upon which we placed all our hope when we appealed to it for help. They seduced some of our compatriots, bought others and did everything to distort the truth and smear our independence. What I can say is this—alive or dead, free or in jail—it is not a question of me personally. The main thing is the Congo, our unhappy people, whose independence is being trampled upon. That is why they have shut us away in prison and why they keep us far away from the people. But my faith remains indestructible. I know and feel deep in my heart that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of their internal and external enemies, that they will rise up as one in order to say No to colonialism, to brazen, dying colonialism, in order to win their dignity in a clean land. We are not alone. Africa, Asia, the free peoples and the peoples fighting for their freedom in all corners of the world will always be side by side with the millions of Congolese who will not give up the struggle while there is even one colonialist or colonialist mercenary in our country. To my sons, whom I am leaving and whom, perhaps, I shall not see again, I want to say that the future of the Congo is splendid and that I expect from them, as from every Congolese, the fulfilment of the sacred task of restoring our independence and our sovereignty. Without dignity there is no freedom, without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men. Cruelty, insults and torture can never force me to ask for mercy, because I prefer to die with my head high, with indestructible faith and profound belief in the destiny of our country than to live in humility and renounce the principles which are sacred to me. The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations. It will be the history which will be taught in the countries which have won freedom from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity. Do not weep for me. I know that my tormented country will be able to defend its freedom and its independence. Long live the Congo! Long live Africa! Thysville prison Patrice LUMUMBA This is one of the last photos taken of deposed ex-Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, he is bound and being carried out of Elizabethville on a truck in mid-December 1960. under guard of Congolese soldiers loyal to Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Photograph: AP His assassination was ordered by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower with the concurrence of Belgium and Britain. The 35-year-old Lumumba and two associates were tied to trees and gunned down by a firing squad commanded by Belgian officers. Later, to avoid questions, the Belgians exhumed the bodies, hacked them up and dissolved them in acid, keeping Lumumba’s teeth and the bullets that killed him as souvenirs. Lumumba was assassinated as the direct result of orders from the Belgian government and the Eisenhower administration, acting through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and local clients financed and “advised” by Brussels and Washington. The killing demonstrated the fraud of independence for the former colonial countries in Africa. The Congo was and remains today a poor but vastly underdeveloped country, despite its enormous mineral resources, including uranium, copper, gold, tin, cobalt, diamonds, manganese and zinc. The Western corporations’ ownership of the Congo’s vast mineral wealth meant that the imperialist powers were determined to keep control over the country after independence. Following Lumumba’s assassination and the war against secessionist Katanga, the Congo was ruled for decades by the reactionary dictator and kleptocrat, Joseph Sese Seko Mobutu, a U.S. stooge, who systematically looted the country. Following the overthrow in 1997 of his debt-ridden regime, which had outlived its usefulness to Washington, the Congo has been subject to a horrific civil war whose resulting dislocation, famine and disease have killed more than 5 million. 53 years after the death of Lumumba, the massive LOOTING of the Congo continues........ https://youtube/watch?v=8YPldzhAKgk&itct=CDsQpDAYACITCMeUnd-uo8ICFcE8wgodSV4A1FIaY29uZ28gMjAgbWlsbGlvbiB1cyBhbGxpZXM%3D&client=mv-google&gl=NL&hl=en
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 20:10:57 +0000
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