I love this photo of my two heroes, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr, his beautiful wife Coretta King and Patrice Lumumba. Patrice Lumumba was elected prime minister when Belgium granted Congo independence in 1960 after almost a century of colonial rule. Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed. Ludo De Witte, the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, qualifies it as the most important assassination of the 20th century. The assassinations historical importance lies in a multitude of factors, the most pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on Congolese politics since then and Lumumbas overall legacy as a nationalist leader. For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congos destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo Basin.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 06:50:17 +0000
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