Hands tied behind his back, the deposed Congolese premier Patrice Lumumba leaves a plane in Léopoldville in

December 1960, under guard. (AP/Wide World Photos)

1624 Milestone Documents in World History

 Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the
Proclamation of Congolese Independence
“ No Congolese worthy of the name
can ever forget that we fought to win [independence].”
Overview
Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of
the former Belgian Congo, led his country to
independence. In a speech on Independence
Day (June 30, 1960), Lumumba denounced
the oppression and humiliation of colonial
rule in the presence of Belgium’s King Bau-
douin. The king, scandalized, nearly left
Léopoldville (modern-day Kinshasa), but he was persuaded
to stay for the lunch that followed the ceremony. Lumumba,
for his part, was persuaded to give a second speech at the
lunch, in which he attempted to make amends, crediting
Belgium and its monarchy for its positive contributions to
Congo. However, the damage had been done.
Lumumba’s speech had not been included in the program
for the day’s events, a program negotiated by representatives
of Congo and Belgium. The heads of state, King Baudouin
of Belgium and President Joseph Kasavubu of Congo, were
to exchange speeches. In Lumumba’s view, Kasavubu was a
figurehead chief of state who owed his post to support from
Lumumba and his coalition. Kasavubu, he believed, should
have cleared his speech with the prime minister. Moreover,
Lumumba apparently feared that Kasavubu would fail to say
some things that needed to be said.
Lumumba’s fiery speech was prepared beforehand, so it
was not a reaction or reply to what the previous speakers
had said. However, he must have known what to expect
from the Belgian ruler and from his political rival
Kasavubu. It is too simple to suggest that without Lumum-
ba’s speech, Congo’s decolonization might have been more
successful. The speech certainly seemed to have provided
ammunition for those who opposed Lumumba and his
vision of a strong, independent Congo.
Context
The Congo crisis of 1960 and thereafter was a conse-
quence of failed decolonization. The Belgian Congo came
into existence in 1908 in response to the international
scandal provoked by the massive violence of the Congo
Free State (1885–1908). Under Belgian rule, considerable
Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence
1960
economic development had taken place, but within a high-
ly paternalistic framework. Africans were confined to the
lowest ranks of the administration and the economy. Oppo-
sition to Belgian rule simmered throughout the colonial era
and took a variety of forms, including armed resistance to
the imposition of colonial rule, rural revolts, and urban
strikes. Religious movements, notably the church created
by Simon Kimbangu, provided an alternative channel for
resistance to colonialism.
Belgium ruled according to an unofficial policy of “no
elites, no problems.” Political parties were slow to emerge.
Not until rioting occurred in Léopoldville in January 1959
did Belgium decide to undertake what was called le pari
congolais (“the Congo gamble”). An agreement was reached
under which the colony gained independence the following
year. The Congo was given a provisional constitution, the
Loi fondamentale, or “fundamental law.” Approved by the
Belgian parliament in May 1960, the Loi fondamentale was
a virtual copy of the Belgian constitution, with none of the
implicit understandings that had grown up over the years
in Belgium. In particular, the Belgian monarch is a consti-
tutional monarch who reigns but does not rule. The Con-
golese president was not considered a monarch, and his
relationship with the prime minister was sketchily defined.
A power struggle soon broke out between President Joseph
Kasavubu, leader of the ethnoregional party Alliance des
Bakongo (Alliance of Bakongo, or ABAKO), and the prime
minister, Patrice Lumumba, leader of the faction of the
Mouvement national congolais (Congolese National Move-
ment) that bore his name (MNC-Lumumba). The battle to
deliver Congo’s response to King Baudouin was an early
expression of this struggle.
In the elections to the 137-member national assembly,
MNC-Lumumba had won thirty-three seats, far from a
majority but far more than the next most successful party,
the pro-Belgian Parti national du progrès (National
Progress Party), which won twenty-two. MNC-Lumumba
and Parti national du progrès were the only parties to pro-
pose candidates in all six provinces. Lumumba was able to
form a government only by offering ministerial seats to
opposing parties, notably Kasavubu’s ABAKO and Moise
Tshombe’s Tribales confédération des associations du
Katanga (Confederation of Tribal Associations of Katanga).
1625
 The ceremony recognizing Congo’s independence began
Time Line with Baudouin praising his ancestor, King Leopold II, who
allegedly had saved the Congolese from the horrors of the
1878 ■ November
King Leopold II
slave trade and had built the colony to which Belgium was
now giving its independence. He then went on to state that
forms the Comité
d’études du Haut it was up to Congo’s leaders to prove themselves worthy of
Congo (Committee Belgium’s confidence. President Kasavubu, representing
for Studies of the the newly independent state, spoke next. He invoked the
Upper Congo), later
renamed the Asso-
“gratitude we feel towards all those who have worked,
ciation interna- whether privately or publicly, for our national emancipa-
tionale du Congo tion, and all those who, throughout our vast land, have
(International Asso-
been unsparing in giving of their strength, their sufferings,
ciation of the
Congo—the prede- and even their lives, in order to realize their bold dream of
cessor to the a free and independent Congo” (Kanza, p. 157). In line
Congo Free State). with his party’s ethnic and federalist orientation, he noted
the cultural diversity that had to be overcome in order to
develop a true national consciousness. He praised Belgium
for having had the wisdom not to oppose the current of his-
1881 ■ Henry M. Stan-
ley, hired by
tory and to lead the colony directly from foreign domina-
King Leopold, tion to independence.
sets out to
establish trading
posts and make
treaties with About the Author
local chiefs.
Patrice Lumumba was born in Onalua, a village in
Katako-Kombe territory, in the northeastern corner of the
province of Kasai. He was a member of the Tetela ethnic
1885 ■ February 5
At the Berlin Con-
group, which forms the majority in Katako-Kombe territo-
ference, European
ry and in Sankuru district but is outnumbered within Kasai
powers applaud the by the Luba-Kasai ethnic community. After attending
announcement of Protestant and Catholic mission schools in his home area,
Leopold’s founding
Lumumba went to work in Maniema and then to Stan-
of the Congo
Free State. leyville (now Kisangani), where he found a job in the post
office. He was sent to Léopoldville to the postal school,
from which he obtained a diploma. With that certificate, he
at last had the right to claim the status of évolué, someone
1908 ■ November 15 who has “evolved” to the point of being able to live and
In response to work in the new world created by colonialism. Lumumba
growing criticism of
the treatment of the
returned to Stanleyville, where he became an accountant
African population, in the post office. There he continued to contribute to the
the Belgian parlia- Congolese press.
ment annexes the
At Stanleyville, Lumumba was recruited to work as a
Congo Free State,
which becomes the research assistant on a UN educational, scientific and cul-
Belgian Congo. tural organization project studying the urbanization of Stan-
leyville. He became a leader of the évolués of Stanleyville. At
one point, in 1953, he occupied seven posts in ethnic, pro-
fessional, and other associations. Under his leadership, the
1921 ■ April
Simon Kimbangu
Association of Évolués of Stanleyville became a political
begins preaching to
movement, defending the interests of its members, notably
the Kongo people with respect to housing. As president of the association in
and founds the 1954, he was able to meet the minister of colonies, Auguste
movement that
Buisseret, who was promoting lay schools (not run by mis-
becomes the Kim-
banguist Church, sions). Two years later, he met King Baudouin, who was vis-
more formally, the iting the capital of the province of Orientale.
Church of Christ on Lumumba was invited with others to make a study tour
Earth by His Special
Envoy Simon
of Belgium under the auspices of Buisseret. On his return
Kimbangu. he was arrested on a charge of embezzlement from the post
office. He was convicted one year later, and after various

1626 Milestone Documents in World History

reductions of sentence, he was sentenced to twelve months’
imprisonment and a fine. When Lumumba was freed from Time Line
prison, he moved to Léopoldville, the capital, and joined
the MNC, the first nationwide Congolese political party. 1921 ■ September
Kimbangu is arrest-
He then became president of the MNC, which soon split.

Milestone Documents
ed and sentenced
His faction, the MNC-Lumumba, was centralist in orienta- to life in prison.
tion. The other faction, the MNC-Kalonji, was federalist
and became a de facto ethnic party of the Luba-Kasai.
(Centralists favored a strong central government, while
federalists favored granting important powers to the 1956 ■ August 23
ABAKO publish-
provincial governments.) In December 1958 Lumumba
es a manifesto
attended the First All-African People’s Conference in calling for
Accra, Ghana, where he met nationalists from across the immediate inde-
African continent and was made a member of the perma- pendence.
nent organization set up by the conference. From this point
on, his outlook and vocabulary were colored by Pan-
Africanist goals.
Lumumba’s second experience of colonial justice came 1958 ■ October 10
The Congolese
at the end of 1959. A rally of the MNC-Lumumba in Stan- National Movement
leyville led to rioting and a number of deaths. Lumumba is founded.
was briefly imprisoned on charges of inciting the riot but
was set free in time to attend a roundtable of Congolese
leaders held in Brussels in January of 1960. Reportedly, the
other political leaders insisted on his release. Lumumba’s 1959 ■ January
Belgium recog-
party received more votes than any other in the elections of nizes total inde-
May 1960. The Belgians tried to find an alternative but pendence as the
failed, and they were obliged to invite Lumumba to form a goal for Belgian
Congo.
government.
Five days after independence, the army mutinied
against its European officers. In response, the Lumumba
government was obliged to Africanize the officer corps.
From July 6 to July 9, the mutiny spread to Equateur and
1960 ■ January
The Round Table
Katanga provinces, and Belgium sent in paratroopers, Conference is held
in Brussels to dis-
allegedly to protect its citizens. Moise Tshombe declared
cuss independence.
Katanga independent, whereupon Lumumba and
Kasavubu requested UN military assistance in the face of ■ May
Belgian aggression and Katanga secession. On July 12 the MNC-Lumumba
wins the largest
UN Security Council called for Belgian withdrawal and number of seats in
authorized UN intervention. the national
In August, Albert Kalonji led South Kasai into secession. legislature; after
Lumumba sent the national army into the breakaway attempts to find an
alternative, Belgium
province, where it carried out massacres of civilians. Con- invites Lumumba to
cerned that the UN force sent to help restore order was not form a government.
helping to crush the secessionists, Lumumba turned to the
■ June 24
Soviet Union for assistance. The U.S. government saw the
The ABAKO leader
Soviet activity as a maneuver to spread Communist influ- Kasavubu is elected
ence in central Africa. Kasavubu, upset by the Soviet president by the
arrival, dismissed Lumumba. Lumumba declared parliament; the
Lumumba
Kasavubu deposed. Both Lumumba and Kasavubu then government
ordered Joseph Mobutu, army chief of staff, to arrest the receives a vote of
other. On September 14, 1960, Mobutu took control in a confidence.
coup sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency. The
■ June 30
new regime placed Lumumba under house arrest for the Lumumba
second time and kept Kasavubu as president. In November addresses the
1960 Deputy Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga went to Congolese people
at a ceremony to
Stanleyville to establish a rival national government. celebrate their
Lumumba, under house arrest, left to join Gizenga but was independence from
arrested and imprisoned. In January 1961 Lumumba was Belgium.

Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence 1627


Time Line
1961 ■ January 17
Lumumba is
executed in
Katanga.
1966 ■ As president,
Joseph Mobutu
proclaims
Lumumba a
“National Hero.”
transferred to Katanga, where, on January 17, he was exe-
cuted by firing squad.
Explanation and Analysis of the Document
Lumumba’s speech at the ceremony celebrating Con-
golese independence contrasted sharply with the contribu-
tions of King Baudouin and President Kasavubu. It was
reported that Lumumba was writing while the king and the
president were speaking, giving the impression that he
composed his speech on the spot. In fact, the speech was
written several days before and was made available in
mimeographed form by the prime minister’s office. In
delivering the speech, Lumumba made several changes
from the prepared text. The speech as delivered was record-
ed, broadcast, and subsequently transcribed. Three ver-
sions of the speech survive.
The Independence Day ceremony was held in the Palais
de la nation (Palace of the Nation), built as the residence of
the governor-general of the Belgian Congo. Following the
speeches of Belgium’s King Baudouin and Congo’s presi-
dent, Joseph Kasavubu, Lumumba took the microphone
after he was introduced by the president of the lower house
of parliament, Joseph Kasongo of the MNC-Lumumba.
Lumumba spoke as prime minister, head of the Council of
Ministers. He did not address himself to King Baudouin or
to the president of the republic, Kasavubu. Instead, he
addressed the Congolese population. He saluted them
because this day marked their triumph. They had struggled
for independence and now they had achieved it, he said.
There is a slight shift in the third paragraph, in that
Lumumba addresses his “friends”—perhaps not all the
Congolese but all of those who “have fought unceasingly at
our side”—and gives them the task of passing on to their
children and grandchildren the true meaning of this date of
independence, a meaning that he then defines. The day
does not mark merely a transfer of sovereignty but, in fact,
the culmination of the people’s struggle for independence.
In the fourth paragraph Belgium is mentioned, although
King Baudouin still is not. Belgium is Congo’s equal, a
friendly country but not the one that has given Congo its
independence. Rather, the Congolese have taken it. The
1628
tears, fire, and blood of the independence struggle were
necessary if the Congolese were to put an end to “humiliat-
ing slavery.” Colonialism, according to the new prime min-
ister, was not merely oppression and not merely exploita-
tion, but a form of slavery, which wounded the slaves.
Congo had suffered eighty years of colonialism, according
to Lumumba, who lumps together the Congo Free State
and the Belgian Congo that followed it. He argues that the
main characteristic of colonial rule had been forced labor,
for which the monetary return was very low. In the sixth
paragraph, Lumumba addresses more specifically the
humiliation of daily life under colonial rule. He refers to the
fact that whites typically addressed Congolese in the second
person singular (tu, toi), used for friends and loved ones,
children, and servants. It is the equivalent of calling an
adult black man “boy” in the Jim Crow American South.
When the Europeans arrived, they declared their sover-
eignty within boundaries negotiated with other Europeans.
They took from the Congolese control over their land. So-
called vacant land—a meaningless concept in a country of
shifting cultivation and of hunting rights over vast forests—
was declared to belong to the colonial state. Large tracts of
land were given as “concessions” to mining companies,
ranches, and religious missions. By 1960 a substantial
number of Congolese lived in cities and towns, but the loss
of control over land was still a burning issue to them, as it
was to the rural majority.
As Lumumba notes in the seventh paragraph, “The law
was quite different for whites and blacks.” It is a point that
would have been recognized as valid by all the Congolese
hearing him. Colonial rule in Congo was rather like the
apartheid regime in South Africa. The colonial administra-
tion told the Congolese where they could live. They had to
carry a card identifying them by their parentage and their
ethnic origin. They had to obtain permission to move or to
travel from one place to another. Their court cases were
tried in a separate set of tribunals.
So-called relegation (alluded to in the ninth paragraph)
was a fairly common practice under Belgian rule. The most
famous case was that of the prophet Simon Kimbangu,
founder of what became a church of millions of members.
Kimbangu was arrested, found guilty of sedition (a capital
offense), and condemned to die. Belgium’s King Albert
commuted his sentence, and instead he was relegated to
Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), where he died in 1951.
Thousands of followers of Kimbangu and members of other
religious movements were “banished,” based on the naive
belief that they would be harmless far from their home
areas. In fact, many soon learned the local languages and
recruited local people to their beliefs. Segregation in hous-
ing and in public facilities existed for all Congolese but was
particularly resented by those (the so-called évolués) who
had obtained some Western education, had learned
French, and had worked in public sector or private sector
jobs without receiving equal pay for equal work. Segrega-
tion was very strict in the Belgian Congo.
The eleventh paragraph, which concludes the section on
grievances, dwells on prison. Of course, Lumumba himself
Milestone Documents in World History
had been sentenced to prison twice. He asks, “Who can for-
get, finally, the burst of rifle fire in which so many of our
brothers perished, the cells into which the authorities threw
those who no longer were willing to submit to a rule where
justice meant oppression and exploitation?” As strong as this
statement is in the form read at the ceremony, it could have
been stronger still. According to Jean Van Lierde, the mimeo-
graphed text of Lumumba’s speech read, “the cells into
which the authorities brutally threw those who had escaped
the bullets of the soldiers whom the colonialists had made
the tool of their domination” (p. 222). The words are true
enough but unwise, since the soldiers in question were going
to constitute the army of the newly independent Congo
Republic. Presumably he thought better of it or was persuad-
ed by trusted advisers not to read the sentence as written. At
any rate, the soldiers were suspicious of Lumumba and
would mutiny against his government a few days later.
At the beginning of the next section, Lumumba insists
that his government is doubly legitimate: It is made up of
children of the country (not foreigners from Europe) and
was voted into office by deputies elected by the country’s vot-
ers. The struggle for independence is over, he tells the Con-
golese, but the struggle to achieve their goals is just begin-
ning. He begins with vague goals, which become slightly
more specific in the following passages. “We are going to
institute social justice together,” he says. Among other goals
he names ending “suppression of free thought,” doing away
with “every sort of discrimination,” and bringing “peace to
the country … the peace that comes from men’s hearts.”
In paragraph 22, Lumumba refers to Congo’s immense
riches—and they are immense—with no suggestion that
those riches could pose any problem. In the event, miner-
al-rich Katanga would attempt to secede a week later. If
that secession had been allowed to succeed, it would have
carried with it half of the revenues of the Congolese state.
Lumumba also hints at a policy of nonalignment—the
Congo would rely on the assistance of many countries as
long as they did not try to impose any policy. This was said
at the time of the cold war—the nearly fifty-year-long state
of tension and rivalry between the Soviet Union and the
United States in the aftermath of World War II. The U.S.
administration of President Dwight Eisenhower considered
“nonalignment”—the political attitude of one country’s
refusing to align itself or abide by the political policies of
another country—to be immoral.
Van Lierde notes that the first sentence in paragraph 23
in the mimeographed text read: “Belgium herself has final-
ly realized what direction history was moving in and no
longer attempted” to oppose Congo’s independence (p.
223). Lumumba dilutes it slightly in his oral version when
he says, “Belgium has finally realized what direction histo-
ry was moving in and has not attempted to oppose our inde-
pendence.” Although he suggests that he is optimistic (“I
am certain that this cooperation will be beneficial to both
countries”), the phrase “though we shall continue to be vig-
ilant” conveys wariness regarding Belgian intentions.
In paragraph 24 the new prime minister asks for the
help of all the legislators and the citizens in the task of
Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence
Milestone Documents
Armed with an automatic weapon, a Congolese soldier
stands guard at a window of the town hall in Matadi,
Congo, where a lorry loads supposedly looted Belgian
property, taken after the owners fled the country.
(AP/Wide World Photos)
state building that he will lead. It is questionable whether
all of the quarrels they are asked to set aside were “trivial.”
The questions of federalism versus a strong unitary state, of
close cooperation with Belgium versus a radical break, to
mention only two, were not trivial.
Paragraph 28, more than most of the speech, raises the
question of Lumumba’s foresight. Some bad behavior on
the part of foreigners in Congo and on the part of Con-
golese toward the foreigners had already taken place. Did
he fear (with reason) that both were about to get much
worse? He would not have long to wait, in that the mutiny
of the army was only a few days away.
“The independence of the Congo represents a decisive
step toward the liberation of the entire African continent,”
does not appear in the mimeographed text. It reflects the
influence of Kwame Nkrumah and other Pan-African
activists, whom Lumumba had met at the First All-African
People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958.
The sentence is prophetic, in that the Congo crisis of 1960
was indeed a turning point in the struggle for African liber-
ation. The position of various governments—pro- or anti-
Lumumba—led to the split between the Casablanca group
of radicals and the Monrovia group of moderates, a split
that was papered over when the Organization of African
Unity was created in 1963.
Winding up his speech, Lumumba begins paragraph
30 with the words “Your Majesty, Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,” which do not appear in the
mimeographed text. Lumumba apparently added this ref-
erence to the presence of the Belgian king as he delivered
1629
 Essential Quotes

“
“I ask all my friends, all of you who have fought unceasingly at our side, to
make this thirtieth of June, 1960, an illustrious date that will be indelibly
engraved upon your hearts, a date whose meaning you will teach your
children with pride, so that they in turn will tell their children and their
children’s children the glorious story of our struggle for independence.”
(Paragraph 3)

“For though this independence of the Congo is today being proclaimed in a

spirit of accord with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we are
dealing as one equal with another, no Congolese worthy of the name can
ever forget that we fought to win it.… It was a noble and just struggle, an
indispensable struggle if we were to put an end to the humiliating slavery
that had been forced upon us.”
(Paragraph 4)

“We have been the victims of ironic taunts, of insults, of blows that we
were forced to endure morning, noon, and night because we were blacks.
Who can forget that a black was addressed in the familiar form, not
because he was a friend, certainly, but because the polite form of address
was to be used only for whites?”
(Paragraph 6)

“Who can forget, finally, the burst of rifle fire in which so many of our

”
brothers perished, the cells into which the authorities threw those who no
longer were willing to submit to a rule where justice meant oppression
and exploitation?”
(Paragraph 11)

his message. In a rousing climax, he also extemporane-
ously added, “Long live independence and African unity!”
before closing with “Long live the independent and sover-
eign Congo!”
Audience
Lumumba was addressing those present in the Palace of
the Nation in Kinshasa, on Independence Day. The audi-
ence included the new political class of the Republic of
Congo (deputies, senators, and ministers) but also key rep-
resentatives of the former colonial power, including King
Baudouin. Lumumba’s speech is sometimes interpreted as
a response to the paternalistic speech of King Baudouin.
This cannot be literally true, since Lumumba prepared his
speech and had it duplicated beforehand, when he had not
yet heard what the king had to say. Clearly however, he
could anticipate a paternalistic speech that glossed over the
suffering of the Congolese.

1630 Milestone Documents in World History

 Lumumba was also speaking to his rival, Joseph
Kasavubu, elected president of Congo with the support of
the deputies of the MNC-Lumumba. Lumumba considered
Kasavubu to be a figurehead like a European constitutional
monarch, and according to his adviser, Thomas Kanza, he
The army mutinied largely because Belgium had
refused to Africanize the officer corps. In response to the
mutiny, Belgium sent in troops, ostensibly to protect Bel-
gian lives. Many Congolese saw this action as aggression
and perhaps even an attempt by Belgium to reoccupy its

was furious that the president had not consulted with the
prime minister or even shared his text before delivering it.
Lumumba likewise was addressing the citizens of the
vast former colony. His speech was recorded and broadcast
over the radio. Finally, Lumumba clearly was speaking to
future generations of Congolese. As he declared, June 30,
1960, must be “a date whose meaning you will teach your
children with pride, so that they in turn will tell their chil-
dren and their children’s children the glorious story of our
struggle for independence.”
Impact
Milestone Documents
former colony. The United States soon became involved,
seeing in Lumumba an African Fidel Castro (the Commu-
nist leader of Cuba) to be eliminated. The newly inde-
pendent African countries divided over the Congo ques-
tion and the person of Lumumba. The friends of Lumum-
ba, led by Nkrumah of Ghana, Sékou Touré of Guinea,
and others, formed the so-called Casablanca Group,
whereas the “moderates” of the Monrovia Group support-
ed Kasavubu and Tshombe. The split persisted for many
years. Lumumba’s speech had an enormous impact within
Congo and beyond. Congolese tell of memorizing the
speech and reciting it among friends. It is considered a
founding text of Pan-Africanism.

Lumumba’s speech, however “shocking,” was not the

sole or even the principal cause of the Congo crisis of Further Reading
1960. The principal cause was Belgian policy, which
remained “no elites, no problems” until very late in the day. ■ Articles
Once Belgian officials had decided that independence was Lemarchand, René. The C.I.A. in Africa: How Central? How Intel-
inevitable, they opted for a neocolonial policy that would ligent? Journal of Modern African Studies 14, no. 3 (September
have permitted the Belgian companies and the Catholic 1976): 401–426.
Church (two of the three pillars of the colonial regime) to
continue to operate as before. Nationalization of the econ- ■ Books
omy and indigenization of the Church continued to be Devlin, Larry. Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a
issues into the 1960s and 1970s. Hot Zone. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.

Questions for Further Study

1. What role did ethnic differences play in the turmoil that surrounded Congolese independence? Why do you
think these ethnic differences were so deeply rooted?

2. One of the chief issues surrounding Congolese independence was whether the nation should be organized and
governed in a “centralist” or “federalist” fashion. What is the distinction between the two forms of government? In this
regard, do you see any parallels between the Congo in the 1960s and the United States in the twenty-first century?

3. In the 1960s the cold war between the United States and its allies (the West) and the Soviet Union and its
allies (the East) was at its height. Throughout this era, many wars, rebellions, and independence movements
became proxy disputes between East and West. To what extent could the situation in the Congo be regarded as
such a dispute? Why were the United States and the Soviets interested in the outcome of the dispute?

4. What is “Pan-Africanism”? In what way does Lumumba’s speech reflect the principles of Pan-Africanism?
With regard to this issue, why was Lumumba’s speech considered divisive?

5. Imagine that you are Belgian King Baudouin and that you are seated behind Lumumba, listening to his
speech. How do you think you would have reacted? If you had the opportunity, what response do you think you
would make to Lumumba’s speech?

Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence 1631

De Witte, Ludo. The Assassination of Lumumba, trans. Ann Wright
and Renée Fenby. New York: Verso, 2001.
Kalb, Madeleine G. The Congo Cables: The Cold War in Africa—
From Eisenhower to Kennedy. New York: Macmillan, 1982.
Kanza, Thomas R. The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba: Conflict
in the Congo. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1979.
Nkrumah, Kwame. Challenge of the Congo. New York: Internation-
al Publishers, 1967.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A
People’s History. London: Zed Books, 2002.
Turner, Thomas. “Crimes of the West in Democratic Congo:
Reflections on Belgian Acceptance of ‘Moral Responsibility’ for the
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Death of Lumumba.” In Genocide, War Crimes and the West: His-
tory and Complicity, ed. Adam Jones. London: Zed Books, 2004.
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in World History: From 1750 to the Present, Vol. 1, ed. James
DeFronzo. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
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—Thomas Turner
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 Document Text
Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the
Proclamation of Congolese Independence
Congolese men and women:
As combatants for independence who today are
victorious, I salute you in the name of the Congolese
government.
I ask all my friends, all of you who have fought
unceasingly at our side, to make this thirtieth of June,
1960, an illustrious date that will be indelibly
engraved upon your hearts, a date whose meaning you
will teach your children with pride, so that they in turn
will tell their children and their children’s children the
glorious story of our struggle for freedom.
For though this independence of the Congo is
today being proclaimed in a spirit of accord with Bel-
gium, a friendly country with which we are dealing as
one equal with another, no Congolese worthy of the
name can ever forget that we fought to win it a fight
waged each and every day, a passionate and idealistic
fight, a fight in which there was not one effort, not
one privation, not one suffering, not one drop of
blood that we ever spared ourselves. We are proud of
this struggle amid tears, fire, and blood, down to our
very heart of hearts, for it was a noble and just strug-
gle, an indispensable struggle if we were to put an
end to the humiliating slavery that had been forced
upon us.
The wounds that are the evidence of the fate we
endured for eighty years under a colonialist regime
are still too fresh and painful for us to be able to
erase them from our memory. Back-breaking work
has been exacted from us, in return for wages that
did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, or to decently
clothe or house ourselves, or to raise our children as
creatures very dear to us.
We have been the victims of ironic taunts, of
insults, of blows that we were forced to endure
morning, noon, and night because we were blacks.
Who can forget that a black was addressed in the
familiar form, not because he was a friend, certainly,
but because the polite form of address was to be used
only for whites?
We have had our lands despoiled under the terms
of what was supposedly the law of the land but was
only a recognition of the right of the strongest.
We have known that the law was quite different
for whites and blacks; it was most accommodating
for the former, and cruel and inhuman for the latter.
Patrice Lumumba’s Speech at the Proclamation of Congolese Independence
Milestone Documents
We have known the atrocious sufferings of those
banished to remote regions because of their political
opinions or religious beliefs; exiles in their own
country, their fate was truly worse than death.
We have known that there were magnificent
mansions for whites in the cities and ramshackle
straw hovels for blacks, that a black was never
allowed into the so-called European movie theaters
or restaurants or stores; that a black traveled in the
hold of boats below the feet of the white in his
deluxe cabin.
Who can forget, finally, the burst of rifle fire in
which so many of our brothers perished, the cells
into which the authorities threw those who no longer
were willing to submit to a rule where justice meant
oppression and exploitation?
We have grievously suffered all this, my brothers.
But we who have been chosen to govern our
beloved country by the vote of your elected represen-
tatives, we whose bodies and souls have suffered
from colonialist oppression, loudly proclaim: all this
is over and done with now.
The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed
and our country is now in the hands of its own chil-
dren.
We are going to begin another struggle together,
my brothers, my sisters, a sublime struggle that will
bring our country peace, prosperity, and grandeur.
We are going to institute social justice together
and ensure everyone just remuneration for his labor.
We are going to show the world what the black
man can do when, he works in freedom, and we are
going to make the Congo the focal point for the
development of all of Africa.
We are going to see to it that the soil of our coun-
try really benefits its children. We are going to review
all the old laws and make new ones that will be just
and noble.
We are going to put an end to the suppression of
free thought and see to it that all citizens enjoy to the
fullest all the fundamental freedoms laid down in the
Declaration of the Rights of Man.
We are going to do away with any and every sort
of discrimination and give each one the rightful
place that his human dignity, his labor, and his devo-
tion to the country will have earned him.
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 Document Text
We are going to bring peace to the country, not
the peace of rifles and bayonets, but the peace that
comes from men’s hearts and their good will.
And in order to achieve all this, dear compatriots,
rest assured that we will be able to count not only on
our tremendous strength and our immense riches,
but also on the assistance of many foreign countries,
whose collaboration we will always accept if it is sin-
cere and does not seek to force any policy of any sort
whatsoever on us.
In this regard, Belgium has finally realized what
direction history was moving in and has not attempt-
ed to oppose our independence. She is ready to grant
us her aid and her friendship, and a treaty to this
effect has just been signed between our two equal
and independent countries. I am certain that this
cooperation will be beneficial to both countries. We
for our part, though we shall continue to be vigilant,
will respect all commitments freely made.
Thus the new Congo, our beloved republic that
my government is going to create, will be a rich, free,
and prosperous country, with regard to both its
domestic relations and its foreign relations. But in
order for us to reach this goal without delay, I ask all
of you, Congolese legislators and citizens alike, to aid
me with all the strength at your command.
I ask all of you to forget the trivial quarrels that
are draining our strength and threaten to earn us the
contempt of those in other countries.
I ask the parliamentary minority to aid my govern-
ment by constructive opposition and to stay strictly
within legal and democratic paths.
Glossary
Declaration of the document drafted during the French Revolution, adopted as the preamble to the
Rights of Man constitution in 1791 and setting forth the beliefs animating the new government: that all
[and Citizen] men were equal; that the people should rule; and that the rights to life, liberty, and
security were inalienable
Your Majesty King Baudouin of Belgium
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I ask all of you not to shrink from making any sac-
rifice necessary to ensure the success of our great
undertaking.
I ask you, finally, to respect unconditionally the
life and property of your fellow citizens and foreign-
ers who have settled in our country. If the behavior
of these foreigners leaves something to be desired,
our justice will be swift and they will be expelled
from the territory of the republic; if, on the other
hand, they conduct themselves properly, they must
be left in peace, for they too will be working for the
prosperity of our country.
The independence of the Congo represents a
decisive step toward the liberation of the entire
African continent.
Your Majesty, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gen-
tlemen, my dear compatriots, my black brothers, my
brothers in the struggle, that is what I wanted to say
to you in the name of the government on this mag-
nificent day of our complete and sovereign inde-
pendence.
Our strong, national, popular government will be
the salvation of this country.
I invite all Congolese citizens, men, women, and
children, to set to work to create a prosperous
national economy that will be the crowning proof of
our economic independence.
Honor to those who fought for national freedom!
Long live independence and African unity!
Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!
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