From ‘whiteman in rags’ to revolutionary nationalist: Patrice Lumumba 1925–19601

Abstract

Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925–1961) is perhaps the most famous leader of African independence. After his murder in 1961, he became an icon of anti‐imperialist struggle. His picture was brandished on demonstrations across the world, together with those other faces of the 1960s, Che Guevara and Mao Tse‐Tung. The subject of this article is the life of Patrice Lumumba before he came to power in 1960. Lumumba was born in Kasai province in the centre of the Belgian Congo. After a few years of intermittent schooling, he left for the regional capital Stanleyville, where he became a post office clerk. Soon Lumumba became a prominent member of the évolue, those Africans hand‐chosen by the Belgians to run the colonial state. As the pace of political change quickened in the 1950s, he became an unruly subject and underwent a fascinating transformation – from praising the Belgian’s civilising mission in the Congo to radical nationalism. Most academic work is based on the last dramatic year in Lumumba’s life. Based on original interviews and sources largely unknown to an English‐reading audience, this article argues for the importance of understanding Lumumba’s entire life to make sense of his rapid political evolution and the trajectory of political change in the Congo.