- Record: found
- Abstract: found
- Article: found
Remembrance of sins past: unraveling the murder of Patrice Lumumba
Abstract
The assassination of L.D. Kabila, forty years to the day after the1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, revived memories of the fate of the Congo's first (and only) democratically elected leader, but in Belgium, the case of Lumumba's assassination had already been re‐opened by a solidly documented exposé challenging what had for some time been the ‘official version’ of the murder. Written by Ludo DeWitte, this account identified those members of the Belgian establishment whom it saw as having deliberately engineered Lumumba's overthrow and ‘final elimination’. Its publication directly led to the creation of a parliamentary commission of enquiry whose final report was released in November 2001. Much of the investigation took the form of an examination of archival and testimonial evidence. Most witnesses were not seriously challenged, and cross‐examination was usually gentle and ineffective. Yet, considering the perceived need to achieve some form of national consensus, the enquiry cannot be dismissed as a whitewash. The report concludes that ‘certain members of the Belgian government and other Belgian participants were morally responsible for the circumstances leading to the death of Lumumba.’ The commission also identifies what it correctly views as dysfunctions in the decision‐making process that prevailed in 1960–1961. Reactions to the report suggest that, for many of those involved in those violent events, stereotypes and cold war clichés die a reluctant death.
Content
Author and article information
Endnotes
Colette Braeckman , ‘L'assassinat de Kabila reste un secret d'État’, Le Soir, 16 January 2002 .
Karl Marx , ’The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’, New York : International Publishers , 1963 , Chap. I.
La Libre Belgique , 17 January 2001
‘Laurent‐Désiré Kabila: faux libérateur, vrai despote’, Le Monde, 17 January 2001 .
’De Zevende Dag’ , 12 December 2000 .
Politique Africaine, no. 84 ( Dec. 2001 ), pp. 48 – 49 .
Bogumil Jewsiewicki , ‘Corps interdits: La représentation christique de Lumumba comme rédempteur du people zaïrois’, Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 141–142 ( 1996 ), pp. 113 – 142 .
Pierre Devos , Vie et mort de Lumumba ( Paris , 1961 );
Serge Michel , Uhuru Lumumba ( Paris , 1962 );
Jean Van Lierde , La Pensée politique de Patrice Lumumba ( Paris , 1963 , with a memorable preface by Sartre);
Luis Lopez Alvarez , Lumumba ou l'Afrique frustrée ( Paris , 1964 );
G. Heinz & H. Donnay , Lumumba Patrice: Les cinquante derniers jours de sa vie ( Brussels & Paris , 1966 ).
‘ The Congo Cables. The Cold war in Africa — From Eisenhower to Kennedy’ ( New York , 1982 ).
Jacques Brassine , ‘Enquête sur la mort de Patrice Lumumba’ (Doctoral dissertation, Univ. of Brussels , 1990 );
Jacques Brassine & Jean Kestergat , Quia tué Patrice Lumumba? ( Paris , Duculot , 1991 );
Jean‐ClaudeWillame , Patrice Lumumba: La Crise congolaise revisitée ( Paris , Karthala , 1990 ).
De Moord op Lumumba ( Leuven : Van Halewijck , 1999 );
L'Assassinat de Lumumba ( Paris : Karthala , 2000 );
The Assassination of Lumumba (translated by Ann Wright & Renée Fenby), London & New York , Verso , 2001
Frédéric Vandewalle , Mille et quatre jours: Contes du Zaïre et du Shaba ( Brussels, self‐published , 1974–1977 ; 13 fasc).
Frédéric Vandewalle , L ‘Ommegang. Odyssée et reconquête de Stanleyville, 1964. Bruxelles , Le Livre Africain , 1970
Benoît Verhaegen and Jean Van Lierde in Pierre Halen & Janos Riesz (eds.), Patrice Lumumba entre Dieu et Diable. Un héros africain dans ses images ( Paris : L'Harmattan , 1997 ), pp. 13 & 187 – 8 .
Gerard Soete , De Arena. Het Verhaal van de moord op Lumumba ( Bruges : Raskijn , 1978 ).
Adam Hochschild's derivative King Leopold's Ghost ( Boston : Houghton Mifflin , 1998 )
‘Les ‘Katangais’ belges chargent les Etats Unis’ in: La Libre Belgique, 2 July 2001 ).
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurz: Living on the brink of disaster in Mobutu's Congo, New York : HarperCollins , 2000 ).
Michael P.E. Hoyt , Captive in the Congo: A Consul's Return to the Heart of Darkness. Annapolis , MD : Naval Institute Press , 2000 ; pp. 17 – 18 ).
Jean‐Luc Vellut , ’La Belgique et la préparation de l'indépendance’ in Olivier Lanotte , Claude Roosens & Caty Clément (eds.), La Belgique et l'Afrique centrale. De 1960 à nos jours. Brussels : GRIP‐Editions Complexe , 2000 , p. 93 :
Jef Van Bilsen , Congo 1945–1965. La fin d'une colonie, Brussels : CRISP , 1994 , pp. 249 – 250 ; and pp. 462 – 469
Claude Roosens , ‘La Belgique et la sécession du Katanga’, in Lanotte, Roosens & Clément (eds.), La Belgique et l'Afrique central, pp. 107 – 132 ).
Colette Braeckman , ‘Lumumba: Le Roi Baudouin savait’ , Le Soir ( Brussels ), 23 October 2001 .
Dirk Vanoverbeke : ‘Le Grand écart des partis du Nord et du Sud’ , Le Soir ( Brussels ), 25 May 2002 .
Jean Omasombo Tshonda , ‘Commission Lumumba: difficile regard sur un passé in Forum BVA/ABA, no. 22 ( March 2002 ) p. 10 – 13 .
La Libre Belgique ( Brussels ), 25 June 2001 , 6 July 2001, 7 July 2001;
Le Soir ( Brussels ,), 7 July 2001 .
Justin‐Marie Bomboko's ‘Témoignage’ , in Olivier Lanotte , Claude Roosens & Caty Clément (eds.), La Belgique et l'Afrique centrale, p. 97
La Libre Belgique 17 November 2001
Colette Braeckman in Le Soir, 18 November 2001
‘Lumumba au Parlement’, Le Soir, 5 February 2002
Paul Vaute in La Libre Belgique 5 February 2002
Colette Braeckman in Le Soir, 6 February 2002 ).
‘Les historiens plus que jamais divisés’, La Libre Belgique, 4 February 2002
Jean‐Claude Willame , ‘Commission Lumumba: pièges et parasites’, La Revue Nouvelle, Nov. 2001 , pp. 30 – 35
‘M. Michel fait d'un génocidaire un héros’ in La Libre Belgique, 10 February 2002
Abdourahman A. Waberi , ‘Le courage est belge’, Libération, 8 February 2002
John Matshikiza , ‘A Remarkable Gesture of Contrition’, The Mail & Guardian, 22 February 2002
‘Turning Congo's history on its head’, The Washington Times, 11 September 2001 .
Lucy Komisar , ‘The Cardinal Sin That Lumumba Committed’ in The Daily News (Harare) 19 February 2002 .
Stephen R. Weissman , ‘Opening the Secret Files on Lumumba's Murder’ in The Washington Post, 21 July 2002 .
‘De postkoloniale Afrikanistiek in België and de Verenigde Staten: Een interview met Jan Vansina’ by Karel Arnaut & Hein Vanhee Forum BVA/ABA no. 21 ( August 2001 ), p. 11 – 18
Jean‐Luc Vellut : ‘Jan Vansina on the Belgian historiography of Africa: Around the agenda of a bombing raid’, Forum BVA/ABA no. 22 ( March 2002 ) p. 16 – 21 ;
( 'Heart of Smugness’ in The Guardian, 23 July 2002 ).
Alain Lallemand , ‘Diamants: Anvers, capitale du trafic angolais’, >Le Soir, 23 April 2001 ;
‘La Belgique, passoire pour trafics d'armes’, Le Soir , 7 March 2002 .
‘Have African‐based Diamond Monopolies Been Effective?’ in Central Africa Minerals and Arms Research Bulletin ( Antwerp ) 18 June 2001 ;
‘Supporting the War Economy in the DRC: European Companies and the Coltan Trade — Five Case Studies’ ( Antwerp , IPIS , January 2002 ).
Christian Dietrich , ‘Blood Diamonds: Effective African‐based monopolies?’ in African Security Review, Vol 10 No 3 , 2001 ;
Brian Wood & Johan Peleman , “The Arms Fixers: Controlling the Brokers and Shipping Agents’ ( Oslo : NISAT , 1999 ).