In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I had to pay homage to one of Africa’s greatest sons, the legendary Panafrican Patrice Lumumba, whose fight and legacy continues to live on through us. Three hours of chaotic traffic could not stop me from paying my respects to what this man stood for, the glory and dignity of the Blackman, and for which he was brutally assassinated by the colonial oppressors in cohoot with our neocolonial African clones. Yes, our neocolonial African brothers and sisters led by Mobutu Sese Seko.
This visit was part emotional and part happiness that I could say one or two things to him directly. I had played his son years ago for a drama play on Lumumba’s life with Sundiata Theatre in Kabala. In the years after, I have always reflected on the Congo and Africa, what would have been its state at the moment if Lumumba had lived on. My heart goes heavy and emotions fill my mind as I reflect on the decadence in DRC of today caught in wars, corruption, deep poverty, and infectious disease epidemics. Needless to say DRC is the world’s richest country in terms of natural resources both critical minerals and biodiversity, second only to the Amazon in Brazil.
I prayed for Lumumba but I also let him know that we will continue his fight to restore the glory and dignity of the African. And as he rightly said, “The day will come when history will speak. Africa will write its own history. It will be a history of glory and dignity.” We know as Frantz Fanon said, the oppressed will always internalised negative perceptions of themselves based on conditioning by the oppressor. Hence, the oppressed, out of such conditioned self hate and low self esteem will always assume the worst about themselves, and feel incapable of gaining true independence; political and economic independence.
Speaking of total liberation (both political and economic), Lumumba’s assassination came as a result of demanding economic independence on the day of DRC’s independence from Belgium. With courage, calm and charisma, Lumumba stunned the Belgian King that political independence alone was not enough, they need economic independence. This speech and Lumumba’s bold transformational intentions to nationalize DRC’s resources, build sovereignty, break the colonial hegemony and the unfettered access to Congolese resources did not go down well with the Belgian King and many others. Yes, Lumumba made a lot of enemies just by seeking a pathway for equity, social justice and sovereignty for the people of Congo. He wanted Congolese to be the drivers of their own destinies.
What ensued was the brutal assassination of Patrice Lumumba considered one of the most important assassinations of the 20th century. It was important and significant not just for the geopolitical entanglement of the global powers US, Russia, Belgium, United Nations, and Africa but the depth and breadth of the interplay of colonialism and neo-colonialism in the continent. Lumumba’s assassination marked the beginning of a series of assassination or overthrow of progressive African leaders, who wanted to change the narratives, decolonize our political economies, break the shackles of colonial hegemony, and build a thriving sovereign Africa that is in complete control of its natural resources.
Lumumba’s assassination made him a global symbol of the struggle for total liberation of Africa from colonial, neocolonial and neoliberal shackles. You can kill the revolutionary but you cannot kill the ideas once planted in people. As we say in Sierra Leone, “Nah D Truth Dae Last always.” For me Lumumba represents the aspirations of Africa for decolonization, economic freedom, dignity and sovereignty. There is dignity in feeding yourself; there is dignity in thinking your own ideas, and there is dignity in sharing your own culture, and building from it. For Lumumba restoring the dignity of our people, who are now perceived as beggars globally was a vital mission. He is quoted as saying “Without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.”
Lumumba will be turning in his resting place here for the dignity he sought and for which he was killed has not been fulfilled. Since his assassination, the colonialist along with neo-colonial and neoliberal clones and their apparatus have ensured systematic assassination or overthrow of Panafricanist and replaced them with clones of their choice, whom they control, think for and provide solutions for. While China and India have become global powers in the period since Independence, Africans are reduced to beggars, survivors, and dependent on aid, handouts with an NGO poverty inc business profiteering from our leadership deficits and dysfunctionality.
