# Patrice Lumumba Prime minister of the Congo for eighty-one days, and the figure around whom the entire Cold War argument about African sovereignty over African resources organised itself. ## The speech At the independence ceremony on 30 June 1960, King Baudouin praised [[Leopold II]] as a civilising genius. Lumumba was not on the programme. He replied anyway: > [!quote] Patrice Lumumba, Léopoldville, 30 June 1960 > "It was filled with tears, fire and blood... Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as *'tu'*, not because he was a friend, but because the polite *'vous'* was reserved for the white man?" He described the mansions for whites and huts for blacks, the cinemas and restaurants marked *for Europeans*, and closed on national liberation and African unity. It was, by any measure, an accurate description of the [[Belgian Congo]]. It was also the moment Western capitals decided he was a problem. *(The widely circulated line "we are no longer your monkeys" does not appear in the canonical text of the speech and should not be attributed to it.)* ## The eighty-one days The Force Publique mutinied on 5 July after its Belgian commander wrote "before independence = after independence" on a blackboard. Belgium intervened militarily without Congolese authorisation. On 11 July the copper province seceded — see [[Katanga Secession]] — financed by [[Union Minière du Haut-Katanga]] redirecting its tax payments away from Lumumba's government. He asked the UN for help expelling the Belgians, was refused the mandate he wanted, and turned to the Soviet Union for transport aircraft. That request is what converted him, in Washington's reading, from a nationalist into a Cold War threat. President Kasa-Vubu dismissed him by radio on 5 September. Parliament refused to accept it — the Chamber voted 60–19 to annul both dismissals and the Senate gave him confidence 49–0. **He retained parliamentary legitimacy to the end.** [[Mobutu Sese Seko]]'s first coup came on 14 September; Lumumba was captured on 1 December and killed on 17 January 1961. ## What was actually at stake It is usually told as a Cold War story, and Allen Dulles conceded in 1962 that "I think we overrated the Soviet danger" in the Congo. The more durable reading is the one this vault takes: a Congolese government with effective control over Katanga's revenue would have set the terms on which the copper, cobalt and uranium left the country. That was the thing that could not be permitted, and the company that stood to lose most paid for the secession that prevented it. For the killing itself, the CIA plot, the Belgian findings and the war-crimes trial still running in 2026, see [[Assassination of Patrice Lumumba]]. ## See also [[Assassination of Patrice Lumumba]] · [[Katanga Secession]] · [[Congolese History Hub]] · [[Conflict Minerals Hub]]