Europe's colonisation in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and other places really started in the 1930s, went to a higher level in the 1940s, even higher in the 1950s, and reached its peak in the 1960s with the granting of political independence to some of the former colonies.

Michael Burke

In the Congo in Africa, formerly known as Zaire, the main hero of the political independence movement was Patrice Emery Lumumba.

Last Tuesday marked 45 years since Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was assassinated on January 17, 1961. The identity of his killer is still shrouded in mystery, but it is clear that his death was linked to local opposition to his premiership.

It is widely believed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States was involved in the assassination that took place three days before the Republican president, General Dwight David Eisenhower, left office.

Eisenhower, it has been reported, saw Lumumba as an African Fidel Castro, as Lumumba had sought support from the Soviet Union to quell the secession of a tribal territory and also for economic aid. This was in the middle of the Cold War when any trade links with the Soviet Union would raise eyebrows in the United Sates. Indeed, in the 1970s, Jamaica earned the ire of America when the then prime minister Michael Manley opened trade links with neighbouring Cuba and also with the Soviet Union.

Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925, just under 35 years before political independence came to the Belgian Congo (as the country was known while a colony) on June 30, 1960 after a long and bitter fight.

In 1955, Lumumba became president of a trade union of government employees that was not affiliated to other trade unions. Around the same time, he became active in the Belgian Liberation Party in the Congo. He was a post office clerk up to four years before becoming prime minister of the Congo.

LUMUMBA. assassinated on January 17, 1961

Invited on a study tour of Belgium by the Belgian minister of colonies, Lumumba, on his return home, was arrested on a charge of embezzlement from the post office.

He served 12 months in prison and paid a fine. On his release from prison, Lumumba became more active in politics. In 1958, he left the Belgian National Party and founded the Congolese National Movement. It was the first nationwide Congolese party in a country acutely divided by tribal warfare.

On October 30, 1959, Lumumba was imprisoned on a charge of inciting to riot. His party contested the elections of December 1959 and won. Lumumba was eventually released from prison and became prime minister on June 23, 1960.

In February 2002, the Belgian government admitted "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba". In an article in the Washington Post on July 21, 2002, Stephen R Weissman quotes certain classified US government documents and wrote:

"But US presidential candidate John F Kennedy was vowing to meet 'the communist challenge' and Eisenhower's NSC was worried that Lumumba would tilt toward the Soviets." According to Weissman, "the US documents show that over the next few months, the CIA worked with and made payments to eight top Congolese. who all played roles in Lumumba's downfall".

A few days after independence, some sections of the army rebelled against the continued presence of a Belgian commander. While this was taking place, the tribal region of Katanga declared that they had seceded from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Belgium sent in troops on the excuse that they had to protect Belgian nationals still resident in the Congo. They also supported the secessionist regime of Moise Tshombe.

Appeals by Lumumba to the United Nations to expel the Belgians from the newly independent country of the Congo fell on deaf ears. Indeed, the Belgians stayed and the secessionist regime in Katanga remained. On September 5, 1960, President Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba as prime minister. By many accounts, Kasavubu was simply a stooge for European and American interests.

With the help of foreign interests, Joseph Mobutu, the then chief of staff of the Congolese army, sent his soldiers after Lumumba. They arrested him and he was eventually murdered.

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