Patrice Lumumba
| Patrice Lumumba | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo | |
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In office 24 June 1960 – 14 September 1960 |
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| President | Joseph Kasa-Vubu |
| Preceded by | position established |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Iléo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Élias Okit'Asombo 2 July 1925 Katakokombe, Belgian Congo (Now Congo-Kinshasa) |
| Died | 17 January 1961 (aged 35) Near Élisabethville, Katanga (Now Lubumbashi, Congo-Kinshasa) |
| Political party | Mouvement National Congolais |
Patrice Émery Lumumba (alternatively styled Patrice Hemery Lumumba) (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected leader of the Congo as prime minister. As founder and leader of the mainstream Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) party, Lumumba played an important role in campaigning for independence from Belgium.
Shortly after Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out in the army, marking the beginning of the Congo Crisis. Lumumba appealed to the United States and the United Nations for assistance in suppressing the Belgian-supported Katangan secessionists. Both parties refused, so Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union for support. This led to growing differences with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and chief-of-staff Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as well as to foreign opposition from the United States and Belgium. Lumumba was subsequently imprisoned by state authorities under Mobutu and executed by a firing squad under the command of Katangan authorities. The United Nations, which he had asked to come to the Congo, did not intervene to save him. Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all been accused of involvement in Lumumba's death.
Lumumba was born on 2 July 1925 to a farmer, François Tolenga Otetshima, and his wife, Julienne Wamato Lomendja, in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. He was a member of the Tetela ethnic group and was born with the name Élias Okit'Asombo. His original surname means "heir of the cursed" and is derived from the Tetela words okitá/okitɔ́ ('heir, successor') and asombó ('cursed or bewitched people who will die quickly'). He had three brothers (Ian Clark, Émile Kalema, and Louis Onema Pene Lumumba) and one half-brother (Tolenga Jean). Raised in a Catholic family, he was educated at a Protestant primary school, a Catholic missionary school, and finally the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. Lumumba spoke Tetela, French, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba.
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