For those that say "There's nothing good to read here." 🙄 This week in 1961, US 🇺🇸, British 🇬🇧 and Belgian 🇬🇧 forces couped and assassinated Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of the Republic of Congo 🇨🇩. He was imprisoned and executed by firing squad. Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until September 1960. Patrice Lumumba was killed by a firing squad on January 16, 1961, after being deposed as prime minister the previous year, all within months of DRC’s independence from Belgium. After being executed by firing squad, his body was chopped into pieces and dissolved in acid. Belgium handed over the tooth to Lumumba’s family on June 20th, 2021.
For many in Congo, Lumumba is a symbol of the positive developments the country could have achieved after its independence. Instead, it became mired in decades of dictatorship that drained its vast mineral riches.
Congo and Africa lost a great leader! May he continue to rest well with the Ancestors...
