Raoul Peck's movie "Lumumba" a discussion by D'Lynn Waldron

THE ASSASSINATION OF LUMUMBA by Ludo De Witt, reviewed by D'Lynn Waldron.

THE ASSASSINATION OF LUMUMBA by Ludo De Witt
Translated by Ann Wright and Reneé Fenby
Published in Belgium in Dutch in 1999.
Published in English in America and Britain, August 2001
Verso 224 pages $27US/£17UK/$39CAN
ISBN 1-85984-618-1
http://www.versobooks.com/books/cdef/de_witte_lumumba.shtml

Brief Review by D’Lynn Waldron

The “Assassination of Lumumba” is written for those with a specific interest in the newly revealed details of the complicity of the Belgian Government in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Congo.

De Witt uses this book to contradict a dissertation written in 1991 that whitewashed the Belgian Government role in the events following the Independence of the Congo. De Witt’s book caused the Belgian Parliament to open an investigation of the assassination of Lumumba, now forty years after it happened.

De Witt’s book is almost entirely confined to the period between the Independence ceremony on June 30th, 1960, after Lumumba had already won the election and become prime minister, and the events surrounding his assassination in Katanga in mid-February 1961.

One must come to this book with a knowledge of the Congo and its history, the life of Lumumba and his election campaign, and of the materials already available about the complicity of other Western powers and the UN in the destruction of the Congo’s independence and the assassination of Lumumba, which was done so their economic exploitation of the Congo could be continued. (See my articles and review of the movie “Lumumba” on this Web site, and ).

De Witt uses Belgian government documents only recently available and he interviewed some of the witnesses to Lumumba’s assassination, who were now old men wanting to unburden their consciences.

The translation is not all I would have wished. As an example, page xvi of the introduction says Africa is in the ‘Western hemisphere’, when I am sure the original meant sphere of influence, since Africa is in the Eastern Hemisphere. The word “nigger” is used in the translation, when the only insult I heard the Belgians used for the Congolese, and the one which Lumumba found so hurtful, was “sale macaque” which translates as “dirty monkey”.

(Lumumba related to me that on the day he obtained his hard-won certificate from the Belgian government designating him an “evolved African” he was walking down the sidewalk in Leopoldville dressed in a suit and tie, when a passing Belgian woman sneered “sale macaque” at him, and in that moment Lumumba realized there was no hope for a Congolese under Belgian rule.)

This hardboard book was printed in type so small it is chore to read, and the footnotes, etc., are in type that is nearly microscopic.

DLW August 2001

You will find click-throughs to the Lumumba and other Congo materials on the author page at: http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/author
For those who would like to read a brief history of the Congo, I highly recommend the excellent concise summary by the military historian, Dr. Robert Craig Johnson, which can be found at http://worldatwar.net/chandelle/v2/v2n3/congo.html
My review of Raoul Peck's docudrama movie "Lumumba" can be found at:http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/Lumumbamovie.html AFRICA Contents Page

PATRICE LUMUMBA, THE CONGO, AND ALL OF AFRICA: SITE CONTENTS
articles and commentaries by D'Lynn Waldron DR D'LYNN WALDRON AUTHOR PAGE

NOTE: MANY OF THESE PAGES CONTAIN FULL SIZE DOCUMENTS AND ARE VERY LARGE. IF YOU ARE ON BROADBAND THIS WILL NOT BE A PROBLEM, BUT IF YOU ARE ON A DIAL-UP MODEM, SOME PAGES WILL TAKE AS LONG AS A MINUTE OR MORE TO LOAD.
IF YOU ARE ON AOL YOU MUST GO TO USER PREFERENCE IN A FOLDER WITH A 'W' AND TURN OFF "USE COMPRESSED IMAGES" (WHICH IS THE DEFAULT BECAUSE AOL DOES NOT HAVE THE BANDWIDTH TO GIVE ITS CUSTOMERS THE QUALITY OF THE IMAGES THAT ARE ACTUALLY ON THE WEB SITES). IF YOU DO NOT TURN OFF "USE COMPRESSED IMAGES", AOL WILL REPROCESS THE IMAGES THROWING AWAY MUCH OF THE DETAIL AND COLOR SO THAT THE TYPE IN THE DOCUMENTS WILL NOT BE READABLE, AND PHOTOGRAPHS WILL LOOK TERRIBLE, RATHER THAN JUST LIKE COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS AS THEY ACTUALLY DO ON THE WEB SITES.

Lumumba, the assassinated first Prime Minister of the Congo.
D'Lynn Waldron's newspaper headline stories and photographs, plus related documents from 1960, with a commentary by D'Lynn Waldron written in 2001. The subjects covered on this web site include Lumumba in Stanleyville and his real attitude towards America and Russia, and the secret cannibal war in the Kasai fostered by the Belgian government to sabotage the upcoming independence, which D'Lynn Waldron exposed.

PART 1- LUMUMBA IN STANLEYVILLE AT THE TIME OF THE ELECTIONS
D'Lynn Waldron was the only correspondent in Stanleyville and her newspaper stories contain both historically accurate information as written by D'Lynn Waldron, and also the disinformation put in by the newspaper publisher back in America. Her 2001 commentary points out the disinformation.

THE CONGO & AFRICA
articles and commentaries by D'Lynn Waldron ©2006
NOTE: MANY OF THESE PAGES CONTAIN FULL SIZE DOCUMENTS AND ARE VERY LARGE. IF YOU ARE ON BROADBAND THIS WILL NOT BE A PROBLEM, BUT IF YOU ARE ON A DIAL-UP MODEM, SOME PAGES WILL TAKE A MINUTE OR MORE TO LOAD.