IANA Blog- July 2025

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Happy July,

Just like how I did my May blog on Malcolm X as he turns 100 this year, I figured that in the month of July, as this is the month and year of his 100th Birthday as well, I think it’s right to focus this month’s blog on another great African leader that influenced me just as Nelson Mandela did, one of the greatest men to step foot from Africa, Patrice Lumumba.

Just like Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X, what does Patrice Lumumba have to do with Nigeria/IANA? He’s Congolese…

He doesn’t…but he was an advocate for Pan Africanism…and I’ll say this…Fela Kuti admired him…along with many other African leaders that rose around Lumumba’s time. That shouldn’t matter though, because the fact is that Lumumba is still one of the greatest people to come out of Africa. In this month’s blog, I’ll talk about what Patrice Lumumba means to me.

For our younger members who don’t know who Patrice Lumumba is, I’ll tell you who he is. Then again, Malcolm X said it best on who he is, when he made a speech about him in 1964 at the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He said, “Lumumba is the greatest Black man to ever walk the African continent. He didn’t fear anybody. He had those people so scared they had to kill him. They couldn’t buy him, they couldn’t frighten him, they couldn’t reach him. Why, he told the king of Belgium, “Man, you may let us free, you may have given us our independence, but we can never forget these scars.” The greatest speech— you should take that speech and tack it up over your door. This is what Lumumba said: “You aren’t giving us anything. Why, can you take back the scars that you put on our bodies? Can you give us back the limbs that you cut off while you were here?

No, you should never forget what that man did to you. And you bear the scars of the same kind of colonization and oppression not on your body, but in your brain, and your heart, and your soul, right now.

I think too much time is spent by newspapers, commentators and some of these so-called scientists who are supposed to be authorities, trying to prove that the cones are savage, that they are not fully developed, that they are not able to govern themselves. Most of the things that we’ve seen in print usually are designed toward the end, and this is not done actually to prove that they are savage as much as it is done to justify what the western powers are doing in the Congo, or the presence of the western powers in the Congo and primarily the presence of the United States.

The basic cause of most of the trouble in the Congo right now is the intervention of outsiders— the finding that is going on over the mineral wealth of the Congo and over the strategic position that the Congo represents on the African continent. And in order to justify, they are doing it at the expense of the Congolese, by trying to make it appear that the people are savages. And I think, as one of the gentlemen mentioned earlier, if there are savages in the Congo, then there are worse savages in Mississippi, Alabama, and New York City, and probably some in Washington D.C., too.

That’s definitely all you need to know about who Patrice Lumumba is. Congolese revolutionary, freedom fighter, African nationalist, Pan Africanist, the man who played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a Belgian colony to an independent nation and became the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As Malcolm X said, there’s a reason the Western powers got involved in taking him out. His contribution in the fight for The Congo’s independence from Belgium was one of the many changing points for Africa in the 1960s. The Congo was able to gain their independence a couple months before Nigeria did.

I remember the first time hearing about Patrice Lumumba, I heard his name through a song by legendary Roots Reggae band Steel Pulse called “Born Fe Rebel.” In the song, Steel Pulse commemorates iconic figures, especially those of African descent, that contributed to the fight for liberation of their people. Lumumba was mentioned along with Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Samora Machel, Nelson Mandela, Haile Selassie and Fidel Castro. I heard this song off of one of my favorite videogames Tony Hawk Underground 2, and would listen to this song whenever I played it. It was also off Steel Pulse’s album African Holocaust. When I was younger, I didn’t know much about Lumumba and the same could be said for The Congo. I think the only thing I really knew about The Congo was that Dikembe Mutombo was from there along with Awilo Longomba. 

As I got older, I learned more about Lumumba and how important he was to Africa, being the leader of the Congolese National Movement in 1958 and promote African nationalism throughout the country, gaining support from people in the country and eventually winning the 1960 election, helping gain independence from Belgian and forming the Lumumba Government. Not only that, but he was destined to turn The Congo into a socialist nation…and of course, the Western powers didn’t like that. Also, Lumumba was trying to make sure that The Congo was in control of their resources, one of those resources being Cobalt.

The West did all that they could to make Lumumba look like a bad guy. Accused him of being a “communist,” or of being “Anti-White.” Malcolm X said they feared him to the point they had to kill him, which is what they did…the C.I.A., the UK and Belgium were all involved with his assassination…along with Mobutu Sese Seko, who at the time was Lumumba’s chief military assistant. Mobutu led the 1960 coup that overthrew the Lumumba government. He was captured by Mobutu’s army, along with politicians Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito and were all executed by a firing squad in Katanga. Finding out about his assassination really pissed me off, but it’s what they did to Lumumba after they assassinated him that had me in the red. They chopped up his body, burnt him in acid and kept his gold tooth as a “trophy.” If I was a member of the Lumumba family, I'd want to fight everybody involved.

The minute they assassinated Lumumba, The Congo has never been the same, especially with Mobutu in charge as prime minister. The whole country is still being exploited to this day, of its resources. Like I mentioned in the November 2023 blog, The Congo is the second biggest country in Africa, with $24 million worth of minerals, especially of cobalt, which is used for batteries for cell phones, laptops, etc., with continued clashes between rebel groups and the government and more deaths happening in The Congo. Years later, after the assassination of Lumumba, Belgium finally offered an “apology” and returned the gold tooth to the Lumumba family.

Lumumba’s assassination will go down as one of the most notorious crimes in World history. All of those involved never got punished for committing such a tragic crime. The U.S. never got punished, the UK never got punished, Belgium never got punished. King Leopold or King Baudouin never got punished for what they had done to The Congo. Like I mentioned in the November 2023 blog, Leopold should receive more vitriol for his crimes, just as much as Hitler does. The U.S. definitely needs to be punished for their involvement in The Congo. Whenever I hear someone not paying attention or not caring about the crisis in The Congo, or saying that what’s going on in The Congo isn’t his/her problem, I’m just like, “You should be thanking The Congo. You wouldn't have that laptop or that iPhone if not for The Congo…especially considering that every time a new iPhone comes out, someone in The Congo dies, because outside forces will do whatever they can to steal that cobalt.”

The loss of Lumumba was not just a huge loss for The Congo, but for all of Africa. I will say that it always satisfies me that there were people like Patrice Lumumba that were fighting for a better Africa, fighting to bring change to Africa. In my opinion, he is what African leaders should be like. We definitely need more leaders like Patrice Lumumba and I definitely have to agree with Malcolm X. Lumumba, along with Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara and Nelson Mandela as the greatest men to ever walk the African continent. I will forever see those four as the “big four” of Africa. I will forever see Lumumba as more than just a martyr and more than someone who sacrificed his life for a better Africa, I'll see him as a hero and I know his legacy will last in Africa forever. May Patrice Lumumba continue to rest in power.

Hey IANA, what are your thoughts about Patrice Lumumba? What did you know about him growing up? Let me know in the comments.