Soundtrack to a Coup d’état is a documentary film which premiered in 2024.
It is about a series of significant events which happened in Congo in and around the year 1960.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director = Johan Grimonprez
** Writers = Johan Grimonprez and Daan Milius
** Producers = Daan Milius and Rémy Grelleti
** Run time = 150 minutes
This is a most unusual film.
An account of historical events in the second half of the twentieth century is mixed with numerous clips of jazz music and statements by jazz musicians.
It is about one episode in one country: Congo. But it is much more than that.
It is also the history of the decolonization of a continent, Africa, as well as the history of the Cold War between East and West, between the Soviet Union and the US.
How and why is jazz music relevant in a history of the Cold War?
Here is the answer.
1960 was the year of decolonization. In or around that year many African colonies became independent states with membership in the United Nations.
Both superpowers - the US and the USSR - appealed to the governments of these new states. The US did not want to see them as allies of the USSR. The USSR did not want to see them as allies of the US.
The Soviet leaders talked about decolonization and independence, while the American leaders talked about freedom and democracy.
The American leaders were afraid that officials from the US State Department would not be able to convince the African politicians to side with the US in the conflict between East and West.
They needed a way to charm the African politicians. They asked themselves: What kind of tool do we have? What can we do to achieve this result? And then they found the answer:
Jazz is extremely popular all over the world. Jazz is an American product. We will appoint some famous African American jazz musicians as American ambassadors!
African American Jazz musicians can sell the American way of life to the African politicians and the African people much better than officials from the State Department!
Who were chosen? Who were hired to join the campaign for the US? Here are some names:
** Louis Armstrong
** Art Blakely
** John Coltrane
** Miles Davis
** Duke Ellington
** Ella Fitzgerald
** Max Roach
** Nina Simone
According to the official version, these musicians toured the African continent to show the governments and the peoples of Africa just how great a country the US is.
But in reality, the African American jazz musicians were merely a smokescreen whose purpose was to hide the real purpose of this campaign.
The US wanted access to these countries. The US wanted to collect intelligence from these countries.
When Louis Armstrong was in Congo in 1960, he was not travelling alone. He was accompanied by officials who were working for the State Department and the CIA.
Since they were travelling with Louis Armstrong and his band, they had a plausible excuse to visit many different locations.
While Armstrong was doing his tour and playing his popular jazz music, American agents were secretly organising and preparing a coup against Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo.
Lumumba was very popular among ordinary people in his own country Congo and, to a certain degree, also in other African countries.
The leaders of the US, the UK, and the former colonial power Belgium were horrified when they learned what Lumumba wanted to do:
** He wanted to serve the people
** He wanted real independence
** He wanted the people of Congo to benefit from the natural resources of Congo
The leaders of the US, the UK, and the former colonial power Belgium regarded him as a serious threat which had to be eliminated.
Lumumba had to be removed from office and, just to be on the safe side, he might as well be killed, so he would be completely out of the picture.
In 1961, when Armstrong returned to the US and he learned that Lumumba had been killed in Congo, he was furious.
He realised that the US had used him and his colleagues to implement a nefarious policy whose purpose was to maintain control of the former colony even after its independence.
The US, the UK, and Belgium wanted to make sure that the independence was only in name but not real.
The US, the UK, and Belgium wanted to make sure that the natural resources of Congo would still be available to them without any restrictions.
This story is told by director Johan Grimonprez in his film about the history of Congo in and around the year 1960.
This is why this film alternates between historical events and clips with jazz music and statements by jazz musicians all the way from the beginning to the end.
Does it work? Is the unusual structure of the film a good or a bad idea? Is it an asset or a liability?
What do reviewers say about it?
Here are some answers:
77 percent = IMDb
91 percent = Meta
97 percent = Rotten Tomatoes
In this case, the professional critics and the general audience of Rotten Tomatoes offer the same rating.
I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them. The topic is important. The story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Items available online
Jason Burke
“Louis Armstrong and the spy: how the CIA used him as a Trojan Horse in Congo,”
The Guardian
12 September 2021
Ludo De Witte
“Myth Busting: Dag Hammarskjöld, Katanga, and the Coup against the Lumumba Government,”
Review of African Political Economy
08 February 2024
Wendy Ide
“Superb study of how jazz got caught between the Cold War and the CIA,”
The Guardian
16 November 2024
Rebecca Cushway
“Louis Armstrong was sent to the Congo to promote US values. His concert was used as a smokescreen for a coup,”
ABC News
21 September 2024
Maïthé Chini
“How jazz played out over Congo’s chaotic coup,”
The Brussels Times Magazine
23 January 2025
# 2. Books
Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War, and White Supremacy in Africa
By Susan Williams
(2011)
Death in the Congo:
Murdering Patrice Lumumba
By Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick
(2015)
White Malice:
The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa
By Susan Williams
(2021)
The Assassination of Lumumba
By Ludo De Witte
(2022)
The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination
By Stuart A. Reid
(2023)
# 3. Film and video
Lumumba
A historical drama
Run time = 120 minutes
(2000)
Hammarskjöld
A historical drama
Run time = 114 minutes
(2023)
*****
The African politician
Patrice Lumumba
(1925-1961)
Prime Minister of Congo 1960
*****
The Assassination of Lumumba
by Ludo De Witte
(2022)
*****
