Lumumba is a historical and biographical drama (based on a true story) which premiered in the year 2000.
It is about the life and death of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of Congo, a former Belgian colony in the heart of Africa.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** Director: Raoul Peck
** Writers: Pascal Bonitzer, Dan Edelstein, and Raoul Peck
** Language: French
** Run time: 109 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Eriq Ebouaney as Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) – prime minister of Congo June-September 1960
** Alex Descas as Joseph-Desiré Mobuto (1930-1997) – president of Congo 1965-1997 (from 1972 his name is changed to Mobuto Sese Seko)
** Pascal N’Zonzi as Moïse Tshombe (1919-1969) – leader of the Katanga secession 1960-1965
** Théophile Sowié as Maurice Mpolo (1928-1961) – minister of youth and sports 1960 – close to Lumumba
** Cheik Doukouré as Joseph Okito (1910-1961) – a Congolese politician – close to Lumumba
** Maka Kotto as Joseph Kasa-Vubu (1915-1969) – president of Congo 1960-1965
** Dieudonné Kabongo as Godefroid Munongo (1925-1992) – a Congolese politician who regards Lumumba as an enemy
** Olivier Bony as Baudouin (born 1930) - King of the Belgians 1951-1993
** Mariam Kaba as Pauline Lumumba (1937-2014) – wife of Patrice Lumumba
** Den Thatcher as Frank Carlucci (1930-2018) – an American official – a CIA agent
THE DIRECTOR
Raoul Peck has had an unusual life and career. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1953, he and his family left Haiti in 1961, when he was only eight years old, and moved to Congo where his father had found a job working for the United Nations (FAO and UNESCO). The family stayed in Congo for the next 24 years.
Raoul went to school in Congo, in the US, and in France. Later, he studied engineering and economics at a university in Berlin.
He spent a year as a taxi driver in New York and worked as a journalist for five years before earning a film degree at an academy in Berlin in 1988.
For a while, he was a politician. He was Haiti’s minister of culture from 1996 to 1997, but it seems that film-making is his primary interest and occupation.
Here are three examples from a long list of films:
** I am Not Your Negro - a documentary film which premiered in 2016
** The Young Karl Marx – a historical and biographical drama which premiered in 2017
** Exterminate All the Brutes – a documentary series in four parts which premiered in 2021
THE BACKGROUND
While this movie is about the life and death of Patrice Lumumba, it does not cover his whole life from the beginning in 1925 to the end in 1961.
It covers only the final years of his life: the time from 1959 to 1961 (shortly before and shortly after the independence of Congo in 1960).
When a movie is based on a true story, the basic facts are (in many cases) part of the public record. They are (in many cases) not a secret.
But when we are talking about the independence of Congo in 1960, things are different. And when we are talking about the death of Patrice Lumumba in 1961, things are very different.
In 1960-1961, the governments of Belgium, the UK, and the US made several secret plans regarding the fate of Congo as well as the fate of prime minister Lumumba and two politicians who were close to him: Maurice Mpolo, and Joseph Okito.
While some plans were merely speculations, suggestions and ideas, other plans were more than that. They were implemented and put into action.
In 1960-1961, the secret plans were not known to the public, and they remained secret for many years.
In the 1990s, when Raoul Peck made his movie about Lumumba, some of these secrets had been revealed, and the director was able to include this information in his movie.
More explosive secrets were revealed after the movie was completed. Obviously, they are not included in the movie. But it is safe to say that all secrets surrounding the fate of Lumumba, Mpolo, and Okito have not yet been revealed.
The governments of Belgium, the UK, and the US have not told us everything they know about these matters and the role they played in them.
After the movie was completed, the Belgian government officially admitted that Belgian agents had played a role in the killing of Lumumba.
After the movie was completed, it was revealed that the governments of the UK and the US knew exactly what the Belgian government was doing in Congo and that they had no objection to this policy.
Perhaps they did more than just observe what was going on? Perhaps agents of MI6 and the CIA were involved as well?
The governments of Belgium, the UK, and the US agreed that Lumumba “had to go.” This term is a euphemism for the brutal truth: Lumumba had to be eliminated; he had to be killed and disappear completely.
The independence of Congo was granted in 1960. The decision was sudden and came with little preparation.
Perhaps the Belgian government did not really want to grant independence, but had to do it, because it was happening all over Africa. 1960 was the year of decolonization. It was an irresistible trend.
In 1960, members of the Belgian government were pondering how they could maintain (at least some) control over the former colony, even after independence was officially granted.
One possible method could be to make sure that the independence was merely in the political field and did not concern economic affairs. In that case, control of precious natural resources would remain in the hands of private corporations based in Belgium, the UK or the US.
Lumumba wanted the independence of Congo to be real. Not only political but also economic. He believed the natural resources of Congo should be used to benefit the people of Congo and not foreign countries or foreign corporations.
Lumumba could see what the government of Belgium was trying to do and he objected to this. He wanted to stop it. He contacted the US, asking for help and hoping to find sympathy for his cause, because the US is officially against colonialism.
He did not know what the US and the UK had done in Iran in 1953. Had he known what was revealed many years later - that the US and the UK had orchestrated a secret coup in Tehran in 1953 - he would probably never have approached the US.
When Lumumba asked the US for help, they turned him down. The US regarded him as a communist, because he believed the natural resources of Congo should be used to benefit the people of Congo. Only a communist would think in this way!
Iranian prime minister Mossadegh had tried to do something similar when he had nationalized the oil resources of Iran in 1951, but the US and the UK had put a stop to this idea: Mossadegh had been overthrown and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had been installed as the leader of the country.
The Shah understood that the resources of Iran did not belong to the people of Iran. They belonged to British and American corporations who would use them to benefit the industrialized countries.
Now something similar would have to happen in Congo. The “communist” prime minister who wanted to control the natural resources of his country had to go. He would be replaced by someone who was more flexible and who had a better understanding of how the world is supposed to work.
When the US refused to help, Lumumba tried to contact the Soviet Union. When this happened, the US declared that this fact confirmed their worst suspicions: Lumumba was indeed a communist!
They ignored the fact that Lumumba had approached the US first and had been rejected. They refused to see that the US rejection was the obvious reason why he tried to contact the Soviet Union.
He had no other choice!
Today we know more about the death of Lumumba than was known in the 1990s when Raoul Peck made his movie about the radical Congolese politician. But we cannot say that all facts regarding his death are part of the public record.
Some secrets are still buried in classified government files. Perhaps the whole truth about this dark chapter of world history will never be revealed.
THE PLOT
I will not offer many details about what happens in this movie. I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. I will only mention a few basic facts. I will tell you what you need to know to understand what is going on.
Lumumba is a radical politician with popular support. He wants to do the best for his people. He does not trust the government of Belgium, but he seems to trust the local people around him. He seems to think they want the same as he does. Sadly, he is wrong.
He does not know that some of the people who are close to him are ready to betray him:
** Moïse Tshombe is the leader of the Katanga secession 1960-1965. The secession is supported by Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, an Anglo-Belgian mining company which operates in this province
** Joseph Desiré Mobuto is in charge of the army. He understands that if you want to be the leader of a country like Congo, you need to sell your soul and form an alliance with a powerful country which can be your benefactor and protector.
Mobuto forms an alliance with the US which allows him to rule (and exploit) the former Belgian colony for more than thirty years (1965-1997).
Mobuto renames not only himself but also the country. For more than 25 years (1971-1997) it is officially known as Zaïre.
In this movie, we see Lumumba as a man who has high ideals. He does not want to betray them. He stands firm on his principles and pays the ultimate price.
REVIEWS AND RATINGS
What do reviewers say about this movie? Here are the results of three review aggregators:
72 percent = IMDb
78 percent = Meta
82 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
83 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
There are 34 user reviews on IMDb. Some of them offer a rating which is higher than the average rating on the website. Here are ten examples:
70 – Heroic portrayal of an African martyr
70 – Well done film
70 – Meaningful film about an important story
70 - Moving and painfully real
80 – A very interesting film
80 – A moving, true story of an African hero
90 – Lumumba: more than just black & white
90 – A most important and powerful film
100 – A must see film. Excellent drama
100 – Essential viewing
On Amazon there are at the moment 106 global ratings and 64 global reviews. The average rating is 4.6 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 92 percent.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the ratings are quite good. In my opinion, the former ratings (IMDb and Meta) are too low, while the latter ratings (Rotten Tomatoes and Amazon) are more appropriate.
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. Articles available online
** Martin Kettle: [US] President [Eisenhower] ordered murder of Congo leader, The Guardian, 10 August 2000
** David Akerman: Who killed Lumumba? BBC News, 21 October 2000
** Stephen Castle: Belgium admits role in killing of African leader, The Independent, 17 November 2001
** Bill Vann: The unquiet death of Patrice Lumumba, World Socialist Web Site, 16 January 2002
** Joanne Laurier: Carlucci bleeped from HBO version of Lumumba, World Socialist Web Site, 15 March 2002
** Tom Eley: Fifty years since the murder of Patrice Lumumba, World Socialist Web Site, 22 January 2011
** Gordon Corera: MI6 and the death of Lumumba, BBC News, 2 April 2013
** Jean Shaoul: Britain’s involvement in assassination of Congo’s Lumumba confirmed, World Socialist Web Site, 18 April 2013
** Tom Vanderstappen: Facing the truths of Belgium’s colonial past: The unsolved case of Patrice Lumumba’s death, The Brussels Times, 11 September 2018
** Romain Gras: Death of DRC’s Lumumba: The Belgians weren’t the only bad guys, says daughter Juliana Lumumba, The Africa Report, 18 September 2020
** Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja: Reversing a Bloody Legacy, The Wilson Quarterly, Fall 2020
** The Internationalist: Long Live Lumumba! By Diem 25 Communications, 21 January 2021
# 2. Books
** To Katanga and Back: A UN Case History by Conor Cruise O’Brien (1962) (2011)
** The Assassination of Lumumba by Ludo De Witte (2001) (2003)
** The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth, and Reality by Thomas Turner (2007)
** The Congo: Plunder and Resistance by David Renton, David Seddon, and Leo Zeilig (2007)
** Lumumba: Africa’s Lost Leader by Leo Zeilig (2008) (Second revised edition 2015)
** Who Killed Hammarskjőld: The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa by Susan Williams (2012) (2014)
** Death in the Congo: Murdering Patrice Lumumba by Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick (2015)
** The Death That Strangled the Heart of Africa by Janvier T. Chando and Janvier Tchouteu (2017)
** Katanga 1960-63: Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that Waged War on the World by Christopher Othen (2018)
** White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Colonization of Africa by Susan Williams (2021)
# 3. Films
** King Leopold’s Ghost – a documentary film which premiered in 2006. Run time: 102 minutes
** De Patrice a Lumumba - a documentary film which premiered in 2019. Run time: 71 minutes
** How the US and Belgium Assassinated Congo’s First Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, New Africa, 26 December 2019 (available on YouTube)
** How Mobuto Conquered Congo: The Complex History of the Leopard of Zaïre, New Africa, 24 April 2021 (available on YouTube)
# 4. Documentary films about the coup orchestrated by the UK and the US in Iran in 1953
** American Coup (2010)
** Coup 53 (2019)
*****
Patrice Lumumba
(1925-1961)
*****
Raoul Peck
(born 1953)
*****
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