Who was Patrice Lumumba?
Patrice Émery Lumumba was born in 1925 in Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. A postal clerk and writer, he co-founded the Mouvement National Congolais and became the leading nationalist voice calling for full independence.
When the Congo became independent on 30 June 1960 he became its first prime minister. At the independence ceremony he delivered a speech condemning the humiliations of colonial rule in front of the Belgian king.
Within months the country was in crisis. Lumumba was deposed, arrested and, on 17 January 1961, executed in Katanga with the involvement of Belgian officers. In 2022 Belgium returned his only known remains, a tooth, to his family.