The Assassination of Lumumba

270 Pages·2001·20.195 MB·English

by  Ludo De Witte, Ann Wright, Renée Fenby (trans.)

Assassination of
Ludo De Witte
Translated by Ann Wright and Renee Fenby

THE ASSASSINATION
LUMUMBA
OF
y/ip
V

THE ASSASSINATION
LUMUMBA
OF
LUDO DE WITTE
Translated by
ANN WRIGHT RENEE FENBY
and
V
VERSO
London • NewYork
To Jacquie
FirstpublishedbyVerso 2001
Thisedition©Verso 2001
Translation©AnnWrightand Renee Fenby 2001
Firstpublishedas DeMoordopLumumbaby Editions Uitgeverij van Halewyck 1999
© Ludo DeWitte 1999
All rightsreserved
3579 864
10
The moral rightsofthe authorandthetranslatorshavebeenasserted
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, LondonW1F0EG
USA: 180VarickStreet,NewYork, NY 10014-4606
VersoistheimprintofNew Left Books
ISBN 1-85984—618—1
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A cataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromthe British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Witte, Ludode.
[Moordop Lumumba, English]
The assassinationofLumumba / LudodeWitte : translatedbyAnn
Wrightand Renee Fenby.
p. cm.
ISBN 1—85984—618-1 (cloth) —
1. Lumumba, Patrice—, 1925—19—61 Assassination. 2. Congo
(Democratic Republic) Flistory CivilWar, 1960—1965. I.Title.
DT658.22.L85W5813 2001
967.5103—dc21 2001035773
M
Typesetby Rules
PrintedbyBiddles Ltd, Guildfordand King’s Lynn
“The Gods are not all powerful, they cannot erase the past.”
Agathon
“How can a beret coloured blue erase, just like that, the preju-
dices of conservative officers from Sweden, Canada or Britain?
How does a blue armband vaccinate against the racism and
paternalism of people whose only vision of Africa is lion hunt-
ing, slave markets and colonial conquest; people for whom the
history of civilisation is built on the possession of colonies?
Naturally they would understand the Belgians. They have the
same past, the same history, the same lust for our wealth.”
Patrice Lumumba
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2015
in
https://archive.org/details/assassinationoflOOwitt
CONTENTS
Translators’ note
xi
Acknowledgements
xiii
Preface to the English-language edition
xv
Introduction
xxi
Map ofthe Congo in 1960
xxvii
Who’s Who on 17January 1961
xxviii
The International Actors
XXX
PREPARING THE GALLOWS
1
A “nigger”upstart (30 June 1960) • Belgian troops and the Blue Berets in Katanga
(July—August 1960) • The elimination ofLumumba’s government
(August—September 1960) * In the steps ofthe CIA: Operation Barracuda
1