Lumumba, Patrice Emergy

Lumumba, Patrice Emergy (b. 2 July 1925, d. 17 July 1961). Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo 1960 Born in central Congo, he worked in the Belgian colonial administration as a postal clerk. Perhaps the first openly to demand independence on 28 December 1958, he founded the influential Mouvement National Congolais (National Congolese Movement) to bring together radical nationalists. He was briefly imprisoned before participating at the Brussels Conference (January 1960) on the independence of Belgian Congo. Upon independence he became Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. During the Congo Crisis, his rival, President Kasavubu, dismissed him and shortly afterwards he was put under arrest by Colonel Mobutu. He escaped but was recaptured and handed over to the rebellious troops of Katanga who murdered him in January 1961. His country's leading proponent of pan-Africanism, he is regarded as a national hero and martyr by many in Congo.