Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, “Patrice Lumumba” (Ohio University Press, 2014)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, “Patrice Lumumba” (Ohio University Press, 2014)
Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle, as well as the country’s first democratically elected prime minister, in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After a meteoric rise in the colonial civil service and the African political elite, he became a major figure in the decolonization movement of the 1950s. Lumumba’s short tenure as prime minister was marked by an uncompromising defense of Congolese national interests against pressure from international mining companies and the Western governments that orchestrated his eventual demise.
Cold war geopolitical maneuvering and efforts by Lumumba’s domestic adversaries culminated in his assassination, with the support or at least tacit complicity of the U.S. and Belgian governments, the CIA, and the UN Secretariat. Georges Nzongola‘s concise book Patrice Lumumba (Ohio University Press, 2014) provides a contemporary analysis of Lumumba’s life and work, examining his strengths and weaknesses as a political leader. It also surveys the national, continental, and international contexts of Lumumba’s political ascent and his elimination by the interests threatened by his ideas and reforms.
Lumumba’s death, his integrity and dedication to ideals of self-determination, self-reliance, and pan-African solidarity assure him a prominent place among the heroes of the 20th century African independence movement and the African Diaspora.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
View all episodes
By Marshall Poe
3.8
7474 ratings
Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle, as well as the country’s first democratically elected prime minister, in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After a meteoric rise in the colonial civil service and the African political elite, he became a major figure in the decolonization movement of the 1950s. Lumumba’s short tenure as prime minister was marked by an uncompromising defense of Congolese national interests against pressure from international mining companies and the Western governments that orchestrated his eventual demise.
Cold war geopolitical maneuvering and efforts by Lumumba’s domestic adversaries culminated in his assassination, with the support or at least tacit complicity of the U.S. and Belgian governments, the CIA, and the UN Secretariat. Georges Nzongola‘s concise book Patrice Lumumba (Ohio University Press, 2014) provides a contemporary analysis of Lumumba’s life and work, examining his strengths and weaknesses as a political leader. It also surveys the national, continental, and international contexts of Lumumba’s political ascent and his elimination by the interests threatened by his ideas and reforms.
Lumumba’s death, his integrity and dedication to ideals of self-determination, self-reliance, and pan-African solidarity assure him a prominent place among the heroes of the 20th century African independence movement and the African Diaspora.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
More shows like New Books in Biography
View all
In Our Time
5,401 Listeners
The Book Review
3,902 Listeners
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
38,616 Listeners
Fresh Air
38,178 Listeners
History Extra podcast
3,204 Listeners
New Books in History
209 Listeners
99% Invisible
26,146 Listeners
New Books in Psychoanalysis
192 Listeners
New Books in Military History
161 Listeners
New Books in African American Studies
160 Listeners
New Books in Political Science
61 Listeners
New Books in Sociology
46 Listeners
New Books in Medicine
17 Listeners
New Books in Philosophy
111 Listeners
The LRB Podcast
285 Listeners
New Books in American Studies
29 Listeners
New Books in Intellectual History
62 Listeners
The History of Literature
1,088 Listeners
The New Yorker Radio Hour
6,623 Listeners
The Book Club
8 Listeners
The Great Women Artists
519 Listeners
The Rest Is History
12,517 Listeners
Empire
2,009 Listeners
Close Readings
56 Listeners
The Critic and Her Publics
68 Listeners