Why Patrice Had to Go (Pt 1)

📅 March 23, 2026

There are many ways to explain the Scramble for Africa. Stripped to its essence, though, it comes down to four driving forces (in my opinion).

One, industrial revolution. Two, technological advancement. Three, interstate political rivalry. And four, the Belgian monarch, King Leopold II.

The fact that three of these were systems and one was human should give [you] some insight into the kind of character this creature was.

In 1888, King Leopold II obtained permission for the ownership of a ‘piece’ of land. This land, he called the Congo Free State. Calling it a piece is quite an understatement, considering the fact that if the entire African continent were divided into thirteen parts, just this ‘piece’ would account as one. This was a man of vast ambition, boundless greed, and no capacity for care. Having secured the land, he wasted no time going after everything in it, from copper to cobalt to ivory and finally, rubber.

The market for tires had just exploded so the profits were enormous, but as enormous as they were, it still fell short of his ambition. So, to quicken the kind of profit to match his greed he introduced slave labor, then imposed quotas on the natives and dispatched violent men to enforce it.

These weren’t men slow to hand out punishment, carnage or death. Those who resisted had their villages burnt to the ground, the survivors tracked and executed. Those who didn’t were in no better a position. It was standard practice to cut the hands off those who didn’t or couldn’t meet their quota. Whether you were a man, woman, or child made little difference. There was neither consideration nor discrimination in this allocation of cruelty. You no run am? Oya, submit your hand for short sleeve. Finding large baskets filled with black hands and black feet wasn’t uncommon.

The scale of production was formidable as a result, climbing from 100 tons of rubber in 1890 to 6,000 by 1901.

At the end of his twenty-three-year reign, King Leopold II had amassed an estimated $1.1 billion, built on the deaths of ten million people.

So, when five decades later, the King Baudouin spoke of his great-uncle in glowing terms, telling the Congolese that their independence was a “culmination of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II”, it was not only patronizing, but tone-deaf and deeply insulting.

The president, a certain Joseph Kasa-Vubu, was understandably offended but stuck to his script. The man beside him, however, was nodding and taking notes. He had been excluded from the event. People had rightly guessed that a man of his history and temperament was likely to cause trouble – and cause trouble he did.

"We have known sarcasm and insults", he began. "[we have] endured blows morning, noon and night because we were ‘niggers’… we have seen that the law was quite different for a white than for a black, accommodating for the former, cruel and inhuman for the latter. We have seen the terrible sufferings of those banished to remote regions because of their political opinions or religious beliefs, exiled within their own country, their fate was truly worse than death itself… today, though, WE HAVE CEASED TO BECOME YOUR MONKEYS."

The day was June 30, 1960, Congo’s Independence Day, and the man who had just spoken was none other than their first prime minister, Patrice Emery Lumumba.

                                    ________

Two parties emerged at the start of political activity in Congo.

The first was ABAKO. ABAKO started as a cultural organization, but under the leadership of Joseph Kasa-Vubu, it quickly became a political one. The second was the Mouvement National Congolai (MNC), a modest group of young, lightly enlightened nationalists.

Back in 1957, Patrice Lumumba, a postal clerk and beer salesman at the time, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to a year in prison. He passed much of it in anger, until he came to see its futility and redirected it to writing a book. For a man with no more than four years of formal education, it was an intelligent book – and a very sarcastic one too, that highlighted the sins of the Belgians and the tribulations of the Congolese.

It was likely at this point that the authorities began to see the traits of a highly dangerous animal in him.

Ghana had claimed her independence, and Kwame Nkrumah had become a symbol of what was possible. Like many potential leaders around the African continent did, Lumumba looked up to him. At some point, though, he decided he was done looking. A highly impatient man with a very terrible temper, prone to demanding instant results, he decided to actually start doing.

The Belgian government that had taken over from King Leopold II had proved no better, only more skilled at hiding their cruelty. Forced labor still persisted. Citizens had no right to own land, and certainly had no political voice. On matters directly affecting their lives, their consent was neither sought nor respected. Formal education was so scarce that, in a population of fifteen million, only thirty were university graduates. Even movement within their own country required permits.

Nah, Patrice had to do something. Joining the MNC became that thing. A very intense man, he so threw his time and efforts into that in no time he had risen to become its leader. While ABAKO and other political parties catered to ethnic sentiments, Lumumba’s MNC was just about the only one that transcended those and was truly nationalistic.

In January of 1959, a riot broke out. This was no ordinary riot. These were a people truly and thoroughly tired, obsessing for a change. Though the Belgian government finally began to admit to themselves that just maybe it was time for political reform, they actually did promise these reforms, but deliberately kept it vague since they still had a lot of Congo-raping to do.

These were Pharaohs whose plan, in fact, was to give an illusion of change by gambling on a moderate, pro-Belgium leader, helping him secure the victory in the elections, keeping him comfortable and funded, while pulling the strings and sodomizing the fuck out of Congo. This could not be Patrice. You could search high and low for the words “moderate” and “pro-Belgium”—you just wouldn’t find them anywhere near him.

Long story short, a parliamentary election was organized. Although the MNC emerged as the largest single party, it did not secure an outright majority in votes cast. This led to a coalition with Kasa-Vubu emerging president, and Lumumba, prime minister.

The gamble had backfired. There was a new sheriff in town. And he was just thirty-five.

[Part 2, now out.. kindly check the Homepage]

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