History
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Saturday, July 23rd 1960.
Footage of Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of Congo-Kinshasa, arriving in London on a Saturday evening while en route to New York.
He was met on arrival by the British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, John Profumo. He had a private talk with Profumo and other British officials.
Lumumba was interviewed in French by ITN correspondent John Connell.
Source: Getty Images.
February 1961.
Footage of a protest in Djarkata, the capital city of Indonesia against the governments of Belgium and the United States after the confirmation of the death of Patrice Lumumba, the deposed Prime Minister of the Congo.
Lumumba had been killed in secret on January 17th 1961 by a Belgian-commanded firing squad.
Source of footage: Reuters News Archive.
Sunday, February 12th 1961.
Footage of African students angered by reports of the death of former Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.
Reuters Text:
"The Belgian Embassy in Cairo, United Arab Republic, was littered with bricks and broken glass February 12 after a mob of some 300 African students, shouting "Murderers of Lumumba", attacked the building.
Police prevented the students - enraged after hearing of the death of deposed Premier Patrice Lumumba - from climbing over the railing and arrested four of them.
Belgian Ambassador, M. Maurice d'Eeckhoutte, had been sitting in his first-floor study with his wife when bricks were hurled through the window.
M. d'Eeckhoutte said "They started throwing things and my wife and I left the room. ..as soon as I heard the word Lumumba I knew who they were. I shall be protesting to the United Arab Republic Foreign Ministry about this.
Katanga Minister of the Interior, Mr. Munongo, said Feb 13 that Mr. Lumumba and two companions were "massacred" by villagers after escaping from custody in Katanga."
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Note:
Lumumba was not "massacred" by villagers after escaping from custody in Katanga. He was executed by a firing squad commanded by a Belgian officer and his body later dissolved in sulphuric acid by two Belgian police officials.
Saturday, February 25th 1961.
Footage of a "funeral" held in Harlem to protest the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo-Kinshasa.
Excerpt of Reuters News Text:
"With drums beating to attract attention, the African Nationalist Movement staged a demonstration of 200 Negroes in the Harlem district of the city ... It took place outside a Negro bookshop opposite the Hotel Theresa (where Cuban Premier, Fidel Castro, stayed when he made his famous appearance at the United Nations). Inside the bookshop was a coffin with a face mask of lumumba. The coffin was decked with flowers, and above it hung a scarecrow-like effigy of Lumumba with this printed message: "They lynched me".
Speakers denounced "colonist bandits" for his death as New York police stood by in case of trouble. Leader of the Movement, james Lawson, said: "Lumumba did not have a funeral - we are giving him one now." But police refused to let them take the coffin to the UN building."
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Monday, February 20th 1961.
Footage of a requiem mass for held for Patrice Lumumba, the slain former Premier of the Congo Republic.
It was held in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt (then the United Arab Republic).
It was attended by diplomatic staff from many countries, including Ceylon, Indonesia, Ghana and the Chinese People's Republic.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
February 1961.
Footage of a protest in New Delhi, India against the murder of the deposed Premier of the Congo Republic, Patrice Lumumba. About 400 people gathered outside the Belgian Embassy, and troops stood by in case of trouble. They marched by carrying placards and shouted slogans. There was also an effigy of "imperialist atrocities".
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said in the Indian Parliament Feb 15 that his country would be prepared to send combat troops to the Congo Republic in response to a United Nations request - but only when it was convinced that they would be rightly employed for the freedom of the people and not in support of the "gangster regime" now ruling there.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Wednesday, February 15th 1961.
Footage of a Memorial Meeting of Cubans in Havana to protest the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Thursday, January 19th 1961.
Reuters Text from 1961:
Mrs Pauline Opanga Lumumba, wife of the deposed Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba-was seen in a highly distressed condition January 19 (in front of a) hut in the native quarter of Leopoldville (later Kinshasa). She had just returned from her appeal to the United Nations for the return of her husband. Seated with her was her two-year-old son Roland Gilbert.
But she - and the wives of Lumumba's fellow prisoners Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito-were given no firm promise by UN authorities, and had to return home. Mrs Lumumba-who had also requested to visit her husband, said: "We spoke to a man and asked him to help get our husbands back because we have no money."
Mr Lumumba was transferred Jan 18 from imprisonment at Camp hardy at Thysville to a Katanga prison. In a statement Jan 19 mr Tshombe, self-styled President of Katanga Province, refused to indicate where Mr Lumumba was. He also denied he had been beaten by his soldiers.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Note:
It was later established that Patrice Lumumba had been murdered by a Belgian commanded firing squad on January 17th 1961.
Thursday, February 16th 1961.
Footage of a protest held outside the Belgian Embassy in Havana Cuba after news of the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo, spread all over the world.
Lumumba had been killed in secret on January 17th by an execution squad commanded by a Belgian officer.
Reuters text from 1961:
"Crowds including large numbers of students held a meeting outside the Belgian Embassy in Havana, Feb 16, in protest against the "brutal assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba".
Carrying flags and banners, the crowd shouted "Cuba Yes, Yankees No", "Congo Yes, Belgians No", Now more than ever the Congo is bound to win", and "Lumumba is dead but not his ideas".
Watched by police and militia, the demonstrators marched up and down the street in front of the Embassy. Time and again, groups stopped at the main gate to voice their protest, supporting the "Congolese people and all nations who are fighting for peace in the world", and condemning "Belgian and American imperialism".
Source Reuters News Archive.