Volume 48, Number 15 · October 4, 2001
The Tragedy of Lumumba
By Brian Urquhart
The Assassination of Lumumba
by Ludo De Witte, translated from the Dutch by Ann Wright and Renée Fenby
Verso, 224 pp., $27.00
Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the independent state of the Congo, was in power for only twelve weeks, but he has become a legend—to some a saint and martyr, to others a psychotic demagogue. Recently several books, a film, and a Belgian painter, Luc Tuymans, have portrayed Lumumba as a defining figure of his time, a heroic victim of Western greed, prejudice, and brutality. Detailed revelations about his death have, in terrible detail, filled in the gaps in previous accounts.
Review, 4787 words
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