About the Book
Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the country’s first democratically elected prime minister. After rising through the colonial civil service, he became amajor figure in the decolonisation movement of the 1950’s.
Lumumba’s short tenure as prime minister (1960-1) was marked by an uncompromising defence of Congolese national interests against pressure from international mining companies and the Western assasination at the age of 35. Even decades after Lumumba’s death, his personal integrity and unyielding dedication to the ideals of self-determination, self-reliance and pan-African solidarity assure him a prominent place among the heroes of the twentieth-century African independence movement and the worldwide African diaspora.
About the Author
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is a professor of African, African American, and diaspora studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and professor emeritus of African studies at Howard University. He is a past president of the African Studies Association and the author of The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History.
