Hubris in the Congo
SIMMONS, JOHN D.
Hubris in the Congo CONGO, MY COUNTRY By Patrice Lumumba Foreword by Colin Legum Praeger. 195 pp. $5.95. Reviewed by JOHN D. SIMMONS Associate Professor of Economics, Rutgers...
...Idealist, self-seeker, convicted embezzler, or African statesman— which was the "real" Lumumba...
...With no real tribe of his own, his tribe would be the entire Congo...
...In retrospect, Lumumba seems to have been destined to be the prisoner of his own ambition, the principal figure in a modern version of a Greek tragedy whose setting was the Congo...
...The assimilation of the elite to the Belgians must not be a one-sided affair . . . but Total and Complete...
...His end came in a particularly brutal sequence of events, and his death was officially announced in February 1961...
...Above all, he wanted to be rid of the Belgians and to put down the secession movements in the dissident provinces...
...Reviewed by JOHN D. SIMMONS Associate Professor of Economics, Rutgers University Praised in some quarters as an exposition of Patrice Lumumba's originally moderate (and anti-Communist) political views, this book is actually of much greater value if regarded as the key to the psychology of the man and the development of his career...
...Henceforth he was to monopolize the idea of Congolese nationalism (or Lumumbaism as it soon became), whose essential feature was an unaligned, undivided and independent Congo...
...In the beginning of his book he deliberately flatters the Belgians, expressing gratitude for their considerable achievements in developing the Congo, while blandly dismissing their "few mistakes" and advocating closer cooperation in a Belgo-Congolese community...
...But Congo, My Country does offer generous clues as to what made the man "tick...
...A complex personality that defies neat classification, he was all of these and more...
...While his contemporaries and rivals still thought in terms of tribal loyalties, he returned from Accra glowing with the spirit of Pan-Africanism and ready to promote a genuinely nationalist movement to be headed by himself...
...As the Congo descended into anarchy, he appealed for help from the United Nations and the Soviet Union...
...As a political document, it has only limited historical interest since the contents are rather commonplace: a collection of unedited observations, of uneven quality, on economic, social and racial matters, plus some sound constructive proposals for instituting moderate reforms...
...Whatever the means he chose, he had at least been remarkably successful, and at a very young age he stood on the threshold of a potentially brilliant political career...
...But in calling for Russian support he brought down on his head the wrath of the gods: He had failed to consult his colleagues, he had affronted the Western powers, undermined the position of the UN, and introduced cold war politics into the Congo...
...Coming from an unimportant minor tribe, Lumumba had no significant tribal following of his own (unlike Joseph Kasavubu with his Abako supporters...
...But as a personal document, Congo, My Country makes fascinating reading...
...But Lumumba obviously intended the Congolese elite to be the new African ruling class: "The status quo could be maintained for the uneducated masses who would continue to be governed and guided— as in all countries by the responsible elite: the White and African elite...
...The third and final phase of his career saw the Leopoldville riots of January 1959, Lumumba's emergence as charismatic national leader, Congolese independence on June 30, 1960, and Lumumba's appointment as first Prime Minister of an independent Congo...
...His unrealistic determination "to do away with his enemies now," instead of compromising with his colleagues in the coalition government, inexorably led him toward his doom...
...I am making the Congo...
...He was suddenly thrust into the arena of national and international power politics, where he committed folly after folly and precipitated his own downfall and eventual destruction...
...Buttressed by superior intelligence and supreme self-confidence, he was personally ambitious and aspired to play a leading role in his country's future: "I am the Congo, the Congo has made me...
...When the colonial rulers were firmly entrenched, he favored working with them in ruling the country: but when the colonials seemed to be on the way out, then he was hot for nationalism...
...Patrice Lumumba had come a long way in a very short time: Probably a sincere idealistic young man with a streak of ambition back in 1955, he had subsequently shown his adeptness in exploiting opportunities...
...And because the original Belgian publisher allowed the manuscript to gather dust until the author was famous (and dead), all of the book's practical value and a good deal of its strictly political significance have been lost...
...Lumumba was emotionally unstable, impatient and unwilling, as Kwamc Nkrumah said, "to face the facts of life...
...Lumumba now had to pay the price for his success...
...He was also a perceptive, self-seeking opportunist, who tempered idealism with expediency in astutely responding to whatever was the political mood of the day...
...But the final act of the Greek tragedy was still to be played out...
...The implication here is that he was more concerned with the status of the elite and himself than in obtaining a greater measure of self-determination for the Congolese people in general...
...Dismissed by President Kasavubu in September 1960, Lumumba was a marked man with little time to live...
...Expediency took priority over principle, and the important thing for Lumumba was to have a vehicle for his own advancement...
...The second phase of Lumumba's career included the formation of his Mouvement National Congolais and his participation in the Accra Conference of 1958...
...He had played his cards well, shrewdly modifying his position and his policies with each change in the political climate...
...He was out of his depth, untutored and inexperienced in these matters, caught up in the uncontrollable onrush of events that led him in desperation to resort to even more extreme steps...
...It may even help to deflate the Lumumba myth...
...Until about 1958, Lumumba adopted the posture of a moderate évolu...
...Ambitious and conceited even at this early stage of his public career, he identified himself with the colonial rulers as a leading member of the evolving Congolese elite: "The Congolese elite's only wish is to be 'Belgians' "; "The native elite should be regarded as genuine allies, valuable collaborators of the Belgians...
...The gods then took their revenge...
...and he was quick to recognize the need for, and the personal advantages to be derived from, proposing that the Congo should have one national leader...
Vol. 46 • April 1963 • No. 8
