Patrice Lumumba: Africa's Lost Leader

by Leo Zeilig

Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925-61) is perhaps the most famous leader of African independence. After his murder in 1961 he became an icon of anti-imperialist struggle..The book also tells the story of the Congo during these years. The country possesses vast resources of gold, copper, diamonds and uranium. Under any consideration, its people should be rich. Yet these assets have been stolen. One of the only attempts to wrest control from external powers was Lumumba's premiership in 1960. Instead a civil war was fomented and Lumumba assassinated.Leo Zeilig coordinated the Independent Media Centre in Zimbabwe during the Presidential Elections of 2002 and, prior to this, worked as a lecturer at Universite Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre of Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg.