The Storyline
Patrice Émery Lumumba began as a postal clerk and became the first Prime Minister of the independent Congo. On 30 June 1960, in front of the Belgian king, he gave a speech that refused to say thank you for freedom. Within seven months he was dead, but his voice never left the river.
Chapter I · The Clerk Who Wrote
In Stanleyville a young postal clerk reads everything he can find and writes letters, essays and poems about a Congo run by Congolese. He organises, speaks and founds the Mouvement National Congolais.
Chapter II · Independence Day
30 June 1960. The ceremony expects gratitude. Lumumba takes the microphone and speaks of dignity, of suffering, and of a free Congo that will show Africa what it can do.
Chapter III · The Storm
Mutiny, secession in Katanga, foreign interests and Cold War pressure crash into the new nation within weeks. Lumumba fights to hold the country together and is removed from power.
Chapter IV · The Unfinished Song
Captured and taken to Katanga, Lumumba is killed on 17 January 1961 at the age of 35. His last letter to his wife Pauline promises that history will one day have its say, and that Africa will write its own.
The day will come when history will speak. Africa will write its own history.
