Lumumba

I watched Lumumba (2000 film) recently. I had been searching for this film and then one day it popped up in my streaming service randomly.

I have been fascinated with the Congo ever since reading about the ebola virus during the outbreak of 1995, when the country was called Zaire. This coincided with the films Congo and Outbreak of the same year, which made a vivid impression on my nine-year old brain.

The movie portrays an intense period of history in the Democratic Republic of Congo just after independence from Belgium when a former postal worker rose to become the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo. He was soon killed by factious political rivals with the help of the Belgians. His buried body was then dug up, moved, dismembered and burned. As the narrator (the dead Lumumba) says, he was a threat to them even in death.

Joseph-Désiré Mobutu is a looming presence in the film and the final scene foreshadows the horrors he would later wreak as dictator. Sadly, now another strongman (Kabila the junior) is consolidating power and suppressing political opposition.

It’s very difficult to watch the violence in the film because it is not just a snapshot of the past. Gruesome violence and unrest continue in DRC, most recently in the Kasai region. Now, our closest relatives the chimps and gorillas are being butchered too, due to conflicts they didn’t start.

I would recommend the movie. For anyone else with an interest in the Congo, soak up any of the following:

  • Dancing in the Glory of Monsters by Stearns (highly recommended)

  • The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver

  • The Hot Zone by Preston

  • Blood River by Butcher

  • Heart of Darkness by Conrad (highly recommended)

  • RFI’s great coverage at http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/tag/rdc/

I still have not read King Leopold’s Ghost but that comes recommended. There are numerous other chronicles and analyses of the country out there, in English and French.

I wish I could visit someday. I want to follow the river and see the gorillas and not just stay in relatively peaceful Kinshasa. Maybe 25 years from now I could try…

UPDATE 7/4/17: I cannot believe I forgot this one: check out the documentary “When We Were Kings” about the Rumble in the Jungle.