{"id":11249,"date":"2023-01-17T02:12:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T02:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/?p=11249"},"modified":"2023-01-17T02:16:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T02:16:07","slug":"a-propos-de-la-detention-de-lumumba-en-1956-par-thomas-kanza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/?p=11249","title":{"rendered":"A PROPOS DE LA D\u00c9TENTION DE LUMUMBA EN 1956 (Par Thomas Kanza)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ON THE DETENTION OF LUMUMBA IN 1956 (By Kanza)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lumumba, who was tall, slim, always well-dressed, and sociable, made an instant impression. He appeared to me as the living symbol of mankind’s struggle for emancipation. His powers of observation and oratory impressed all his friends and aroused fear in his critics. He had an astonishing ability to cope with difficult situations and was often able to impress people whom one would have thought better informed and educated than himself. His thirst for knowledge was insatiable; he was a voracious reader and to a large extent self-taught. In this he was helped by European friends who obtained books and periodicals for him from abroad. He realized at an early stage, during his visit to Belgium especially, that he would have to overcome a great many obstacles if he was to achieve his ambitions. The next time I saw him was in the Congo in 1957, and he was in a very unhappy situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Lumumba’s return from Belgium Buisseret had decided to appoint him to his staff at the Ministry, which Lumumba would have been the first Congolese to join. But the appointment never materialized, probably because it displeased the authorities at Stanleyville. Lumumba, then employed at the Post Office, was arrested, charged with embezzling Post Office funds and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by a district court. The Belgian and colonial press seized upon the incident as a way of discrediting him. Many colonial Belgians were very eager to prevent his rise to popularity and power: prevention, they thought, was better than cure. He appealed and was transferred to Leopoldville; and it was there in 1957 that I saw him for the second time, in the prisoner’s dock at the Tribunal de premiere instance. He was neatly dressed and had a dignified look about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The avocat general, de Warseghere, addressed the court for the prosecution. In his statement he extolled Belgian colonization for all the benefits of civilization that it had brought to the Congo. He denigrated the black race and pointed to Lumumba as a typical example of those Congolese who nursed the illusion of being equal to the white man and capable of taking his place in certain fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SUR LA D\u00c9TENTION DE LUMUMBA EN 1956 (Par Kanza)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lumumba, qui \u00e9tait grand, mince, toujours bien habill\u00e9 et sociable, a fait une impression instantan\u00e9e. Il m\u2019est apparu comme le symbole vivant de la lutte de l\u2019humanit\u00e9 pour l\u2019\u00e9mancipation. Ses talents d\u2019observateur et d\u2019orateur impressionnaient tous ses amis et suscitaient la peur chez ses d\u00e9tracteurs. Il avait une \u00e9tonnante capacit\u00e9 \u00e0 faire face \u00e0 des situations difficiles et \u00e9tait souvent capable d\u2019impressionner des gens que l\u2019on aurait cru mieux inform\u00e9s et \u00e9duqu\u00e9s que lui. Sa soif de connaissance \u00e9tait insatiable ; C\u2019\u00e9tait un lecteur vorace et, dans une large mesure, autodidacte. En cela, il a \u00e9t\u00e9 aid\u00e9 par des amis europ\u00e9ens qui lui ont procur\u00e9 des livres et des p\u00e9riodiques de l\u2019\u00e9tranger. Il s\u2019est rendu compte tr\u00e8s t\u00f4t, notamment lors de sa visite en Belgique, qu\u2019il devrait surmonter de nombreux obstacles pour r\u00e9aliser ses ambitions. La prochaine fois que je l\u2019ai vu, c\u2019\u00e9tait au Congo en 1957, et il \u00e9tait dans une situation tr\u00e8s malheureuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apr\u00e8s le retour de Lumumba de Belgique, Buisseret avait d\u00e9cid\u00e9 de le nommer \u00e0 son personnel au minist\u00e8re, que Lumumba aurait \u00e9t\u00e9 le premier Congolais \u00e0 rejoindre. Mais cette nomination ne s\u2019est jamais concr\u00e9tis\u00e9e, probablement parce qu\u2019elle a contrari\u00e9 les autorit\u00e9s de Stanleyville. Lumumba, alors employ\u00e9 \u00e0 la poste, a \u00e9t\u00e9 arr\u00eat\u00e9, accus\u00e9 de d\u00e9tournement de fonds postaux et condamn\u00e9 \u00e0 deux ans d\u2019emprisonnement par un tribunal de district. La presse belge et coloniale s\u2019en empara pour le discr\u00e9diter. Beaucoup de Belges coloniaux \u00e9taient tr\u00e8s d\u00e9cide d\u2019emp\u00eacher son ascension en popularit\u00e9 et en pouvoir: pr\u00e9vention, pensaient-ils, valait mieux que gu\u00e9rir. Il fit appel et fut transf\u00e9r\u00e9 \u00e0 L\u00e9opoldville ; et c\u2019est l\u00e0, en 1957, que je l\u2019ai vu pour la deuxi\u00e8me fois, sur le banc des accus\u00e9s du Tribunal de premi\u00e8re instance. Il \u00e9tait soigneusement habill\u00e9 et avait un regard digne de lui-m\u00eame<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019avocat g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, de Warseghere, s\u2019adressa au tribunal pour l\u2019accusation. Dans sa d\u00e9claration, il a vant\u00e9 la colonisation belge pour tous les avantages de la civilisation qu\u2019elle avait apport\u00e9s au Congo. Il a d\u00e9nigr\u00e9 la race noire et a cit\u00e9 Lumumba comme un exemple typique de ces Congolais qui nourrissaient l\u2019illusion d\u2019\u00eatre \u00e9gaux \u00e0 l\u2019homme blanc et capables de le remplacer se faire  dans certains domaines.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ON THE DETENTION OF LUMUMBA IN 1956 (By Kanza) Lumumba, who was tall, slim, always well-dressed, and sociable, made an instant impression. He appeared to me as the living symbol of mankind’s struggle for emancipation. His powers of observation and oratory impressed all his friends and aroused fear in his critics. He had an astonishing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice","category-opinions","category-politique","category-societe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11250,"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11249\/revisions\/11250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congokin.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}