‘It’s going to give us closure’: could there finally be justice for the murder of Patrice Lumumba?

The assassination of the Congo’s first prime minister has been shrouded in mystery – but the impending trial of a Belgian diplomat may provide answers Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Patrice Lumumba was assassinated more than 60 years ago, but his killing still hangs over the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even for non-Congolese Africans, some born years after Lumumba’s death, his killing symbolises something traumatic – the suffocation of the pan-African liberation dream by western colonial forces. Last week, after decades of avoidance and denial, there was an extraordinary development. A Belgian court ruled that a former Belgian diplomat, 93-year-old Étienne Davignon, will stand trial in connection with the killing. For this week’s newsletter, I spoke with the Congolese film-maker Patrick Kabeya, director of the documentary From Patrice to Lumumba, about what this moment means for the country, and to him. Lumumba was not only the Congo’s first prime minister, he was also a firebrand of the continent’s anti-colonial movement. On 30 June 1960 – independence day – in what has since become a legendary speech, Lumumba eviscerated B