The Lumumba Legacy and the Enduring Tragedy of the Congo

Abstract Had the first prime minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo lived, he might have led the Congolese people to a unified and prosperous nation post-independence. But Patrice Lumumba’s aspirations were cut short by his brutal assassination in late 1960, just months after Congo gained independence from Belgian rule. His death and the enduring impact of it on the Congo’s trajectory are the focus of Reid’s compelling The Lumumba Plot, which exposesthe many egregious errors and sinister efforts of the cia to eliminate Lumumba.