How Lumumba's Widow Protested Bare- Chested Against The Assassination Of Her Husband

Pauline, the wife of Lumumba, was walking through the streets with her bare chest, protesting against the brutal assassination of her husband.

If I interpret rightly, the colonial era was one of the most brutal historical times for Western European countries to unleash all kinds of cruelties and oppression on African countries just to sustain the European economy. Thus,. Many European countries, including Belgium, adopted a brutal reign in Congo, a country they took over as their personal property.

Congo, the Belgian colony, was under colonial rule from 1908 until independence on June 30, 1960. Fifty-two years of colonization weren't enough for the parasitic country in which the economy was run by the rich resources of Congo, thus, didn't take the independence likely. 

That's when the plot to assassinate the newly sworn Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, began. The plan of reprisals against the disgraced politician was prepared at the highest levels of power; even the Belgian king, Baudouin I, knew about the preparation of the murder.

  

Earlier, in the course of previous investigations, it was found that the CIA was also engaged in preparing for the elimination of Lumumba, and US President Dwight Eisenhower allegedly gave the order to poison the ousted prime minister. 

 

After the assassination of Lumumba on January 17, 1961, together with the bodies of Okito and the Minister of Youth and Sports Maurice Mpolo, nobody had the idea that their bodies would be taken out of their new graves in Kasenga. A definitive solution was planned over the next two days.

 

Early in the afternoon of January 21, two Europeans in uniform and a few black assistants left for Kasenga in a lorry belonging to the public works department, containing road signs, geometrical instruments, two demijohns filled with sulphuric acid, an empty 200-liter petrol barrel, and a hacksaw.

 

According to Brassinne, all the equipment was provided by the public works department, and Verscheure and Belina also confirmed that the sulphuric acid came from the Union Miniere.

 

On their arrival, they unloaded the road signs and theodolite to make passers-by think that they were doing a land survey. But they couldn't find the grave and had to stop searching at nightfall.

 

Not until the evening of the next day did they find the grave and start their lugubrious task. The corpses were dug up, cut into pieces with knives and the hacksaw, then thrown into the barrel of sulphuric acid.

 

A group photo of the Lumumba family

The operation took hours and ended the next morning, on January 23. At first, the two Belgians dismembering the bodies wore masks over their mouths, but took them off when they became uncomfortable.

 

Their only protection against the stench was whiskey, so according to Brassinne, they got drunk. One of the black assistants spilled the acid on his foot and burned him badly.