Lumumba. De Complotten? De moord. Onderzoeksrapport of historische studie?

Abstract

Lumumba. The conspiracies? The murder. Research report or historical study?Written by four historians, ’Lumumba. The conspiracies? The murder’ is based upon the official report of the Belgian parliamentary commission of inquiry in which they participated. The commission of inquiry was set up to investigate whether the then Belgian government bore any responsibility for the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo after the country gained independence from Belgium. The official report concluded that the Belgian government of that time bore a moral responsibility for the assassination. The fact that the federal Belgian parliament deemed it necessary to set up a commission of inquiry to establish the official truth suggests that the country has still not come to terms with its colonial past. The book adds little to the report, largely because the authors behaved more like judges intent on passing a verdict of guilty or innocent than independent historians who are obliged to analyse and interpret the facts without necessarily appropriating blame.