Letter from the Congo

The Day Lumumba Died

Katanga’s Secretary of the Interior, Godefroid Munongo, is a tough, balding African who wears dark glasses even in a dusky room. He called us together, on the exact day and at the exact hour which rumor had predicted, and announced the death “in the bush at the hands of tribesmen” of Patrice Lumumba. He then distributed souvenirs: heart-shaped gilt lockets containing pictures of Lumumba. He had found them on sale in the shops, he said, and they owed how deep the Lumumba poison had spread.

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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The Day Lumumba Died

Katanga’s Secretary of the Interior, Godefroid Munongo, is a tough, balding African who wears dark glasses even in a dusky room. He called us together, on the exact day and at the exact hour which rumor had predicted, and announced the death “in the bush at the hands of tribesmen” of Patrice Lumumba. He then distributed souvenirs: heart-shaped gilt lockets containing pictures of Lumumba. He had found them on sale in the shops, he said, and they owed how deep the Lumumba poison had spread.