Size: 0x0x0;

Size: 0x0x0;

Glued binding. Paper over boards. xxvi, [4], 224 p. Preface to English

Glued binding. Paper over boards. xxvi, [4], 224 p. Preface to English Language Edition. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Chronology. Index. "Democratically elected to lead the Mouvement National Congolais, the party he founded in 1958, Lumumba was at the centre of the country's growing popular defiance of the colonial rule of oppression imposed by Belgium. When, in June 1960, independence was finally won, his unscheduled speech at the official ceremonies in Kinshasa received a standing ovation and made him a hero to millions. Always a threat to those who sought to maintain a covert imperialist hand over the country, however, he became within months the victim of an insidious plot and was arrested and subsequently tortured and executed." Within twelve weeks of Congolese independence in 1960, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis following his attempt to solicit support from the Soviet Union against Katangan secessionists. This led to growing differences with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and chief-of-staff Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as well as foreign opposition from the United States and Belgium.