This thoughtful account of Patrice Lumumba finds that the swift elimination of the legend from the geopolitical developments involving his country plunged Congo into a turmoil that it is yet to recover from.Â
Janvier T. Chando gives shape to Congo's deep trauma as the private possession of King Leopold of Belgium, later as a Belgian colony and afterwards as a so-called independent state wretched by a tug-of-war between the cold war rivals. That resulted in the inhuman dictatorship of pro-Western Mobutu Sese Seko, in wars during which millions of Congolese died, in the impoverishment of the people, in the rape of the country by foreign interests, and in the country's loss of the sense of direction it had under the leadership of Patrice Lumumba.Â
The author draws from historical records, other scholarly accounts, and on contemporary research in coming up with an analyst of the case for Congo. And he does so in an unequivocal manner.Â
