Lumumba: Africa's Lost Leader, Second Edition (Paperback or Softback)

An updated and revised biography of Patrice Lumumba, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Patrice Lumumba (1926-61) is perhaps the most famous leader of the African independence movement. He became an icon of anti-imperialist struggle after his execution in 1961, when he had been the prime minister of the newly liberated Congo for only seven months. As the news came out, his picture was brandished in demonstrations in capitals around the world, along with those of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong. His life and the independence that he sought for the Congo made him a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, exposing ongoing Western colonialism and the problematic nature of the independence granted to huge swathes of the globe after 1945.

In this book, revised and updated to include new thinking on the Congo crisis and incorporating material recently released from British intelligence archives, Leo Zeilig tells the story of the Congo in the dying days of colonialism and of Lumumba’s transition from nationalist to revolutionary to international symbol of African liberation.

Leo Zeilig is a writer and researcher. He has written extensively on African politics and history, as well as biographies of some of Africa’s most important political thinkers and revolutionaries. Zeilig is also a novelist and author of the critically acclaimed novel Eddie the Kid. 

Yusuf Serunkuma is a columnist for the Ugandan newspaper, The Observer. He is also an essayist and playwright, and his plays include The Snake Farmers and The Meat Festivals. He is the author of the recent collection of anti-colonialist essays, Surrounded, and publisher of the pan-African imprint Editor House Facility. 

Ludo De Witte is a sociologist and a writer. He is author of the Dutch work Crisis in Kongo and has researched two broadcast television documentaries on Patrice Lumumba.