Congo Crisis

So please tell the listeners about what you might call the final chapter of Jag's life, what happened.

Yeah, so he was embroiled in a massive crisis, the Congo crisis.

In June of 1960, at like the end of the month, the Belgians finally say to the Congolese, We're allowing you to have your independence from colonialism.

And King Baudouin gets up at the ceremony and gives a very tone deaf speech as if to say, you're welcome.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, like many other former colonies, faced a long period of political instability and complicated maneuverings following its independence from its old colonizers, Belgium, in 1960.

The next five years became known as the Congo Crisis, with the establishment of the First Republic ushering in a period of turmoil which had various elements.

To begin with, there was the anti-colonial struggle, compounded by yet another displaced Cold War battle, with the United States and the Soviet Union becoming involved.

There were also successionist battles, particularly in the province of Katanga.

He had tried the UN, he had tried the US, and now the way he saw it, there was only one other place he could turn.

Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader at the time, was not interested in intervening in Congo and much preferred to espouse anti-colonial rhetoric and use the Congo Crisis as a cudgel he could wield against the Western imperialists.

But Lumumba sort of called his bluff.

Lumumba sent a telegram to the very top.