Gabrielle Goliath, Beloved (Patrice), 2024, oil stick on paper, 106 x 79cm
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Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), independence leader and first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
With the tacit support of MI6 and the CIA, Lumumba and his ministerial colleagues, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, were tortured and executed on 17 January, 1961, by a firing squad under Belgian command. Four days later, Belgian police commissioner Gerard Soete and his brother Michel dismembered the bodies and dissolved them in sulphuric acid in an effort to eliminate all traces of the corpses.
“The colonialists care nothing for Africa for her own sake. They are attracted by African riches and their actions are guided by the desire to preserve their interests in Africa against the wishes of the African people. For the colonialists all means are good if they help them to possess these riches”. Speech at the All-African Conference in Leopoldville August, 1960.
“Without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men”. Letter to his wife Pauline from Thysville Prison, Congo, My Country.