1961: Murder in the Congo [Film]
1961: Murder in the Congo — How the West Killed Africa's First Democratic Leader
On the morning of February 13th 1961, three weeks into his presidency, President Kennedy received the news that Patrice Lumumba was dead.
He had been tortured, shot, and dissolved in acid by men working — directly or indirectly — for Western governments. He was thirty-five years old. He had been Prime Minister for less than three months.
Kennedy’s reaction, captured in a photograph from that day, is unlike anything you expect to see on a president’s face. His predecessor had ordered the killing. Kennedy looked like a man confronting something he couldn’t yet name.
This seven-minute film tries to name it.