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36-534: The MNC was founded in 1958 as an African nationalist party within the Belgian Congo . The party was a united front organization dedicated to achieving independence "within a reasonable" time and bringing together members from a variety of political backgrounds in order to achieve independence. The MNC was created around a charter which was signed by, among others Patrice Lumumba , Cyrille Adoula and Joseph Iléo . Joseph Kasa-Vubu notably refused to sign, accusing

72-570: A doctorate . By the 1970s, Lumumba had begun to become politically active. Using his family background, he unsuccessfully attempted to unite the infighting factions of the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L), the old party of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. However, François' position within the Lumumbist movement was repeatedly challenged. His uncle Albert Onawelho Lumumba became his most important rival for control of

108-615: A major crisis . Amid the upheaval, the Lumumba children faced harassment, resulting in most of them being sent abroad or to relatives for safety. François and his younger brother Patrice were brought to Egypt, whose President Gamal Abdel Nasser was supportive of their father. In September 1960, Prime Minister Lumumba was overthrown and murdered with support by Western powers , including Belgium. Afterwards, François' other siblings and his step-mother Pauline Opango also went into exile in Egypt. Under

144-661: A member of the Kalonji party as prime minister. In turn, Lumumba declared the President deposed, while Iléo failed to gain parliamentary approval. The stalemate was ended when Lumumba's aide and partisan, Colonel Joseph Mobutu arrested Lumumba, who was later transported to Katanga and killed there under dubious circumstances. In March 1961, the MNC-L hosted a party congress in Stanleyville to replace Lumumba as party president. Christophe Gbenye

180-428: A number of issues and was increasingly polarized between moderate évolués and the more radical mass membership. In July 1959, Iléo attempted to split the party and create a more radical party based on support of federalism rather than centralization, but his group failed to achieve mass defections from the main party. As a result of the split, the remaining majority of the party took the name MNC-Lumumba (MNC-L) but

216-460: A parallel regime. In the early 1990s, an anti-Mobutu rebel group known as the National Council of Resistance for Democracy ( Conseil National de Résistance pour la Démocratie , CNRD) became active. The CRND, led by André Kisase Ngandu , posed as the armed wing of the MNC-L. Researcher Thomas Turner stated that Kisase Ngandu had broken away from one of the MNC-L splinter factions before forming

252-651: A result of the First Congo War , soon followed by the even more destructive Second Congo War as various factions fought for the control of the country and its resources. In 1998, Lumumba criticized the new Congoloese government of Laurent-Désiré Kabila , accusing it of denying freedom of expression to the Lumumba family. In 2000, Lumumba was temporarily detained by the Kabila government. A Mai-Mai militia calling itself "Lumumbist National Resistance" kidnapped twenty foreigners in 2001 in order to raise international attention to

288-575: Is a Congolese politician, the son of Patrice Lumumba , and the leader of a faction of the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba (MNC-L). François' father Patrice Lumumba was the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , but he was overthrown and murdered during the Congo Crisis . Already studying in Egypt for his own safety at the time of the assassination, François Lumumba spent

324-571: Is also claimed by the Unified Lumumbist Party (PALU) led by Lumumba's former deputy, Antoine Gizenga , the former Prime Minister. In 2022, the remains of Patrice Lumumba were repatriated to the DR Congo. MNC-L main faction leader François Lumumba used the opportunity to express his hope that his father's nationalist spirit would help the Congolese to defend their country from enemies, considering

360-595: The Inter-Congolese Dialogue , a series of negotiations which attempted to find a peaceful solution to the Second Congo War. By March 2006, Lumumba had to deal with conflicts within his party, as the position of MNC-L provincial president for Orientale Province was disputed. He threw his support behind Joseph Amuri in this conflict. He ran as a National Assembly candidate in the July 2006 Democratic Republic of

396-528: The Second Congo War . He has achieved little success in national politics. François Lumumba was born to Patrice Lumumba and Pauline Kie in Stanleyville (modern Kisangani), Congo, on 20 September 1951. At the time, the Congo was a Belgian colony . François' family situation was complex. His father Patrice was married three times, and his first two marriages had produced no children and had been divorced by

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432-561: The 1980s. MNC activists claimed responsibility for the Kinshasa bombings in March 1984. In September 1985, MNC-L, MNCR, the Congolese Democratic and Socialist Party , and other opposition groups declared a provisional government in exile. However, MNCR head Paul-Roger Mokede rejected his appointment as president of this opposition government, stating that Zaire could not "afford the luxury" of

468-534: The CRND. A group of activists led by Pascal Tabu , Mbalo Meka , and Otoko Okitasombo founded a new MNC-L in Kinshasa in 1994; the older MNC-L main faction in exile subsequently became known as "MNC-Lumumba Originel" (MNC-LO). In 1996, the leader of one MNC-L faction, Lambert Mende Omalanga , voiced his support for Kisase Ngandu and Laurent-Désiré Kabila . The two had become the leaders of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for

504-582: The Congo general election . In the same election, he supported his younger brother Guy-Patrice 's candidacy for President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . According to journalist Colette Braeckmann, François was financially ruined by his funding of Guy-Patrice's campaigns. After a Belgian judge ruled that Patrice Lumumba's remains had to be returned from Belgium to his family in 2020, François publicly expressed his and his family's gratitude to everyone who had contributed to this ruling. In 2022,

540-544: The Liberation of Congo (AFDL) rebel coalition, fighting in the First Congo War to topple Mobutu. Following the fall of Mobutu's regime in 1997, MNC factions began to participate in regular national politics. One MNC-L faction led by Patrice Lumumba's cousin, Albert Onawelho Lumumba, was very critical of the rule of Laurent-Désiré Kabila who had taken power as President. In contrast Patrice Lumumba's daughter, Julienne Lumumba, became part of Kabila's government. Lumumba's heritage

576-526: The MNC-L were fusing together as the Parti National Lumumbiste. MNC-L leaders rejected the declaration, insisting a party congress would have to be held on a merger. Meanwhile, national political party activity outside of government steadily declined. While MNC-L persisted longer than other groupings and continued to hold some functions in early 1962, by 1963 nearly all party activity had ceased. MNC-L members continued to hold ministerial portfolios in

612-599: The MNC-L. Though François enjoyed some limited successes, he was unable to overcome the factionalism. By the start of the 1980s, the MNC-L was divided into many groups, one loyal to François, whereas two others were led by Kituka Munganga , and Léonard She Okitundu , while yet another group had split off entirely and formed the Parti Démocratique Congolais (PDC). In 1982, a series of MNC congresses in Brussels , Paris , and Cologne acknowledged François Lumumba as

648-403: The arrival of Patrice's third wife, Pauline Opango , in Stanleyville. Regardless, Patrice continued to stay in touch with his former girlfriend and eldest son, supporting the two with money. Patrice Lumumba's continuing contacts with Kie were a major source of strife within the family. Despite Opango's disapproval, Patrice officially acknowledged François as his son, doing so at a time when Opango

684-549: The country." This meant the end of the MNC's legal activity until 1990. The party continued to operate in exile, however, where it allied with other anti-Mobutu groups. In exile, the two main MNC groups were the MNC-L and the MNCR ( Mouvement National Congolais Rénové , "Reformed Congolese National Movement"). The MNC-L also continued to suffer from factionalism and splintered into further groups during this period. The MNC-L main faction came under

720-456: The dictator of the Congo (then renamed " Zaire ") since 1965. Several of the exiled militant groups were splinters and factions of the MNC-L. Around 1985, he was in Tripoli and helped to organize an alliance between MNC-L forces, a rebel group called " Front for the Liberation of Congo – Patrice Lumumba " (FLC-L), and Nathaniel Mbumba 's Congolese National Liberation Front . However, this alliance

756-438: The head of the reorganized party. According to researcher Michel Luntumbue, François remained one of the MNC-L main faction's leaders over the course of the 1980s, though other individuals continued to challenge his position. Lumumba eventually became involved in the activities of the militant Congolese opposition-in-exile. At the time, various groups existed which attempted to mobilize an insurgency against Mobutu Sese Seko ,

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792-603: The largest nationalist faction in the country. Lumumba formed a coalition with the more conservative and federalist ABAKO party led by Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Lumumba was elected Prime Minister, while Kasa-Vubu became Congo's first President. However, the country quickly plunged into the Congo Crisis , facing mutinies among the soldiers and separatism in Katanga (led by Moise Tshombe ) and South Kasai (led by Albert Kalonji ). In September, Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu fell out and Kasa-Vubu dismissed Lumumba and instead appointed Joseph Iléo ,

828-514: The leadership of François Lumumba , Patrice Lumumba's son. The different MNC groups organized a militant resistance in the Congo (renamed " Zaire " by Mobutu). The MNC-L set up an armed wing called "Lumumba Patriotic Army" ( Armíe Patriotique Lumumba , APL) and formed a coalition with the Front for the Liberation of Congo – Patrice Lumumba (FLC-L), a militant group which waged a low-level insurgency in Zaire, in

864-501: The national government through 1963 but, due to leadership disputes, its members failed to act as a cohesive voting bloc in Parliament. In November 1965, following another fall-out between president and prime minister, Mobutu again seized power and under regime d'exception appointed himself President. Mobutu blamed the five years of turmoil on "the politicians" and decreed: "For five years, there will be no more political party activity in

900-510: The next decades in exile. He became a leading figure and eventually the party leader of a major faction of the MNC-L, the party of his father. In this position, he attempted to unite various exiled opposition groups and to support rebellions against the Congoloese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko . After Mobutu's downfall in the 1990s, Lumumba returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to participate in democratic politics and support efforts to stop

936-495: The party of being too moderate. By the end of 1959, it claimed to have 58,000 members. The MNC was a national party with substantial support in the whole of Congo, while most other parties were based primarily on regional or ethnic allegiances and garnered support in their respective provinces. The MNC was the biggest nationalist party in the Belgian Congo but had many different factions within it which took different stances on

972-508: The protection of Nasser, the family was moved into a villa in Cairo 's Zamalek district, while the Egyptian state paid their school fees. Many other Lumumbists also moved to Egypt. When Pauline Opango returned to the Congo in 1967, the children stayed behind, with Nasser insisting that they should be allowed to continue their studies. Nasser unexpectedly died in 1970 , and his successor Anwar Sadat

1008-583: The remains of Patrice Lumumba were repatriated to the DR Congo. In his position as MNC-L leader and son, François used the opportunity to express his hope that his father's nationalist spirit would help the Congolese to defend their country from enemies, considering the then-ongoing M23 offensive . François has one half-sister by his mother Pauline Kie, and two half-brothers, namely Guy-Patrice and Roland-Gilbert, as well as two more half-sisters, Juliana and Marie-Christine, through his step-mother Pauline Opango. François has at least one son, Chez Teddy Lumumba, who

1044-695: The split also divided the MNC between the Lumumba-ists who held the Stanleyville region and its faction, which became the MNC-Kalonji (MNC-K; after Albert Kalonji who became its leader after his release from prison) which attracted support in Élisabethville (modern-day Lubumbashi) and among the Baluba ethnic groups . Both groups competed in the Congo's first parliamentary elections in June 1960, in which Lumumba's party emerged as

1080-559: The then-ongoing M23 offensive . African nationalism Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 824031901 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:39:20 GMT Fran%C3%A7ois Lumumba François Emery Tolenga Lumumba , alternatively François Hemery Flory , (born 20 September 1951)

1116-482: The time of François' birth. By 1947, Patrice began an extramarital affair with Kie, and they lived together in Stanleyville from 1948. Though this relationship proved to be very close and durable, they never married. Instead, Lumumba requested his friends and family to arrange a new marriage with a girl from his home region in 1951. As it turned out, however, Kie was already pregnant by this time; soon after François' birth, his parents were forced to end their affair due to

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1152-556: The warfare in the Congo. The group demanded that negotiations for the hostages involve François Lumumba, hoping that this would showcase their commitment to Lumumbism. After six days of talks, Lumumba was able to convince the Mai-Mai to release the hostages without conditions. In 2002, the Belgian government expressed "sincere regrets" over the assassination of Patrice Lumumba to François. Around this time, he also attempted to involve himself in

1188-620: Was elected to lead it, but leadership disputes continued to plague the party in subsequent years, with Joseph Kasongo , Charles Badjoko, Gabriel Lassiry, and Antoine Kiwewa all at times claiming to be Lumumba's rightful successor. At the conference, delegates expressed a general desire to form a larger bloc to encompass all Lumumbists in the country. Antoine Gizenga , a member of the Parti Solidaire Africain and former government colleague of Lumumba, announced in September that his party and

1224-632: Was much less supportive of the sympathizers and relatives of Lumumba, causing many –including François– to leave for Europe. At some point, he began to study at the Economic University of Budapest where he obtained an undergraduate degree in 1978. Lumumba later studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Overall, François Lumumba spent 32 years in exile in Egypt and various European countries. At some point, he obtained

1260-399: Was unable to start an effective rebellion against Mobutu. The MNC-L also continued to suffer from factionalism and splintered into further groups during this period. In November 1992, he again attempted to unite the various Lumumbist parties into one force, but this attempt failed. Regardless, Lumumba remained the President of the MNC-L's main faction. In 1997, Mobutu was overthrown as

1296-519: Was visiting her parents in her home village in order to circumvent having to get her legal agreement. When he reached school-going age, François began to live with his father's family. Patrice –who strongly favored modern education– sent François to a local European school. By 1957, the family was living in Léopoldville . In June 1960, the Congo became independent and Patrice Lumumba was elected as its first Prime Minister . The country quickly fell into

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