Pierre Ndaye Mulamba (born 4 November 1948) is a former association football midfielder from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire. He was nicknamed “Mutumbula” (“assassin”) and“Volvo”.
“Volvo” Ndaye is one of Africa’s football legends, a dazzling striker who helped Zaire to qualify for the World Cup back in 1974, and who still holds the record for scoring most goals in a single African Cup of Nations tournament – scoring nine times in 1974.
Ndaye was born in Luluabourg (now Kananga). In 1973, he starred for AS Vita Club of Kinshasa, who won the African Cup of Champions Clubs.He was a second-half substitute for the Zaire national team againstMorocco in the decisive match in qualification for the 1974 World Cup. In 1974 Ndaye played for Zaire in both the African Cup of Nations in Egypt and the World Cup in West Germany. In Egypt he scored all nine goals, still a record, as Zaire won the tournament. He was awarded the Order of the Leopard by President Mobutu Sese Seko. In Germany he captained the team, and played in the 2-0 defeat by Scotland,but was sent off after 22 minutes against Yugoslavia. Zaire were already losing 4–0 by then, and finally lost 9–0. Ndaye said later that the team had underperformed, either in protestor from loss of morale,after not receiving a promised $45,000 match bonus.
In 1994, Ndaye was honoured at the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia. On returning to Zaire, was shot in the leg by robbers who mistakenly assumed a former sports star would be a wealthy target. He was sheltered by Emmanuel Paye-Paye for eight months’ recuperation. During the First Congo War, Ndaye’s eldest son was killed and in 1996 he fled to South Africa as a refugee, alone and destitute. He went toJohannesburg and then Cape Town, where he was taken in by a family in a township. In 1998, a minute’s silence was held at the African Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso after an erroneous report that Mulamba had died in a diamond mining accident in Angola.
By 2010 Ndaye was working as a coach of local amateur teams and had married a local woman.Forgotten Gold, a documentary filmed in 2008–9, follows him in South Africa and on a visit back to Congo. He also met with Danny Jordaan, head of the organising committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro (born July 9, 1956 in Songea, Ruvuma Region, Tanzania) is a Tanzanian lawyer and politician. On January 5, 2007, she was named as theDeputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She was formally appointed and assumed office on February 1. She is married to Cleophas Migiro, and the couple has two daughters. She is the third Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Deputy Secretary-General is the second highest ranking official in the UN System after the Secretary-General. Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro is the current office holder.
Migiro commenced her education at Mnazi Mmoja Primary School in 1963. She later moved on to Korogwe Primary School, Weruweru Secondary School, and, finally, Korogwe Secondary School, where she graduated high school in 1975.
François Luambo Makiadi (6 July 1938 – 12 October 1989) was a major figure in twentieth century Congolese music, and African music in general. He is widely referred to as Franco Luambo or, simply, Franco. Known for his mastery of rumba, he was nicknamed the “Sorcerer of the Guitar” for his seemingly effortlessly fluid playing. As a founder of the seminal group OK Jazz, he is counted as one of the originators of the modern Congolese sound. Read More
Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was an African anti-colonial leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after he helped to win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba’s government was deposed in a US CIA sponsored coup during the Congo Crisis. He was subsequently imprisoned and assassinated under controversial circumstances. Patrice Lumumba continues to serve as a significant inspirational figure in the Congo as well as throughout Africa.
Lumumba was born in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo, a member of the Tetela ethnic group. Raised in a Catholic family as one of four male children, he was educated at a Protestant primary school, a Catholic missionary school, and finally the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. He subsequently worked in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as a postal clerk and as a travelling beer salesman.
In 1951, he married Pauline Opangu. In 1955, Lumumba became regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he worked on editing and distributing party literature. After traveling on a three week study tour in Belgium, he was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzlement of post office funds. His two-year sentence was commuted to twelve months after it was confirmed by Belgian lawyer Jules Chrome that Lumumba had returned the funds, and he was released in July 1956. After his release, he helped to found the non-tribal Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1958, later becoming the organization’s president. Lumumba and his team represented the MNC at the All-African People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana, in December 1958. At this international conference, hosted by influential Pan-African President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba further solidified his Pan-African beliefs.
In late October 1959, Lumumba as leader of the MNC was again arrested for allegedly inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville where thirty people were killed, for which he was sentenced to six months in prison. Not coincidentally, the trial’s start date of January 18, 1960, was also the first day of a round-table conference in Brussels to finalize the future of the Congo. Despite Lumumba’s imprisonment at the time, the MNC won a convincing majority in the December local elections in the Congo. As a result of pressure from delegates who were enraged at Lumumba’s imprisonment, he was released and allowed to attend the Brussels conference. The conference culminated on January 27th with the declaration of Congolese independence and the establishment of June 30, 1960, as the independence date with national elections from May 11–25, 1960. On the 31st of May, it was confirmed that Lumumba and the MNC had won electoral victory and the right to form a government. Lumumba and the MNC formed the first government on June 23, 1960, with thirty-five-year-old Lumumba as Congo’s first prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu as its president. In accordance with the constitution, on June 24 the new government passed a vote of confidence and was ratified by the Congolese Chamber and Senate.
Congolese independence from Belgium was finally gained on June 30, 1960. On Independence Day, in a ceremony attended by dignitaries, the foreign press, and the Belgian elite including King Baudouin, Patrice Lumumba delivered his famous independence speech[1] after being officially excluded from the event programme, despite being the elected Congolese Prime Minister. In direct contrast to the paternalistic glorification of colonialism in the speech of King Baudouin, as well as the relatively harmless speech of President Kasa-Vubu, Lumumba’s outspoken anti-colonial speech resonated with the Congolese for its inspired honesty while simultaneously humiliating and alienating the colonialists.
Sixty-seven days after he came to power, Patrice Lumumba was dismissed by state president Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Lumumba, in turn, tried to dismiss Kasa-Vubu, but to no avail. Lumumba was placed under informal house arrest at the prime minister’s residence. UN troops were positioned around the house to protect him.
Following his house arrest, Lumumba made the decision to escape; this would prove a fatal mistake. Smuggled out of his residence at night in a visiting diplomat’s car, he began a long journey towards Stanleyville. Mobutu’s troops were in hot pursuit. Finally trapped on the banks of the Sankuru River, he was captured by soldiers loyal to Colonel Mobutu.
He appealed to local UN troops to save him. The UN refused on orders from headquarters in New York, reasoning that he had escaped from UN protection. He was flown first to Leopoldville, where he appeared beaten and humiliated before journalists and diplomats.
Further humiliation followed at Mobutu’s villa, where soldiers beat the elected prime minister in full view of television cameras. Lumumba was dispatched first to Thysville military barracks, one hundred miles from Leopoldville.
After the military personnel of Thysville mutinied, a more secure place was sought. It is established that Belgium wanted Lumumba taken to Katanga, which was under the rule of an enemy of Lumumba, Moise Tshombe. The Belgian Commission investigating the assassination of Lumumba reached the conclusions that (1) Belgium wanted Lumumba arrested, (2) Belgium was not particularly concerned with Lumumba’s physical well being, and (3) although informed of the danger to Lumumba’s life Belgium did not take any action to avert his death.
Lumumba was beaten again on the flight to Elizabethville on January 17, 1961. He was seized by Katangan soldiers commanded by Belgians and driven to Villa Brouwe. He was guarded and brutalized still further by both Belgian and Katangan troops while President Tshombe and his cabinet decided what to do with him.
That same night it is said Lumumba was bundled into another convoy that headed into the bush. It drew up beside a large tree. Three firing squads had been assembled. Some sources say that the firing squads were commanded by a Belgian and that another Belgian had overall command of the execution site. The Belgian Commission’s findings were that the execution was carried out by Katanga’s authorities. Their report suggests that apart from Katangan ministers, four Belgian officers were present at the execution site, but were under the command of Katangan authorities. Lumumba and two other comrades (Mpolo and Okito) from the government were lined up against a large tree. President Tshombe and two other ministers were present for the executions, which took place one at a time. Lumumba’s corpse was then buried nearby. The execution most likely took place on January 17, 1961 between 9:40 pm and 9:43 pm according to the Belgian report.
As to why Mpolo and Okito were executed, the apparent reason is that they would be possible political players in the events after Lumumba’s death.
Nothing was said for three weeks – though rumor spread quickly. When Lumumba’s death was formally announced on Katangese radio, it was accompanied by an implausible cover involving an escape and murder by enraged villagers. Later, under cover of this yarn, the Belgians – Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete and his brother – dug up Lumumba’s corpse, cut it up with a hacksaw, and dissolved it in concentrated sulfuric acid. Only a couple of teeth and a fragment of skull survived the process which were kept as souvenirs. In an interview on Belgian television in 1999, Soete apparently displayed a bullet and two teeth which he claimed he had saved from Lumumba’s body.
For many years there was much speculation over the roles that western governments had played in the prime minister’s murder. With the disclosure of certain documents by author Ludo De Witte, it was finally established that Belgian soldiers were in position around Lumumba at every stage of the assassination, right up to his death.
Under its own ‘Good Samaritan’ laws, Belgium was clearly legally culpable for failing to prevent the assassination from taking place. On a more formal level and (more importantly) straightforwardly proven, Belgium was in breach of their obligation to refrain from actions, which jeopardized the freedom and integrity of another state, as it stemmed from U.N. Resolution 290 of 1949.
Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro (born July 9, 1956 in Songea, Ruvuma Region, Tanzania) is a Tanzanian lawyer and politician. On January 5, 2007, she was named as theDeputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She was formally appointed and assumed office on February 1. She is married to Cleophas Migiro, and the couple has two daughters. She is the third Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Deputy Secretary-General is the second highest ranking official in the UN System after the Secretary-General. Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro is the current office holder.
François Luambo Makiadi (6 July 1938 – 12 October 1989) was a major figure in twentieth century Congolese music, and African music in general. He is widely referred to as Franco Luambo or, simply, Franco. Known for his mastery of rumba, he was nicknamed the “Sorcerer of the Guitar” for his seemingly effortlessly fluid playing. As a founder of the seminal group OK Jazz, he is counted as one of the originators of the modern Congolese sound.
