Review of Lumumba: Death of a Prophet

In 1992 Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck reconciles with his boyhood memories of the genesis of post-independence Belgian Congo's destruction and of the execution of its nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba. A documentary picture shot during the challenging period of the rule of Mobutu, Lumumba's executioner, and probably Africa's most notorious dictator. This movie accurately recounts Lumumba's origins, his efforts, the challenges he faced and his betrayal. Most of all it reveals Lumumba's tragic destiny, that of a mere Bantu who unfortunately sought too much for his people. Drawn from his evidently deep emotional ties with the then Zaire, the director tells the story of an African holocaust and of the omnipresent invisible hand of the West: "Holocaust! The sole unit of measurement of the human race…" Now the prophet's phantom visits the streets and palaces of the West, haunting its past and present actors, now forever discomforted, summoning them to their inevitable judgment day.