The story of Patrice Lumumba is the story of black freedom fighters around the world, from the Black Panthers to the slaves of Haiti to the leadership of Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe. They yearned for freedom from deep in their bones, and yet were thrown out, imprisoned, and perverted in such a fashion that their call for justice was at best, silenced, and at worst, dragged into a blind ideology that caused millions to suffer. Limité celebrates Patrice Lumumba for the reminder that his story gives of truth over perception, and the role that outsiders’ interventions played in wreaking havoc in newly independent Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the most natural-resource rich countries in Africa, but is known by most Americans as a place of extreme poverty, corruption, and a bloody civil war lasting decades and killing over 3 millions civilians. However, when charismatic, socialist leaning Patrice Lumumba was elected its first Prime Minister in 1960, Congo had quaint Belgian-run towns, abundant food, and a population united in its optimism for a free country. But after Lumumba’s speech condemning the evils of the Belgian colonial rule, Belgian military and the CIA intervened to undermine his power and prop up new leaders who ruled the country with an iron fist for decades. Within 3 months of independence, Lumumba, “the father of the Congolese independence movement,” was killed, although not forgotten. He dared to speak out against Belgian colonialism, however this cost him both his life and his vision of a free Congo. The United Nations were aware, and yet stood idly by.