Lumumba and Women: The Personal Meets the Political

Abstract

Omasombo and Verhaegen display the common tendency to point out the disparities between the ideals Lumumba expressed in his writings and his own actions.2 They publish a talk that he gave on the question of Congolese women under the heading “Lumumba critiques his own marriage” (141). The relevance to his own life of many of the issues Lumumba addressed in his writings no doubt contributed to the impassioned tone he sometimes used. Nevertheless, his ideas as well as his actions are better understood as self-contradictory, expressing and enacting the conundrums encountered by a person in his position. Just as the previous chapter situated Lumumba’s writings and speeches in the context of the period and especially in relation to his position as évolué, this chapter offers an account of Lumumba’s personal relationships with women and examines how the dynamics of cross-gender interactions were shaped by colonial discourses, social relations among Africans in various places and positions, and his personal cum political aspirations.3

In fewer than six years (1945 to 1951), Lumumba took four wives. In 1960, he is about to marry a fifth. How do we explain such fickleness in someone who portrays women as his equals? (Omasombo and Verhaegen 141)1