President Patrice Lumumba, DRC
Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), ruled until January 17, 1961, when he was assassinated.
He led the Democratic Republic of Congo to independence after the country was passed on from King Leopold II, who took control of it as his private property in the 1880s, to Belgium in 1908 as a colony.
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The independence celebrations of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 30th, 1960 particularly left a very well deserved bitter taste in the mouth of the Belgian King Baudouin.
After his speech praising Leopold II, under whose reign an estimated ten million innocent Congolese perished, Prime Minister Lumumba countered with a rather unexpected and damning speech humiliating King Baudouin and condemning the atrocities committed by the Belgians on the people of Congo.
