Patrice Emery Lumumba

A villa among others within a garden. The hostess opens the door herself and prepares you a coffee in the kitchen.

Although a journalist in another life, she says she is uncomfortable with the interviews, but still welcomes her into her living room and answers questions with rare sincerity. A formidable narrator, she passes in the same sentence from literate French to Kinshasa Lingala. Her name is Juliana. She is the only daughter of Patrice Emery Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the independent Congo, assassinated after a few months in office.

Alternately bright and dark, funny and deep, Juliana Lumumba does not express herself as an heiress. Especially since, according to tradition in the Congo, each has its name. "Maman Pauline has repeated it enough to us, quoting Her Patrice. Lumumba said, "It's not your name, you have to deserve it! " We did not grow up in the worship of our father, but in dignity, respect, steadfastness. We know that we are not the legatees of Lumumba's thought, we do not have a vocation to create a dynasty. Neither his family, let alone his children, claim an inheritance. But as the daughter and son of this country, we are personally committed to the idealsKinshasa. Gombé district. 1960Prime Minister. Office and residence of the Prime Minister. As every morning, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba got up very early. When her 5-year-old daughter returns from school where she wanted to accompany her brothers François (9 years old) and Patrice (8 years old), she finds him at her desk. With a white knot in her hair, she sits silently and watches him work… Juliana intuitively understands how privileged she is. "I, when I was little, was glued to my father, Papa Patrice. Mom Pauline didn't like it, but my dad was very liberal, he thought it was normal. Number 3 in a family of 4, Juliana comes out of the house to play soccer with her brothers and most of all dreams of going to school, encouraged by the education of her parents.Married on her 15th birthday to Patrice, the young postman from Kisangani, Pauline has shared since 1951 all the stages of her nationalist husband's rise, as well as her progressive ideas. The key words are unity and sovereignty for a Congo federating all its regions and ethnicities, depositary of its wealth and master of its destiny. But in this universal vision of the nation, is there a place for women? In one of her Nationalist husband's rise, as well as her progressive ideas. The key words are unity and sovereignty for a Congo federating all its regions and ethnicities, depositary of its wealth and master of its destiny. But in this universal vision of the nation, is there a place for women? In one of her personal archives, Juliana found a speech where her father affirmed the need to have "women by our side in the MNC". "My father wanted all the women to study, for the girls to move forward." If the project of the Congolese National Movement fits in with Lumumba's emancipatory discourse, was its founder applying his ideas within his own family? Mischievous look, Juliana resumes the tone of confidence: "I asked my mother... and it was true! He had a deep respect for the woman; you know my mother was widowed for 53 years. And one day I asked her why she never remarried. His response was categorical. When you have known a man like your father, none can reach his level! Pauline and Patrice had raised four children, and Pauline did not want to give birth to any more men.

Papa Patrice, Maman Pauline, François, Patrice, Juliana and Roland are among the few families labeled "advanced" by the Belgian government before independence. A registration attributed to 217 subjects of the colony out of 14 million inhabitants in 1958. “It was a question of showing that as an advanced person, you lived like a white man, and that is what they came to inspect! Juliana wanted to understand what this evolved status entailed in terms of lifestyle and asked her mother about it. “The Belgians came to see if we had an integrated kitchen in the house and not in the courtyard, if our toilets were cleaned, and if the children were clean. If we had our own room, pajamas, pillows, and if we ate with forks. Juliana chokes: "This is an apartheid-like system!" .