Patrice Lumumba, The First Prime Minister of the Congo on June 30, 1960, Independence Day

For this independence of the Congo, even as it is
celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to
equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that is was
by fighting that it has been won [applause], a day-to-day fight, an
ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation
nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood.

 

We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of
blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and
indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us
by force.

This was our fate for eighty years of a colonial regime;
our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our
memory. We have known harassing work, exacted in exchange for salaries which did
not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to
house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us.

We have known ironies, insults, blows that we endured
morning, noon, and evening, because we are Negroes. Who will forget that to a
black one said "tu", certainly not as to a friend, but because the
more honorable "vous" was reserved for whites alone?

We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly
legal laws which in fact recognized only that might is right.

We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and
for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other.

We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned
for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own country,
their fate truly worse than death itself.

We have seen that in the towns there were magnificent
houses for the whites and crumbling shanties for the blacks, that a black was
not admitted in the motion-picture houses, in the restaurants, in the stores of
the Europeans; that a black traveled in the holds, at the feet of the whites in
their luxury cabins.

Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our
brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime
of oppression and exploitation were thrown [applause]?

All that, my brothers, we have endured.

But we, whom the vote of your elected representatives have
given the right to direct our dear country, we who have suffered in our body and
in our heart from colonial oppression, we tell you very loud, all that is
henceforth ended.

The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our
country is now in the hands of its own children.

Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a
new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace,
prosperity, and greatness.

Together, we are going to establish social justice and
make sure everyone has just remuneration for his labor [applause].

We are going to show the world what the black man can do
when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of
the sun's radiance for all of Africa.

We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country
so that they truly profit her children. We are going to restore ancient laws and
make new ones which will be just and noble.

We are going to put an end to suppression of free thought
and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the full the fundamental liberties foreseen
in the Declaration of the Rights of Man [applause].

We are going to do away with all discrimination of every
variety and assure for each and all the position to which human dignity, work,
and dedication entitles him.

We are going to rule not by the peace of guns and bayonets
but by a peace of the heart and the will [applause].

And for all that, dear fellow countrymen, be sure that we
will count not only on our enormous strength and immense riches but on the
assistance of numerous foreign countries whose collaboration we will accept if
it is offered freely and with no attempt to impose on us an alien culture of no
matter what nature [applause].

In this domain, Belgium, at last accepting the flow of
history, has not tried to oppose our independence and is ready to give us their
aid and their friendship, and a treaty has just been signed between our two
countries, equal and independent. On our side, while we stay vigilant, we shall
respect our obligations, given freely.

Thus, in the interior and the exterior, the new Congo, our
dear Republic that my government will create, will be a rich, free, and
prosperous country. But so that we will reach this aim without delay, I ask all
of you, legislators and citizens, to help me with all your strength.

I ask all of you to forget your tribal quarrels. They
exhaust us. They risk making us despised abroad.

I ask the parliamentary minority to help my Government
through a constructive opposition and to limit themselves strictly to legal and
democratic channels.

I ask all of you not to shrink before any sacrifice in
order to achieve the success of our huge undertaking.

In conclusion, I ask you unconditionally to respect the
life and the property of your fellow citizens and of foreigners living in our
country. If the conduct of these foreigners leaves something to be desired, our
justice will be prompt in expelling them from the territory of the Republic; if,
on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they
also are working for our country's prosperity.

The Congo's independence marks a decisive step towards the
liberation of the entire African continent [applause].

Sire, Excellencies, Mesdames, Messieurs, my dear fellow
countrymen, my brothers of race, my brothers of struggle– this is what I wanted
to tell you in the name of the Government on this magnificent day of our
complete independence.

Our government, strong, national, popular, will be the
health of our country.

I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children,
to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a prosperous national
economy which will assure our economic independence.

Glory to the fighters for national liberation!

Long live independence and African unity!

Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!

[applause, long and loud]