Ce n'est pas un hasard si une figure historique comme Patrice Emery Lumumba, premier Premier ministre du Congo indépendant, tué en 1961, a vécu dans le domaine de l'imaginaire culturel et a occupé une vie après la mort dans les arts. Après tout, son projet est resté inachevé. La figure de Lumumba a été imaginée à travers la peinture, la photographie, le cinéma, la poésie, la littérature, le théâtre, la musique, la sculpture, la mode, les dessins animés et les timbres, mais aussi à travers l'historiographie et dans l'espace public. Aucune forme d'art n'a pu s'échapper et rester indifférente à Lumumba. Les artistes observent la mémoire et la souffrance non résolue qui s'est inscrite à la fois sur le corps de Lumumba et dans l'histoire du Congo. Si Lumumba – en tant qu'icône – est toujours vivant aujourd'hui, c'est parce que le besoin de décolonisation l'est aussi.

It is no coincidence that a historical figure such as Patrice Emery Lumumba, independent Congo’s first prime minister, who was killed in 1961, has lived in the realm of the cultural imaginary and occupied an afterlife in the arts. After all, his project remained unfinished and his corpse unburied. The figure of Lumumba has been imagined through painting, photography, cinema, poetry, literature, theatre, music, sculpture, fashion, cartoons and stamps, and also through historiography and in public space. No art form has been able to escape and remain indifferent to Lumumba. Artists observe the memory and the unresolved suffering that inscribed itself both upon Lumumba’s body and within the history of Congo. If Lumumba – as an icon – lives on today, it is because the need for decolonisation does as well.

 

Rather than seeking to unravel the truth of actual events surrounding the historical Lumumba, this book engages with his representations. What is more, it considers every historiography as inherently embedded in iconography. Film scholars, art critics, historians, philosophers, and anthropologists discuss the rich iconographic heritage inspired by Lumumba. Furthermore, Lumumba in the Arts offers unique testimonies by a number of artists who have contributed to Lumumba's polymorphic iconography, such as Marlene Dumas, Luc Tuymans, Raoul Peck, and Tshibumba Kanda Matulu, and includes contributions by such highly acclaimed scholars as Johannes Fabian, Bogumil Jewsiewicky, and Elikia M’Bokolo.