The Lumumba Legacy Initiative

The Lumumba Legacy Initiative aims to introduce Congolese youth to the teachings and ideas of Patrice Emery Lumumba. The initiative has three components:
1. Lumumba Scholars
2. Lumumba Prize
3. Lumumba Institute

Lumumba Scholars is a scholarship program that assists university students in the Democratic Republic of Congo with their tuition fees. The Lumumba Scholars program provides annual scholarships for university students each school year from September to July. Students at all levels of the university are eligible to receive the scholarship.Scholarship beneficiaries are required to work with Congo Love in their local communities to carry out public service and conduct community education. In addition, the Lumumba scholars learn about the ideas and teachings of Patrice Emery Lumumba and transmit them to fellow students and members of local communities through study groups and community forums.

The first ten scholars will begin in September 2017. They will be exposed to leading experts on the life and times of Patrice Lumumba. The scholars will in turn go into local communities throughout the Congo to screen films and teach children about the legacy of Lumumba and the responsibility of each generation to fulfill his legacy of a free, independent and self-determined Congo and Africa.

The Lumumba prize is an annual award given to a leader in the D.R. Congo who exhibits the ideals and teachings of Patrice Emery Lumumba through his/her work. The inaugural Lumumba prize will be launched on July 2, 2018. Submissions for the Lumumba Prize will open on January 17, 2018.

Throughout Congo’s history, the central drive of the people has been to control and determine the affairs of this spectacularly wealthy country. Patrice Lumumba, one of Congo’s independence hero and its first democratically elected Prime Minister who was overthrown by the West, embodies this spirit of independence and self-sufficiency. Recognizing, individuals and institutions that strive to fulfill Lumumba’s ideals of a free and liberated Congo is one key way to perpetuate his legacy for future generations.

The Lumumba institute will be established in Kinshasa, DRC. It will be a center where Congolese of all stripes can go to learn about the teachings and ideas of one of their independence heros and the country’s first democratically elected Prime Minister. The center will be staffed by trained scholarship recipients of the Lumumba Scholars program who are well versed in the life and teachings of Lumumba. The Center will entail:

• The works of Lumumba
• Works done by scholars throughout the globe on Lumumba
• Films and videos on Lumumba
• Lumumba’s famous speeches and lectures
• Photographs of Lumumba and members of his political party Congolese

National Movement (MNC)

• Pilgrimage destination for people throughout Congo, Africa and the globe
• Statue of Lumumba
• Center for story telling by Lumumba’s family members

Note: In advance of the physical structure being put in place, Friends of the Congo in collaboration with Congo Love and other partners will launch a virtual Lumumba Institute until the site is built in Kinshasa