Son of Patrice Lumumba Explains ‘Russia Treats Us as Equals’

July 30, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Roland Lumumba, son of Patrice Lumumba and director of the Patrice Emery Lumumba Foundation, spoke with RT France on July 28, on the sidelines of the second Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg. Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the independent state of the Congo (today, the D.R. Congo), and was assassinated in 1961.

RT France reported that he said, “ ‘With Russia, everything that happened was on an equal footing,’ he continued. ‘And we do not forget that [the U.S.S.R.] contributed to our freedom, helped some African countries to free themselves from the status of colonies, which they then had.

“ ‘If we talk about the French-speaking part of Africa, about the media that have a lot of influence, that are listened to, then they are at least 90% Western media,’ Roland Lumumba stated. ‘Their attitude towards cooperation [with Russia] is, of course, hostile, but the common man does not experience this hostility.

“ ‘Despite the propaganda that is being carried out in Africa against the Russians, it is noticeable that it does not affect people as it was intended,’ ”

he said.

RT also reported, Lumumba “explained that relations between Africa and the West are still tainted by colonialism. ‘We cooperate,’ he said, ‘but not as equals.’ ”