The Oscar-nominated documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat recounts the events leading up to Black American jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach’s 1961 protest at the United Nations of the CIA-backed killing of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. The first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lumumba was an icon of the pan-African and anti-colonial movements. He was tortured and killed shortly after the formation of the first government of independent Congo following a military coup supported by Belgium, the United States and powerful mining interests. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat's Belgian director Johan Grimonprez explains that Lumumba's assassination was “the ground zero of how the West was about to deal with the riches of the African continent.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Democracy Now! | Radio Free (2025-02-17T13:42:12+00:00) Congo, Jazz & the CIA: Oscar-Nominated “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” Revisits Lumumba Assassination. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/17/congo-jazz-the-cia-oscar-nominated-soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat-revisits-lumumba-assassination/
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